| Great opportunity to look at
some hills that I’d never been to although, with the mist down for
most of Saturday, there was not a lot of opportunity for kicking back and
taking in the views. As usual I was running with Steve Watkins, a long
standing orienteer friend, and this paid dividends with some tricky navigation
on day 1 and only one minor error losing us around 2 mins. This was our
first try at a score course and we had no idea how we’d get on so
we were delighted when the guy in the download tent told us “Blimey
boys that’s one hell of a score”. We were even more smug knowing
that after a pretty wet and wild day, we still had a dry set of clothes
to look forward to. The mid camp was shared by all classes this year and
we were lucky enough to get the tent up and settled in during a rare break
in the squalls. Having, settled in, cooked up, and dried our wet thermals
with our body heat, we could look out on the hill with some satisfaction,
tinged with pity, at the head torches coming down the valley sides in the
rain – in other years that would have been us as Elite course stragglers – maybe
I am finally getting older and wiser. Drew lots to see who would have to
go and check on the chasing start – I won and snuggled into my bag
while Steve pulled on his soaking waterproofs and headed out into the ming.
The night was full on – high winds and relentless driving rain,
our single skin tent was dripping with condensation and each time the
wind snapped the canvas we’d get a soaking from all the water on
the inside. We’d got bin bags over the feet of our sleeping bags
and our space blankets out over the top of them trying to stop them getting
a soaking but even so it was one of the worst nights I’ve ever
had in a tent. Morning came sooner than expected – thanks to Steve
not having put his watch back and getting me up at 5 thinking it was
6. We quickly
spotted the mistake and snuggled back for an extra, soggy and chilly,
30 mins before the alarm.
Day 2 and 4th in the chasing start – what a relief to leave the
tent – now only 6 hours from the car and my duvet jacket! A bit
of mist for the first 2 hours suited us fine and we were going pretty
well after a 5 min error on the first control. Thereafter it was the
usual rules with Steve doing most of the navigation but fading after
about 3 hours (that boy needs to be a bit fatter) and then the bungee
coming out – me concentrating on towing, and him shouting directions
from behind – all slightly unreal. We chopped all the outliers
from our Day 2 route as we gradually started losing time and hauled in
with 335 points which was good enough to hold onto 4th place. The weather
had been much better for the last 4 hours but to be honest I still have
no real idea what the hills looked like.
Really enjoyed the freedom of the score classes – lots of choice
and lots of juggling your route as the time slips away, and best of all
its only 7 hours on day 1 and 6 on day 2 – what a result. The race
was won by orienteers from Worcester with a second Worcester pair on
their heels and then Alec Keith and Dave Cummins from Inverness taking
third – clearly something in this orienteering lark. |