O.O'Brien

After not being able to make it to last weekend’s Petersfield event due to a lack of trains running, this was my first event of the season. Having had a series of good M21S runs at the Scottish 6 day, I was tempted to pick a similar length of course, but as (a) this is Essex and (b) I should be capable of running more than 6km, I went for the Brown course – 9.3km with 120m of climb. The area was pretty flat, the middle part of the course was at on the same Thorndon North map that was my final race last season, and the running was fast and easy – very different to Scotland.

After a slow start (copying 22 controls down onto two maps) I made a mistake at the second control – a technical one, one of the few on the race, by misjudging distances on the map – only a 1 minute mistake though. 3-7 were simple – 4-7 in particular were real cross-country runner’s legs and not interesting at all. After entering the second map after number 8, I encountered a load of horseriders on the tracks – a bit of a hazard as you had to stop really for them to pass. I managed to come across the same pair of horses/riders about four times, going from control to control. The condition of Thorndon North was not too bad, considering it was September, but it was still a good idea to avoid any rough patches due to all the vegetation. I made a silly mistake at 12, again not judging the distance and not checking the compass, I beared 90 off about 100m before the control – wasting around 2 minutes. For No. 13 I was being very lazy and entered the immediate area around the control very slowly, wasting another minute. The forest was actually pretty dark here – for a white area – mainly due to the very grey skies that were keeping the Aussies away from the cricket too. 14-15 was rather pleasant, and here I caught up another Brown course runner, he was just slower than me but it was difficult to overtake him as I tried to go “alternative” routes to lose him, that nevertheless wasted a few seconds. After getting delayed by horses (again!) I fainlly caught up when he made a mistake at 19, and after that the only thing remaining was… an uphill finish! I hate uphill finishes, planner, what were you thinking! Anyway, it was a nice run around and the fact that the technical legs on a not very technical area, showed how out of fitness I was after six weeks off. And the following day (and today!) my legs really ached from the run – for only 9.3km, I have lost a lot of fitness.

Result (9.3km/120m climb):

Winner: 65:32 (7.0 mins/km)
Me: 73:34 (7.9 mins/km)
Position: 9th out of 21 runners, 20 finishers.

Next Sunday I am hoping to make it to the first regional event of the season for me, at Hatfield Forest, just north of London. Always nice living in central London – it’s dead easy to get anywhere from here.

Day 6, Glen Dye

I had run on here before, many years back, but the only thing I remember of it was that I didn’t enjoy it.

It must have been a different part of the map, or maybe the pleasant weather made a difference, but I really enjoyed the area, it was lovely and technical, but no big hills (apart from the one we started on top of) made it the day with the least amount of climbing – always a good thing. It was all gloriously runnable, and I had another good race – convieniently, the fourth out of six – with four days to count. The course had 21 controls – a crazy number considering the course was only 5.9km long. That meant a control every 300 metres on average! My worst mistake was the very first control – highly embarrasing considering it was a dead easy leg. I’ve never been great at first controls – witness Day 2 – but this one was only 100m from the start! Maybe the start kite was slightly off – it has always confused me why the start kite is not on the start line. Maybe I was just trying to hard to get a good run. In fact, it was another runner than pulled me down the slope too far to the left, or maybe it was my dodgy, cheap Type 7 compass. I don’t know… but it only cost me 60 seconds.

The rest of the course, up to 19, was easy going. 6, 7, 8 and 9 were all very technical, and I know other JOKers made mistakes here. 8-9 was an odd route. I’d just caught up with Tim, saw him make a mistake at 8 and so put on some extra speed to make clear water. I didn’t go around the path – the obvious route, but instead dropped into the marsh and along. I didn’t mind getting wet – it was the last day – but it was heavy going through the ferns and marsh. 9-10 was nice – I was completely alone here for some reason, but I thought I had done a good route so I don’t know why. Similarly, 10-11, the longest leg, was a lovely, pleasant run through hidden glades, straight to it, with every feature marked on the map, and used by myself to aim off.

14-15 had quite a chasm on it and it was tough to get across the river dry-shod. By now I should have been accelerating, but the other extract, below, shows why not – a very technical area, full of little hills and depressions, controls and confused orienteers. 16 was fine, 17 was also OK – some random Yorkshireman asked me at this point where he was, to which I pointed vaguely in the region of 17 and said “Somewhere here.” “Yes, I know that, but where here?” he said, but I had sped off. He wasn’t a little kid – so he should relocate himself and waste his own time. I guess he must have pissed me off, because I made my only other mistake at 19 – misreading the description for 18 as 19, I search in a thicket, on the edge of a small cliff, not for the depression 50m to the south where the control was. 20 was a bit mean – no one likes an uphill finish, but putting the penultimate control in a 10 metre pit was a bit much! And then it was on the the finish, the end of another six days and time for a nice lie down.

The Campsite

Special mention must be made of the campsite, in the grounds of lovely Crathes Castle. The first night was enlivened by a Status Quo concert. Some paid £30 to go along, but everyone heard the music, even from the campsite 500m away. Us non-paying cheapskates went along anyway to the barrier and could even see the stage from there so it was good enough. Shame about the music though.

We were in the “Youth” campsite, which was largely deserted as I guess everyone else wanted their sleep. But it wasn’t too bad actually – the main noise was a generator for the concert for the first two nights, rather than other campers. I didn’t have to cook myself – thanks to 3 BBQs (thanks Tim, ELO and JOK), 2 restaurant meals, 1 palming a pasta meal off Tim, and 1 Wilf’s takeaway – and it was great having a large marquee for social events every night, weather it was playing cards and drinking cheap beer from the bar, a quiz night, or a ceildh night. Oh, there was a “youth” disco – we stayed clear of that one! But having a marquee was definitely a good idea, and something I hope that future 6-Day organisers have. Even if future events are nearer normal forms of entertainment, having a marquee would still make a big difference.

All in all a great six days – the best one I’ve been to, beating Breadalbane 97, Highland 99 and Lochaber 2001. The forests were great, it wasn’t too hot, I was on form (suprisingly) and going with the JOKers meant for interesting evenings too. Nice to get away from the city, and rough it a bit camping. I definitely was getting used to campsite/orienteering life and genuinely felt bad when the week finished. Bring on Speyside 2007.

Day 4, Allt Cailleach

This was part of the Royal Balmoral Estate, and the M21S course first involved a monster 4.1km walk (!) to the start. It was easy to see why this was necessary though, after studying the map, due to the shape and location of the most technical parts. As I was running the short course, the course route basically went in a straight-ish line right back to the start. Today was the day however that I made the most number of mistakes – most of these, apart from one, were small, but most also were stupid mistakes (what was I thinking?! type mistakes) rather than “worthy” ones.

I actually arrived to the start, after a 50 minute walk, with about 10 seconds to spare, so for once, there was no time to warm up. This was a shame, because the first leg (as you can see from the above extract) was a real killer – pick up your map, turn left and climb 60 metres vertical in just 150 metres horizontal. Needless to say, I walked this, as did most people. Leg 2 was OK – I was a little slow, there was an Italian guy just below me being distracting. Leg 3 was interesting – I went straight up the cliff, overshot slightly but kind of knew I’d done this so didn’t waste any time above the cliffs. The control was in a delightful location above the main forest. Other people I talked to instead went left, bypassing the cliffs. There doesn’t seem to have been much advantaged either way.

Nearly everyone except me seems to have spent a very long time finding 4. I was lucky as I just followed the veg boundary around and basically ran onto the control, actually expecting it to be 100m further away (so – very lucky!) Five was just down a hill – again fine here for me but others made mistakes. My first big mistake of the Day was number 6 – an easy control, but in ankle-breaking marshy terrain. A similar knoll just north caused me to pause an mistakenly double back, wasting 2 minutes in the end. 7 was fine – a long leg, some went around but I think straight was OK too. An out of bounds section confused some – but I was OK – to 8. 9 was my second mistake, I stopped short of the control for too long – wasting 1 minute. Realisation of my mistake distracted me and I made a really stupid one to 10 – I went off wrong, but then decided to ignore a direct, straight path to the control and double back, trying to get back on my originally intended route, and getting stuck in deep grass, wasting another 2.

11, 12 were fine, although the line of “plodders” to 12 really annoyed me. All longer courses were forced along this narrow strip due to course constraints, but it was very annoying having plodders blocking the way. Yes, I know orienteering is suppoosed to be inclusive and all, but why bother entering a competitive event, if you are just going to walk the whole way around? Why not just go hillwalking or rambing or something! This again annoyed me, and I therefore immediately made my biggest mistake of all, to control 13, the one that allowed Tony (who had started 4 minutes behind me) to catch up and stay with me for the remainder fo the course. I took a lazy route onto the spur, which meant I wasn’t sure how far along the spur I was. I hesitated, then went away from another control, which was (and I don’t think this is in the spirit of the competition) placed only a few metres away from the control I was looking for. I had to do a formal relocation off a track lower down, and come back into the control, number 13. Five minutes wasted here. 14 was only 150m further away but I still wasted one more minute here, by overshooting the control, missing it by 2 metres up (it was hidden below a bank) and then having to come back. 15, 16 and 17 were simple enough although 15-16 was treacherous underfoot. All in all, not a great run, peppered by lots of small mistakes, and this proved to be my second non-counting day.

Day 5, Bogendreip

I haven’t had a fautless run for years, but here, finally, it was. I had been dreading this area – it was right beside Glen Dye, the only area I had been on before the six days – and I vaguely remember a physically tough, very marshy area. It was not to be – the course led up well around a marsh, then gradually up a hill – just gradual enough for me to run it – a lot of other people walked it which made a difference I think. It was an area of quite dense forest and not many ground features, such that if you made a mistake, it would take a long time to relocate. So I’m thankful I didn’t! The extract shows the nicest part of my course, as we come down into a pleasant wooded glade. The short leg shown was one of my best splits of the six days. The course then went steeply up hill to another “bingo” control that I thankfully spiked, before hurtling down straight-forwardly to the finish. By the time I got to the high bit, I knew I was on course for a great run, so I put on even more speed, so much so that I didn’t have enough energy for a traditional sprint finish. A good thing perhaps as the finish route led along a busy road and down a steep bank.

My best day of the six days – equal best speed with Day 3, and best on points. Day 3 I felt was my best run though – I was lucky here.

Day 1, Cambus O’May

I was helping out on this day, so I spent a couple of hours in the download tent, giving the splits and the good (or bad) news to runners coming in. This proved quite useful, as I noticed the times coming in for my course (M21S) were definitely on the long side considering the course was just 5km. This meant that later on, when I got my run in, I started off the first leg – which proved to be a very technical leg – very slowly. I spiked 1 and 2, beared off a little too far right to number 3, and spiked 4, 5 and 6 (although running down the edge of the map was disconcerting and confusing, causing me to slow right down. Number 7 was my big mistake. I did the first 95% of the course perfectly, then managed to get distracted by other runners and controls, and ended up too far left (i.e. south) around the control site. I almost did a formal relocation here, but worked it out after a few minutes of dithering. This was, however, my third worst mistake of the 6 days, and cost me 4 minutes.