Orienteering again this weekend just gone. This time it was Guildford’s regional event at Ambersham Commons and Hoyle Plantation. Whilst Christine was out, Emma and I sheltered in the woods, firstly on the string course (not last this time) and then at the finish, in order to avoid the freezing cold wind blowing across the exposed car park. When I eventually got to the start Mark Saunders was just lining up to go. I gave him a three minute head start which also gave me the opportunity to do enough of a warm-up that I could feel my fingers again!
Archive for the ‘Orienteering’ Category
Frozen forest
Monday, February 2nd, 2009Tenth again
Sunday, February 1st, 2009A slightly belated report on the BKO Concorde Chase last Sunday. Unlike the previous night’s event, this was an all out running race. That’s not to say that there wasn’t a reasonable amount of terrain running – just that the controls themselves were never hugely technical. I was tenth again but out of a larger field and a more respectable 10 minutes behind the winner. I was pretty happy with my run and you can see my route round the Black course over on RouteGadget.
Top 10 in British Night Champs
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009OK – when I say “Top 10” I mean I was 10th… and there were only 15 finishers… and I would have been 11th if Mikko hadn’t subsequently been declared non-competitive… but anyway, that’s mere detail! Saturday night was the British Night Orienteering Championships held at Mytchett. There was a clear sky and frost on the ground as I got ready beforehand but it was warm enough once you started moving. Matthias was back from his run just as I was about to start. He thought his 87 minutes was slow and wasn’t sure where the time went. I managed to take five minutes longer so here’s where I think I lost it (you can follow along on RouteGadget – just select Course 1 and my GPS track) …
Oak Orienteering
Saturday, January 17th, 2009SOC held a local event at Knightwood Oak (just west of Lyndhurst) today and we went along with my in-laws. The area has some nice runnable patches but unfortunately last night’s rain made other parts hard going. I’m sure the Forestry Commission volunteers who were removing conifers in the open patch near control 206 had a good laugh as one orienteer after another disappeared up to their waist in one of the ditches!
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Highfield Street-O
Thursday, January 15th, 2009Tonight it was the second SOC street event of the year. This time we were starting at The Crown, Highfield, Southampton. There was a much better turnout from the club this time probably reflecting the more central location.
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New Year Score
Thursday, January 1st, 2009
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Post-Xmas Orienteering
Monday, December 29th, 2008We spent Christmas at my parents’ this year and had a relaxing few days. The excitement of Christmas was slow to grow on Emma and she had to be enticed in to opening presents. She started to warm to it a bit after that. Thankfully our Fisher Price heliport and lift and load depot off eBay went down well (they just don’t make them like that any more) and The Tickle Book and The Bedtime Bear are now regulars on the reading list. Yesterday we headed back down to Southampton via the Southern Navigators’ event at Long Valley.
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Dibden Street-O
Thursday, December 18th, 2008Thanks to Jon Forster for organising the first SOC street-O of the year at Dibden. Jon had promised that this year it would be ‘doable’ to get all the controls (lamposts). With the tail end of a cold and the occasional wrong turn it wasn’t going to be (and it would have been tough even on a good day). I made all but two and was just under a minute late (although I’ll claim that back from number 16 being out by one lampost).
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