On Saturday Cath planned and organised a first in Orienteering, a Maize Maze sprint event at the National Forest Maize Maze near Burton on Trent. The format consisted of two qualifiers (added to give a overall time to decide start order for the final) and a final which was run in the dark.
Our club was also organising a traditional low key event on the Sunday at Birches Valley at which I was running the timing. Unfortunately Cath’s car broke its cam belt last week so we have been struggling with hire cars and lifts from friends which complicated matters further.
We had had a trial Maize Maze race in September for club members which seemed to go well and looking at the pre-entry list, it consisted of approx 100 orienteering connoisseurs, many travelling a great distance to take part. To make life even more complicated on the day I got a puncture in my car as well !
I managed to run both qualification races, where although I had obviously an advantage having seen the map and run there before I was pleased with my times only a minute off the pace. Working out the start times for the night leg in Excel got a bit frantic and I had to escape to a quiet hidey-hole to concentrate, though still with Cath’s choice of ‘Maze’ songs playing over the tanoy…. ‘Wurzels, I’ve got a brand new combine harvester’ and’ The Great Escape’ to name a few.
The event was very well received with many blog articles and forum postings praising this new event format. Well done Cath ! www.walton-chasers.co.uk – full results and maps etc available here :http://www.walton-chasers.co.uk/results/2009/Maize2009/Maize2009.htm
Sundays event was a less stressful and I managed a run on the brown course. My legs and particularly my knees were aching from the day before so after a fast start I settled back into a steady run. Other than a mistake near some unmarked paths I ran clean until I stumbled on a track near the finish twisting my ankle and fell heavily on the gravel, ending up with the classic schoolboy playground combo of deep knee and palm grazes. I fluffed the next control by about 20 secs wincing from my knee as I ran but finished OK in a respectable 7th with mostly ex British Squad members in front of me.
Stafford St Johns Ambulance were great, not faffing and just giving me some sterile wipes and the water I needed to clean myself up.
So a busy weekend but I hope we have started something and other clubs jump on the Maize Maze wagon.