Our Autumn orienteering season kicked off yesterday with a SOC event at Hincheslea on the western side of the forest. It was raining as we left home but the showers soon passed over leaving some lovely sunshine. This meant we had a very pleasant task in manning the start. When I left for my run the children had settled in to their usual task of getting maps out the boxes for competitors.
I enjoyed my course as the area offers high speed running when you’re not fighting your way through the head high bracken and gorse! I messed up two controls. I ran round in circles at #5 as I wasn’t confident that I was at the right gully so didn’t go looking in the undergrowth. I also wasted time at #11 where I was way off to the right which threw me completely.
When I got back, Christine went round the yellow with Emma. Once we’d packed up the start, Duncan and I set off as well. Despite saying he didn’t want to do it, Duncan set off at a fair lick and kept it up most of the way round what was quite a long course. His motivation was quite clear when he came back from download with a big grin having beaten his sister by a couple of minutes.