Leaving Lichfield at 10pm after the Watt Bike League and driving for 3 hours in freezing fog to Dorset probably wasn’t the best preparation for the first MTBO of 2009. Alan Hartley (of Autodownload and Sportident UK) agreed to keep me company on this mad weekend, of which the MTBO was just a part. Wimbourne Orienteers organised the day, which started with the MTBO. There was then a normal local foot orienteering event and then area was used again in the early evening for a night league foot score competition.
Luckily for us we checked the event website rather than straying out into the cold to the car for the final details. We learned the event had been postponed by a couple of hours due to a pheasant shoot which had been double booked on the area, so rather than dashing off to the event we enjoyed a lazy breakfast with Alans parents whilst mending some hair curlers.
Arriving at ‘Inside Park’, a country estate and camping park near Balndford Forum, it was bitterly cold, with 
frozen ground and ice shining on the ground. I decided that the winning time would probably be shorter that the 1hr advertised so went out really hard. I had a slow split time to #1 as I played it safe and went round the estate roads rather than cutting across the park as others did (which was OK, but I didn’t want to risk it). I then got into the groove and was riding well with good control flow. A mistake at #6 cost me about 1.5 mins after some confusion with a couple of indistinct paths. Looking at the splits, I think several others also had problems here.
Talking to Alan afterwards, we both had the same moment on a farm track. The bike went light as I crested a hump traveling very quickly downhill, the trouble was the bump was concealing a hidden dip which was covered in ice. We both did the same thing: kept the bike straight and closed our eyes…..
I needed a good result, and I got it winning by just over a minute so I was very pleased. However the day was far from over with two more events left to do. The 3 consecutive events really showed what was possible with a small area and 50 controls (even though visiting one control 3 times I still lost time twice, for example).
My lack of lighting power raised its ugly head again that evening, however, I take my hat off to my old orienteering coach, Dale Padget, who ran with his trusty old 80s Petzl Zoom making my old Mila look powerful. Driving back to Stafford that evening my legs were very tired and certainly not looking forward to the Club Champs the following day, but I was pleased with my performance in the two foot races, being placed 4th behind good orienteers.