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/