Category: Orienteering

Round 2 of the Dark and White Summer evening series was centred on Chapel en Le Frith in the North of the Peak District. Another area I know reasonably well, adjacent to Castleton and Mam Tor. I had forgotten though quite how deceptive some of the smaller looking climbs immediately around Chapel are and I was soon out of the saddle working hard.

Although there was a pretty obvious route around most of the controls there was a section which brought some pondering.

In the end I picked a daft route through 8,12 and 17 going right around via the top of Winnats pass in an attempt to save some climb but it was simply just too far out of my way and I lost at least 7-9 mins on those who just in and outed 12. I lost a bit more time, as others did, just after number 16 trying to find the top of the bridleway down to Malcoff. I was nervous at committing to a fast decent down through a field full of sheep with no obvious path on the ground but in the end did pick the correct gate, though judging by tyre marks at other gates a few others went the wrong way.

I nailed the route in from my last control through Chapel and finished a couple of minutes late but well down in 12th position, my dodgy route choice having cost me big time.

Results available at http://www.darkandwhite.co.uk/results/2011SummerLeagueRound2overallplaces.html

After a very agreeable night in a local spa hotel, complete with jacuzzi to ease those aching limbs (we blew lots of nectar points), the drive to the relay event was only 5 minutes. I’d heard the area was perfect terrain for a relay from some of the locals and they were right: it was an amazing mix of bell pits, low-vis, runnable forest and complex path networks.

Again, trying to save my legs for the few weeks training to come before the next World Cup race, I jumped at the chance to drop from the Chasers men’s premier team to the men’s short race. It also meant I’d be in with a chance of some proper head-to-head racing at the font of the pack, rather than hanging on to the back in the premier race.

I ended up wearing my prize from the individual as I couldn’t find my normal Thorlo socks, luckily the Smartwool Trail Socks were in the bottom of the bag from yesterday. Pulling them on they felt sort of cuddly, and very soft !

On the horn I was part of a huge pack of 60 or so runners, the mass start being not only Men’s Short but also M18, W40 and M60. The young guns all went off a full pace, leaving us wiley elders in their wake but we soon drew them it when the nav got a bit more interesting.

I got good start keeping towards the back of the leading packs but running my own race trying not to get distracted.

After a taped route over a road bridge crossing, we dived into the area of complex bell pits and vague contour detail. I ran clean and ended up coming out on my own having dropped the pack. I accelerated, held it together and kept ahead through the spectator control and the last few technical controls before a slog back up the hill to the finish arena. Punching the last I knew I was well up but felt great when the commentators announced me in 4th place, about 1.5 minutes down on the leader and about 20 seconds behind 3rd.

May be it was the lucky prize socks, they certainly kept my feet nice and comfy.

http://www.smartwool-socks.co.uk/ 

I handed over to Allan Williams whose solid run brought us up to 3rd but, unfortunately, teams tend to put their big guns out on last leg and Gaz Little couldn’t hold on so we dropped to 10th .

This years BOC was held in Wharncliffe and Greno Forest to the north of Sheffield, not an area I know well, it being 20 years since I last ran on it. After the week of pain after running M35 Long at the JK in Northern Ireland I had changed courses for the British Champs to M35 Short. Trying to run for 90 minutes in tough terrain on just one 20 minute run a week was just not possible, every joint and muscle hurting afterwards. That said, looking at the start lists I was a little worried I would look like a pot hunter. That’s the trouble with classic distance races at this level, if you don’t train its just an achievement to get round and I can’t afford to have a week off the bike with sore legs at this point in the season.

So M35 Short it was, but still it was pretty much as long and hard as the average brown course at a local event at 7.3km with 260m climb.

I started badly, trying to go straight through an area of scattered trees which was horrendous, reducing me to a walk. I nailed the next 8 controls until a small wobble at 11 where I was distracted and visited another control on the way in. The long leg on the course was next and after being forced to finally stop for a wee, I opted for the fast long path route round. Having chosen it, I put the hammer down to make the most of the running and did a lot of planning ahead. I had a couple of lucky breaks with 13 and 14 but I was being very cautious, even taking bearings, before fluffing 40 seconds or so on 16, a tiny pit which I was within 5 metres of the first time and didn’t see. My biggest mistake came at 18 as I was expecting it to be half way down a small re-entrant when in fact if I had just turned round I would have seen it on top in plain view. As always sometimes you just need to get your head up look around. It was then just a slog to the finish, more undergrowth and climb. I crossed the line a minute or so after Cath, and Chris P in the commentary van confirmed we were both leading – husband and wife M/W35S British Champs winners, that will be something local papers to get their headline writing skills into!

I did win by a fairly embarrassing margin, but looking at it again it is a real milestone following my injuries of the mid noughties, where my long term aim had been to be able to walk around a green course. I even won a pair of Smart Wool Socks for my efforts. https://www.smartwool.com

Relay day at the JK was just a bit of fun for us, our first as a family team, with Holly on first leg, Cath out second and me on anchor. Holly had a shadow as an orange, going on light green standard course for a 8 year old is a little over the top, still we ended up mid table which was good.

I spent most of the Relay day however in the commentary van so thought I’d give an insight into what goes on behind the scenes.

Originally I was meant to do just a few hours over the weekend joining in with a small team of invited ‘volunteers’ to provide commentary at the 4 days which make up the JK, however I ended up doing far more, due to no shows and some late arrivals of my colleagues.

The JK is slightly different than say the British Championships as although it is a UK premier event it is also a family orienteering festival with competitors ranging from 8 to 80 and abilities from Britain’s best Elites to recreational orienteers just happy to get round. Together with the commentating I also found myself acting as an MC, announcing birthdays, information, call ups and sponsors adverts.

Getting a balance between following the elite classes, the top runners in non elite classes and general commentary and MCing is difficult but I tried to strike a balance that should have kept most people happy.

Inside the commentary van we have pages of information: start lists, programmes, bios, adverts and squalking radios. We also have 6 laptops in front of us, often with two windows open per screen all showing information about the runners about to start, those punching in at ‘radio’ controls out in the terrain, both mid-course and those about to enter the finish tunnel and final positions.

At an elite only event it is fairly straight forward to follow one class at a time but the JK relays were a baptism of fire for the newbie commentator trying to follow the action and provide information to the event arena.

Imagine doing all the following on your own at the same time which I found myself doing at one point:

Keep an eye on the clock, announce call up for map issue, announce the Women’s elite relay starts, commentate on the mini relay finish, take notes from people appearing at the van door, sponsors adverts, keep an eye on the radio data for the male elites about to come into the spectator control etc etc etc…

Oh and try not to say anything daft, try to pronounce Irish names properly and don’t swear !

Eventually I got some help and things calmed down a bit but it required immense concentration.

I’m not sure I or in fact Cath and Holly are ready for me to provide full on commentary for a whole event yet, it’s a big commitment and makes competing too a little difficult, particularly on a weekend which for me was meant to be a holiday, but I enjoyed it and would consider doing it again.

I was a little apprehensive going into day 3 after looking at the map the night before, discovering it to be essentially a steep grassy mountain covered with contour and rock detail. Waking on Sunday morning my legs were in a terrible state, every muscle and joint hurting after 85 minutes of dune bashing the day before. Since my foot operation a few years ago the one thing I still cannot do is contour on steep terrain, just small amounts of it causes too much pain and risks bringing back sesamoiditis in the remaining bone.

Still, I decided to give it a go, and started OK plugging away uphill through the first few controls, slowly but steadily. However, I totally fluffed number 5, losing about 5 minutes stumbling around after the first bit of contouring and also being distracted by the fantastic mountain and sea views.

I hooked onto the back of Ian Marsden for a while but could not stay with him, particularly as the contouring got worse (anticlockwise being particularly bad for me) and my heart wasn’t in it.

After number13 I found a lost junior girl, cold and crying after taking a crossing point not on her map, put her straight ,and afterwards decided to bin it and miss out the contouring loop 15-19. I cruised down the last few controls struggling with the steep terrain but enjoying the views and atmosphere rising up the mountain from the finish arena.

I think after this weekend I should stop trying to aim for classic distance foot orienteering and stick to middle and sprint events which are more suited to my lack of running training, a little pot hunting at the British on M35S me thinks 😉

Results for the weekend are available here …. http://www.siresults.co.uk/2011/JK/