David Currie

49My pre-race preparation for the British Champs wasn’t exactly ideal. My flight from Raleigh landed at Gatwick at around 8:15 in the morning giving me just enough time to get home, get changed and get back to Midhurst for a start time six hours later.

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46Back in Raleigh North Carolina next week with work so came out a day early to participate in the Backwoods Orienteering Klub Bubba Goat event. For the unitiated, this involved a mass start, a one control fork (where you decide which fork to take) and the chance to miss out one control of your choosing.

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Took part in the Wimborne Long-O in the New Forest today. At the start the sun was shining but there was a chill breeze blowing across the open moor. The navigation wasn’t particularly technical and the only major mistake I made was at the third control. I’d just spotted Christine and must have run straight past the control in my haste to catch her up. Took me a while to figure out that I had gone too far down the hill.

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Spent the weekend at the Oxford-Cambridge orienteering Varsity Match. Usually we have the individual competition on the Saturday and the relays on the Sunday. Unfortunately, the organiser (Phil Marsland) was soon receiving phone calls from the CUOC minibus saying that they were stuck in traffic on the M11. OUOC were dispatched to wait at the nearby accommodation (Holmbury St Mary Youth Hostel) whilst the alumni were let lose on Leith Hill.

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We took a full car to the Happy Herts event at Egypt Woods and Burnham Beeches today. After our joint effort at the last National Event I harboured hopes of catching Paul Nixon four minutes. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be. Instead, I made a beginner’s error on the sixth control, searching for the control one hillside too soon. A little later, having executed the long leg perfectly, I then wasted at least two minutes on the following control. I tried to cut a corner but then failed to find the path I was cutting the corner to! When I eventually located the control Roger Thetford was hot on my heels.

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Unfortunately my last minute trip to Germany meant that I missed the SOC Street-O on Thursday. Roger Pleasant has surveyed our local area: Knightwood Park and Valley Park, so we decided to take the map out today and run round the controls together. Took us just under 50 minutes so, even in the dark, it’s not surprising that most competitors got all the controls. Roger is apparently now mapping the wooded areas in more detail which should make for a fun summer event.

Made the most of my flexible hours and nipped out to the Military League event at Turf Hill and Millersford in the New Forest. The 9.25km was a bit of a cross-country race – not because there were trains of competitors but because you could often see the next control from the one before and, with the area being so runnable, there was nothing to do but head straight for it. In the end I clocked up 54:05.

I fumbled the 13th control (unlucky for some) but the results show that I just don’t have the speed to compete with the likes of Dave Rollins. Good fun though and I should make an effort to get out to more of them. Paid for it later though – while working late to make up time my manager caught me and is sending me to Bonn first thing tomorrow morning.