I’m never one to skip a chance at orienteering, not only because it’s just a short train ride, but also because it’s one of southern England’s best orienteering areas – indeed parts of the forest feature in my top 10 of all UK areas.
So, last Sunday (the 27th of June) I went along for HAVOC’s Frolic event. This consisted of a 3km race, which everyone ran, followed by another 3km “extension” loop. The main race was on Pole Hill – a fast and easy, and decidedly non-technical area.. The extension – which was run following a short break after the main race, was through parts of Epping Forest itself. It was extremely flat (25m climb in the 3km) and there were large areas of green. However the lack of serious undergrowth, and the beauty of the area, made it a great run. My only mistake was a big one – for some reason I was convinced vandals had nicked Control 7, as it was clearly not where it should have been. It turns around that the map is a little, um, vague, here – the control was at a different path junction to the one it appeared to be on the map. I only realised this on continuing on my way (following 10 minutes of hunting) and spotting the blighter. Ah well. It was a lovely, hot day, but with a cool wind, and sunbathing was the order of the day following the event. My time was respectable for the main race, but with the one big error (and a couple of other really stupid ones) I finished well down the list for the extension race.
Results are here – I’m not quite sure why I got such a big handicap seeing as I am M21, but of course it means I finished higher up the results than I might have deserved.