Orienteering diary

This will include entries for every orienteering event I compete in, as well as a few other orienteering-related occasions which didn't involve a competitive run. You may well be wondering "why?", but you're obviously at least vaguely interested to have visited in the first place... I've written it primarily to aid my own memory, though I'm also trying to point out the types of problems that can occur at events, both those during running the course and those to do with the organisation, in the hope that anyone who has read them here will not repeat them! The most recent entries come first in the list.

Note: regular visitors (if there are any) will notice the lack of new entries since I got a job... I do intend to bring this site up to date eventually, but it may be some time in the future!

Entries to show: all recent

Jan 04 Feb 04 Mar 04 Apr 04 May 04 Jun 04 Jul 04 Aug 04 Sep 04

26th September 2004

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SOS Colour Coded
Hatfield Forest (Essex)

The autumn season started with this EAGAL event, which I think is the last of these that I will make this year. For a map that looks so green, there is actually quite a lot of nice forest, split up by wide rides with nasty ditches that I always manage to fall into... The brown course was quite long, actually I've only run one longer course all year (the Varsity Match) so I expected to visit most of the map.

The first part of the course was a loop around the north-east edge of the area, quite straightforward as there are relatively few features for the planner to use, and I think I had been to all of my first four controls at previous events! The first control at which I lost any time was 6, when I went a bit too far from the path and had to bounce back off the gully behind it. A path run past the lake brought me to the start of a convoluted loop around the southern end of the map.

None of the control sites here are particularly hard to find because they are all close to the edges of the forest, but following a straight route through the trees can be tricky as there is so much local variation. My real downfall was coming out of 16, when I was too far south and ran right into the remains of a barbed wire fence - I can still feel the effects of it as I write this a week later! I don't think it slowed me down too much, but I lost concentration and drifted well away from the straight line route for the next couple of legs. The last place where I lost some time was 21-22, where the block of rough open with scattered trees that I tried to cross was more like rough open with a smothering of brambles... I was fairly happy with my run overall, though I think I need to look where I'm going more carefully in future!

8th September 2004

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WAOC Summer Galoppen
Coldham's Common (Cambridge)

What was probably my last WAOC Wednesday evening event was entitled "Least and Most orienteering" and as usual the first challenge was to understand what we were supposed to do. In this case it was to find the given feature that was either least or most far in the given direction from the start. I got the hang of it a little earlier than some others, and was confident as I headed towards the last of the 'least' controls that I was doing well. What I hadn't allowed for was the failing eyesight of the planner, who had placed the control on a stream bend without noticing that there were two slight bends further north (and hence 'less south') in another parallel stream... The 'most' course which followed was longer but easier, as you could start searching for features at the edge of the map. Again it was the final control which I had trouble with - not which marsh it was hung on, since it was the only one on the map, but finding the cup in the evening gloom. And it wasn't really a surprise that nobody recognised the Macedonian alphabet...

28th - 29th August 2004

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EBOR White Rose Day 1
Dalby South (North Yorkshire)

I'd only been to one White Rose before and had bad memories, both because we had neighbours from hell in the campsite and because I was ill. As I found myself on holiday in Scarborough at the time (and wasn't ill) I decided to give it another go and entered at the last minute. The first thing that struck me about the map was that it was very, very green. It wasn't far into the course before I discovered that the white forest wasn't very nice either, so a lot of path running was unavoidable... Given how grotty the forest was, Steve's courses were actually pretty good, with several legs that at least offered a choice of path routes. However I did get tempted to try a couple of more adventurous routes through the green, which was inevitably a bad idea - particularly from 7-8, when I avoided some climb by finding a way through the dark green, only be confronted by a strip of rough open that was actually brambles hidden in two-metre high bracken!

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EBOR White Rose Day 2
Hawdale & Givendale (North Yorkshire)

I started the next day determined to stick to the paths where possible, on another very green map, and was only once tempted to stray - as a result I was ten minutes quicker than on the first day while most people were a bit slower. The last bit of the course was a little strange as the obvious route went through the crowds waiting to start - I tried something different, but it was probably a bit longer. I can see why some people come to the White Rose for the social side and don't bother to run!

15th - 21st August 2004

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CROESO 2004 Day 1
Sennybridge Training Area 2 (Wales)

I don't think I've ever run in a nice Welsh forest, so I was glad that all six days of Croeso were on different types of open areas. The first day was one of three that used part of the vast Sennybridge army training area, and I wasn't sure exactly what to expect. The first part of my course was across very fast grassland - the first control was slightly confusing due to some dodgy mapping, but fortunately it was very visible (it was in a pit mapped adjacent to a path but was actually 20m or so away). The first of two long legs on the course was 4-5: I started off through a very runnable patch of light green forest, then was held up by some rather thick white forest, but there was not much doubt about where I was going because you could see all the way down the valley from the top of the hill.

Later there were three short legs along a stream on the north-east edge of the map - literally on the edge, and from 8-9 the best ground to run on was actually off the map on the other side of the stream! I'm sure that better use could have been made of this area. Finally there was the second long leg, 10-11 of over 1.5km - this seemed rather pointless as there was no sensible alternative to a straight route with hedges as handrails for most of the way. I wasn't too disappointed with my time and position, as it was very much a runners' course - a pleasant area to run on, but with little technical challenge.

[map extract/photo]

CROESO 2004 Day 2
Sennybridge Training Area 1 (Wales)

The second day was more of the same, but with a much more compact looping course. This was my favourite of the training area days, marred only by the neverending tussocky marsh between 8 and 9. I had a couple of encounters with the tripwires we had been warned about in the details, one around my neck and another tripping up my ankles! I found myself being interviewed by Radio Wales just after finishing - I'm not sure that I was particularly interesting, but I'd love to know if they actually broadcast any of it.

[map extract/photo]

CROESO 2004 Day 3
Pwll Du (Wales)

I'd been looking forward to the two much more technical areas, of which the spoil heaps of Pwll Du was the first. Frustratingly, my right shoe fell apart on the second leg - why couldn't that have happened yesterday! By retying my laces and trying to land my foot at a strange angle I managed to get round the course, actually finishing in a similar position to the first two days - it should have been much better. The complex contours were quite hard to read, but by concentrating on the major spurs and re-entrants it was possible to avoid large errors. Many of the courses had the butterfly arrangement in the middle shown in the map extract - since this seemed to be the same for all the courses there seemed to be more following here than anywhere else, which was a bit counterproductive, and there was an awful lot of purple obscuring the contours! I think that much larger loops are needed for this sort of layout to avoid the clutter and make better use of the area.

[map extract/photo]

CROESO 2004 Day 4
Carneddau & Gilwern Hill Common (Wales)

Getting to this event proved to be a greater navigational challenge than the event itself (apparently lots of the direction signs were nicked the night before, and of course we didn't have a grid reference...). There were two separate areas of open hillside with about a kilometre of track running between them, which meant that nearly all of our course was constrained by the start and finish locations. The first leg was straight down a re-entrant, not a promising start, and most of the third leg was a path run. To be honest, there was only one interesting leg on the course, 8 to 9. Anyway, the local lamb burgers afterwards were good...

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CROESO 2004 Day 5
Ogof Ffynnon Ddu & Pant Mawr (Wales)

I'd spent a lot of time staring at the map of Ogof Ffynnon Ddu for my successful attempt at the CompassSport PhotoO, so I was looking forward to tackling the area for real. The first few controls were straightforward and on nice short grass, which served mainly to lull you into a false sense of security for later on! As soon as the course headed south the tough going underfoot was apparent, lots of rocks and plenty of tussocky grass. 6-10 were the really tricky legs, as the rocky patches marked on the map didn't have clear edges, and the many lines of crags all looked pretty similar - straight was the way to go, trying to keep track of the crags as I was crossing them. The highlight of the day was 9-10, mostly on open rock along the top of crags, with wonderful views on both sides. I was so pleased to have come through the tough area without making a mistake that I then managed to lose a few seconds on the second-last control: as a stream source I was expecting it to be in the re-entrant I could see ahead of me, but it was actually on the end of a spur! This was easily my best result of the week, as well as the most enjoyable challenge, and it's a pity there wasn't a second day on the even tougher-looking eastern part of the map.

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CROESO 2004 Day 6
Sennybridge Training Area 3 (Wales)

The final day was back on the training area, and was very much more of the same. In fact the area overlapped with day 2, and by taking a track route from 3-4 I found myself running the other way through a patch of forest which I had had a control in on the earlier day (not that I noticed until looking back at the maps later!). The first half of the course was very fast running across fields, with the second half on rougher moorland. The pit at 5 is one of the worst bingo controls I've ever seen, and I was very lucky to see someone else leaving it ahead of me - there's no attack point at all, and the dark yellow line in the extract is the edge of the map! The seventh control was a bit dodgy as well, and I joined a group of several others in a sweep search of the spur... The run-in was a fun way to finish the week, through a stream in full view of the assembly area.

Overall Croeso was a good holiday event, though there was a lot of variation in the quality of the courses and areas. The weather made camping look a poor choice, with plenty of rain and strong winds that ripped the flysheet of my tent, but Brecon was a good location, a pleasant little town in an impressive mountain setting. Finally I'd like to thank the organisers and CompassSport for the free entry :-)

3rd August 2004

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SLOW Local
Richmond Park South (London)

I was very glad that I had been given a lift to this event, because we arrived and ran in a torrential downpour. The course was actually that used at a colour coded event last year, in order to use up maps - I can only assume that there was a lot less bracken around then after the way that the first control was hidden in it! As a result I took a very safe path route for the second leg, which probably wasn't necessary. Most of the course was on paths, but it was a pleasant if damp evening's run.

Although we had used SI punching, there was no download computer at the finish because it was stuck on a train which had been disrupted by the wet weather! Though it (and its owner) appeared at the pub later, the results were generated by downloading information from all the control boxes - well done to Gavin Andrews for sorting this out.