Orienteering, Hayle

Should I give up? A smallish sand dune area and an informal Blue course and no brain. What could go wrong? – What could go right??
I found number 1 without too much trouble though I felt a bit at odds with the map. Control 2 was OK (though Sue didn’t think so). It was the longer leg to number 3 where I realised that I could no longer read maps! I need to check with Sue’s as to whether by mistake they gave me the map of a different area. Nothing matched. I went up hills without contours, followed nice easy ways without dashed lines, got stuck in brambles without any green and somehow managed to find controls up to number 8.
For this leg I decided a straight line compass bearing but then found more hills, vegetation and path like things that weren’t on my piece of paper. (Map? What exactly is a map? What are all those squiggles?) Once I realised that I had precisely no idea where I was I guessed the best way home and trudged back towards the finish.
Ian found it easy.
Sue thought it was great.
Perhaps next time??

Chariman’s Challenge Orienteering

Today was an NGOC score event, standard format with mass start and 1 hour to score up to 600 points. With a long fell race the next day I was determined to focus on navigation rather than speed. My initial route choice was worrying, me being on my own for most of the first 30 minutes – I never got into a hunting pack. My tactics seemed to be reasonably successful as I lost little time in the detail and managed to keep a steady pace.
Gaining a higher score than others who obviously were running harder does give me some satisfaction.78th highest score and 9th handicap place out of 74 was a good result.
I ought to do more of this!

0007 Orienteering – Forest of Dean

This has turned into a mass family event with a house filled with 11 people ranging from 7 weeks old to close to 60 years. All are involved in some way from the string course for the really young, to the full competition for the adults.

The event is jointly organised with 3 events run by NGOC, BOK and WJS.  Website. The 3 events are centred at Speech House in the Forest of Dean.

My first mistake was to neglect in asking for a specific start time which resulted in me being allocated close to first start on days 1 and 2. This means heading out in a forest untrammelled by the masses, nice but without help from the inevitable trails that appear on the ground. Despite this difficulty, once I got into it I had a good run, with a bit of brain fade at about 1/3 of the way through the course, and another where I was drawn off line by a group of other runners, losing me a few minutes. My final result was pleasing though, 62 minutes not too bad for me on the Blue course.

Keen and raring to go for tomorrow.

Orienteering, Cleeve Hill

This was another NGOC Mini League event on the open land on the edge of the Cotswolds. It is a great area with steep hills and very runnable terrain. The weather was good, warm but not too hot.
I had a 90% good run but 5% poor and 5% awful. I lost ages on one control that should have been a bit tricky but if you run twice as far as you should have, and in the wrong direction it takes a lomg time to get things right.
I enjoyed the event, managing to forget the disaster even at the post run discussions – I just couldn’t remember what went wrong. It came flooding back the next day. Still room to improve!

Orienteering Training

Gill had a good idea, to offer some training to any Chepstow Harrier in the fine art of orienteering. There was some debate as to how many would turn up. Andy C and I offered our services to help. The venue was Blakeney where Andy S had planned an NGOC event recently and had some spare maps.

As it happened, the touotrs were Gill, Andy C & me. The tutees were Dick, James B and Lou with her kids.

Andy pt out a white course and Gill about 10 technical controls. I took Dick round, pushing him to navigate as much as I could. Analysing the teaching I thing the controls were a bit too technical but did give an opportunity to try some of the more difficult techniques – bearings, contour features, check bearings, pacing, route choice.

I found it a good reminder of the proper way of doing things, rather than the slapdash run and hope that I tend to fall into when competing. In this regard I hope that I will be a bit more careful and accurate at the next event.

Oak West Orienteering

SOC organised a nice low key informal event at Oak West in the middle of the New Forest. As I was visiting family (grand-daughter doing very well thanks) we all went out for a bit of exercise.

I didn’t want to be in competition as I had a night event to do in the evening and so took up the offer of an All Controls map. I set off treating it as a score event but soon realised it should not be too hard to get them all.

The terrain was typical New Forest after a rainy night – lots of standing water but no too muddy. We all returned wet but not too dirty. The control placings seemed fine to me – I found them all (except for 1 that somehow I managed to ignore!).  Surprisingly the all controls option was a good deal shorter and easier than the blue course – the longest on offer. I managed all but 1 control in just over 5 km with about 150 metres of ascent

Christine & Dave did the Blue course, Christine adding a few controls to make it more wothwhile training. Dave easily beat my time but he did run it hard.

Sue & Emma went round with the running buggy. They nearly got stuck in the deeper muddy puddles – up to the axles and needing a good hard drag to escape and a long detour to get back home.

A good time was had by all – and then off to the New Forest Inn for some tasty lunch.

Cranham Galoppen, 11th January

A real old school orienteering event took me to Cranham, a nice village on the edge of the Cotswolds. Here there are the delights of a bit of woodland and a bit of open common land.

I was aked to help, at the start, on the second shift. For me that meant an early start- so for the first half on my own in the terrain. No muddy routes into controls but equally fewer opportunities for other competitors to drag me off line. I had  a few OK legs and a few bad legs. Terrain was good in parts and awful in others. I ran OK for some of it and badly in others. I had a bit of good luck and a bit of bad. Some of it I enjoyed.

The day was well organised I think. The new technology now firmly embedded that noone needed to have the punching startexplained to them. My job ot the start really to make sure there is a gap between runners on the same course.

I can’t help thinking that the area would be much better used for a different kind of event and even with me only recently returning to orienteering from a long break, I am thinking that the standard colour coded format isn’t right for all areas. I positively enjoyed the recent scoreevents I have done, but this lacked the magic. Still glad I did it though and thanks to all who helped make it happen (even me!).

I’ve sent my entries in for the Welsh and the British Championships so still need to get some practice in before those big events.

NGOC Chairman’s Challenge

The new year saw me racing against my daughter and son-in-law at the NGOC score event at Parkend. This was the usual format woth 30 controls in the forest and an hour to get as many as you could. The event had good old fashioned descriptions including the following as my favourites:

“A bosky place” – “Nowhere in particular” – “The middle one” – “A depressing place”

Another festive spin was that each control had one tag to claim a prize (one per competitor) so if you were first to a control you could claim a prize at the end.

I had a good run round, only losing time due to indecision, and one case of random zig-zag through bracken hunting a control.

I wasn’t too far behing the other 2, and with 21 points I was quite happy with my run.

See Dave’s blog for his version of events, and a picture of me at the finish. Link

A good start to the year – more orienteering to come I think.

Night Orienteering at Headless Hill

First, thanks to Andy Creber for the planning and organising. On the night he got a bit of flack for using the old fashioned cards and punches – where did he get them from?

Getting ready was interesting, finding an assortment of Petzl LED headlights, and old Silva head torch with batteries 5 years old but still functioning, and a couple of bicycle lights. We found enough for the 4 of us with emergency spares if required. We all struggled when dazzled by the keen participants but all made it without too much of a mishap.

This was another family affair with me up against my son Ian, and my wife and daughter-in-law running as a pair. As prediced I came in second – still in my rest from running and a relatively feeble light I basically didn’t even manage to navigate properly. Still, all good fun.

A Weekend of Orienteering

Saturday was an informal – organised by NGOC where I was in competition with my daughter. The timing was up to us and I set off a few minutes after her. With her in my sights I took a quicker line and caught up some of the time. It was a bit neck and neck until my error and hesitation let her get ahead. A bit further on her error allowed me to catch up. There were a couple of examples of “cheating” where running just off the map was so obviously quicker that I couldn’t stop myself. We got to the penultimate control together and consulted. She took one route and I took the other. She won the leg and the run in – but with her start I can still just about claim victory.

Sunday was a more serious affair with both Christine & Ian on the same course as me, with Sue & Dave on different courses. This was the BOK event at Headless Hill – far more like Headless Chicken for me. I started badly with a tumble down towards control 1. A few controls later I over-ran it and ended up messing around in the wrong block of forest. It was mentally down hill from there. It is always a bad sign when you are heading up hill in a race and not really out of breath! The results confirm my utter failure with Ian recording 58:51, Christine 62:28 and me 78:01.

Once I finished I found them all in the car, engine running and pushing to get back home. Mercifully a short drive listening to the discussions like I was an outsider. That’s the way it goes. I will just have to do better next time.

My route – look and laugh! on Google Maps

See also Dave’s blog “Headless“