Driving into Dorset to get down to Hurn forest, the venue for the first round of the newly formed MBO South league, I was greeted by huge flocks of presumably migrating birds wheeling in the sky. I have no idea what they were as birds are not my thing, but they were fantastic to watch. Impressive, too, was the huge statue of a stag perched above an arch on an entrance to Charborough Park on the A31 after seemingly miles of estate boundary wall.
The Hurn Forest event was heaving with people when I arrived, the MBO South advertising doing its stuff attracting lots of bikers (over 70 competitors). They were also offering map board hire which went down very well.
Hurn is another one of those orienteering areas that is so mediocre on foot but perfectly suited to MTBO, and although a little small, looked great. It is also flat as a pancake, which suits me!
I went off hard from the start, splashing through ice covered puddles and immediately started having gear problems and very cold feet. I couldn’t get big ring at the front and a couple of the small cogs at the back were still slipping on the new chain, meaning I had to manually flick the chain onto the big ring and leave it there, grunting the big gears, grinding the chain on some ratios not designed to work well, the mud from the puddles adding to mechanical mayhem.
I rode well and cleanly not making a mistake all course, only losing a little time on one control (number 9) where I picked a safe option on the bigger track, which turned out to be just as slow as the more direct line on the smaller path.
After winding my way around the map I eventually crossed the line in 38.5 mins, winning by 30 seconds, a great start to the new season and especially pleasing after my pre-Christmas illness.
After a long break to try and warm up frosty feet and far too much chatting ,I competed in the second of the three events Wimborne Orienteers were providing that day, a schools league foot orienteering event. I enjoyed a well planned green course which avoided the majority of the grot but the plantation furrows were energy sapping, always just that bit too far apart to run across comfortably, but nicely stretching those hamstrings.
After a fairly straightforward series of legs I was going to take a direct line from 12 to 13 through the open next to the OOB marsh but one look into the woods had me heading round on the tracks, avoiding a mushy bramble fest!
Downloading for the second time that day I was very pleased to see I had won this, too!
With the night event start a good few hours away and a hot shower and a slice of cake beckoning at some friends in Romsey I decided to keep my headtorch in my bag and head for home, a happy Stodge.
Footnote: It is interesting to compare the two maps above, one with MTBO symbols, the other a tradditional foot orienteering map, it shows the differences well.
Results available here http://www.wimborne-orienteers.org.uk/wim/11%20Hurn%20Forest/hurnresultpage.htm
MBO South Report here http://www.mbosouth.co.uk/MBO_South/Welcome_files/Southern%20Series%20Round%20One.pdf
Fantastic results!