My best result for years even though it took me two hours to get to the event due to a combination of biking, railing and walking in.
Full writeup shortly, + writeup of the two World Cup spectator races I attended at the beginning of the month. My results for these were… less good.
I’ve set up an “orienteering” group on Flickr, for all your good orienteering photos. If you haven’t heard of Flickr, it’s best described as a collaborative photo gallery/community.
The group’s website is http://www.flickr.com/groups/orienteering.
If you are already a Flickr member, please join the group! If you aren’t, it’s easy to set up a Flickr account, and the basic accounts (allowing up to 200 photos) are gratis.
The group’s description is:
Photos from the four disciplines of the sport of orienteering – Foot-O, MTB-O, Ski orienteering and Trail-O. Think great areas, great maps, great athletes. Controls amongst scenery that cause even the best to stop and enjoy the view.
I’ve already touched on the Varsity Match, but I missed out including extracts of the maps, so here they are:
Individual Event
Saturday 19th March, Ängsjö, Järfälla.
This was a fast map, even in the snow, with intricate sections balanced with fast, straightforward ones. The best part of the map, shown here, was visited twice by both courses. Although tracks made by earlier runners certainly helped, it was easy to miss the marked paths as these were covered in snow. As usual, though, the high quality and pretty much faultless cartography meant every contour could be trusted 100%, which made things easier. Note that the contour interval is 4m, but there are a lot of form lines (aka intermediate contours) in some sections – many more than would normally be on a UK map. Anyway, I enjoyed this course and found it easier going than the last time I was on a VM course in Sweden – back in 2002.
Relay Event
Sunday 20th March, Järvafältet, Järfälla.
I was in the first part of the 3-part relay, and found the first leg tough – it was a really physical test, a mass-start run across thickly snowed fields. I made some poor route choice for the first few legs, especially 1-2 and 2-3, but I made up a few places in the latter half of the map. (The error in 2-3 was climbing and staying high on the ridge, whereas the control was in the easier, lower terrain to the west.) The fields on this map were actually the hardest running of all, as here the snow was a lot deeper. It was a relief to plunge back into the forests after a field crossing, like 8-9, and also going past the spectator control at 10 (I really felt the pain there.) Steeper slopes also meant less snow, so for once, these were not avoided. The relay map was certainly less technical, but harder physically. I preferred the individual race map.
B*ll*cks. Another orienteering event missed. I was out until 4 this morning, I got to sleep at 5, I like my sleep, so getting up at 9 to get a 10am train for the Maidstone event today was never really going to happen. I’ve noticed a pattern since I’ve left university:
Monday to Thursday – work hard, maybe or maybe not go out for a quiet drink or two with colleagues.
Friday evening – so exhausted from the week’s work (and not enough sleep) that I don’t normally go out, which means…
Saturday morning – Up at a decent time, head is clear – but normally no orienteering event.
Saturday evening – Still lots of energy, so go out to houseparty or whatever. It’s the one night a week I am always up for going out on.
Sunday morning – Exhausted from previous night’s party, so normally end up skipping the event and valuing my sleep!
Monday – Back to work…
This cycle is the principal reason why I’m averaging less than one event every two weeks this season so far. If big events were on Saturdays, I would be much more inclined to go. There’s generally a better, faster and more frequent rail service on Saturdays too.
There are small events on some Saturdays. I’m going to start focusing more on these, as there’s a more realistic chance I’ll actually make it to them!
In other news, I’ve missed the boat for BOC entries, probably WCup spectator races, and possibly camping with JOK for the Scottish 6-day… Must. Get. Organised.
[Updated – added link to results] Just back from the varsity match, which was in Stockholm this year. Up to 6 inches of snow on the ground made for physical as well as technical courses, with the temperatures ranging from 2 degrees celsius down to a Baltic (literally) -15. In the event, almost everyone got around their courses, and there were some fine individual performances.
Oxford achieved a “clean sweep” of trophies, for the third time in as many years, moving the Oxford/Cambridge winning totals over the years ever more towards par. Oxford were so confident they didn’t even bring the trophies to Sweden…
Ed Catmur won the Men’s individual for the third time – the first Oxford man to do so, although Cambridge have matched this feat three times. Newcomer (to Oxford, not orienteering!) Cerys Manning won the women’s. Duncan Archer, a former varsity champion himself, got the best time in the Men’s A on the day, running for JOK, the ex-Oxford club. He narrowly beat Nick Barrable.
In the crucial beer race, JOK rightly won back the trophy, having been “won” last year by a suspiciously small tab Cambridge team won last year by Oxford Uni. Finally, the JOK/DRONGO trophy for the best ex-university team was re-awarded to JOK. Hopefully we’ll get around to engraving it this year.
See also:
Loch Katrine in the Trossachs. The event start was on the hill to the right.
The Trossachs are a long way from London, but they are in my opinion the best map in Britain, and also the one map that I’ve never completed a course at, despite several attempts. The promise of snow in the hills, and a holiday on Monday was the clincher – so I ended up catching an early flight (up at 4am, flying at 7am) to Edinburgh, where my dad picked me up and we headed over to The Trossachs, via the spectacular Duke’s Pass. Little snow in sight, but wonderful weather – cold but clear and sunny.
I ran M21S and yes – finally! – made it around the course. And in a pleasantly good time too. At one point I was second on the results list, behind a fellow JOKer, Jon Marsden. This slipped to 5th place once some faster EUOCers came in. However I was definitely in the top half, with an above-par time for the first time in ages. The course itself was lovely, a classic as always in this area, although staying to the north of the road, meaning the roughest part of the map was missed out – it was still extremely technical and extremely physical, and I made two big mistakes on the first two “real” legs of the course – 2 to 3, and 3 to 4. Both times I headed too far left, going far too high (most mistakes one would assume would be from going too low. I blame my compass) and having to double back both times. These mistakes only amounted to 5 minutes each though and the rest of the course was fine.
My time in the end was 88:30 for a 5.3km course with a most un-English 440m of climb. Now, 16.7 mins/km might sound extremely slow, and on most maps, yes, it would be a disaster. But consider that many of the best runners in Britain were running on the map (it was a FCC and Start race event) and that only one managed to run in less than 10 mins/km, and that puts thing in perspective. In southern England, British champions would typically do 6 mins/km, and I would be happy with 8 mins/km, and disappointed with 10 mins/km. But here in the Trossachs, 16.7 mins/km is just fine, and probably my second best run this year, after the week before. The winner on my course did a 73:43. I reckon I could have made around 78 minutes if I had had a run free from major mistakes – a virtual impossibility in terrain like this.
The Trossachs are possibly the best UK-based training I could have done for my next race: the 38th Annual Oxford vs Cambridge Varsity Match in Sweden, next weekend. And unlike the Trossachs, the snow is still very much there. Looking forward to it.
In 12 hours, I’m off to Scotland, to conquer some personal orienteering demons at an event in The Trossachs, that most Scandinavian of British maps. Orienteering in the Trossachs is always a challenge, and I’ve never successfully completed a course there, let alone got a good time. The course details for tomorrow give a hint of the terrain – the M21L course has 700m of climb (most of the way up a Munro) while the most junior course (J1) is just 800m long – but even then comes with a warning that the difficulty is harder than would be expected for 10 year olds. Looking forward to it.
In two weeks I’m off to Stockholm in Sweden, for the 34th Oxford vs Cambridge Varsity Orienteering Match. I’m not expecting to do well, but excellent terrain and a good time is a given – although it’ll be even colder than a frozen London.
In eight weeks, I’ll be back in Oxford for the JOK 18th birthday dinner, and maybe a bit of a punt if it isn’t too cold.
In sixteen weeks, I’ll be in Barcelona for a stag do. Should be nice and warm by then!
In twenty weeks, I’ll be back in Scotland, for at least a week this time, for the Scottish 6-Days at Royal Deeside. I made it to the 6-Days in 1997, 1999 and 2001, but missed the last one. I had a good excuse though – I was in New York.
Overuse of the “earth features” symbols, at Irchester Country Park. Almost the entire map, which can be viewed here, is like this.
(Suggested by Ian W. I haven’t actually run on this area yet, and don’t own a copy of the map.)
This should have been an easy event to get to – 25 minutes on the train. But the line was closed, and it took 90 minutes by bus in the end. It was snowing at Hatfield, and extremely cold, but I’m glad I made the effort, because this is a bit of a classic area. I often check out the areas on the OS map before going, and this one really looked a bit dull. But the OS map doesn’t tell the story at all. This is a fast area – think New Forest fast. At this time of the year, vegetation was pleasantly light, the main obstacle being large, impenetrable areas of rhodedendrons – thankfully indicated on the map. As long as you avoided these like the plague, you could get around pretty fast. And I did – one of my fastest runs for a long time, and I finished pleasantly high up the results board. Maybe I was going fast because it was so cold and stopping, in the zero-insulation running layer, would have been a Really Bad Idea. I ran Brown, an initially worrying 8.7km (especially on an empty stomach) but in the end it only felt like 7km.
My time was 66:23 for the 8.7km course with 125m of climbing – a par speed of 7.6km – matching the season’s best, although it was an exceptionally flat area. The winner did 50:45. On current form with a flawless run, I estimate I would have done it in about 60-61 minutes.
I made fewer mistakes than I normally do. The only significant one was going from 16-17 (not shown at this time.) I headed out of 16 45 degrees in the wrong direction, but was somewhat aware of this. I switched off mentally, pleased with my run thus far, and somehow missed a big track after 150m, running right over it and hitting a later track 350m away! I almost made a big mistake assuming the second was the first, but for once I trusted the compass, wised up and retreated. The only other mistake was leg 20-21, where I again came off at 45 degrees, and went hurtling down towards a dead end. Only around 2 minutes was wasted on each mistake though – unlike the 5 minute stinkers I’ve been making recently at other events.
Special thanks to the planner for planning an interesting course, which used the area to its best and provided an interesting route to follow and quite a few either-or legs – and also the organisers for letting me run late.
Oddly, there was a second map to be picked up halfway around the course. In this age of electronic timing, surely it wolud have been better to have the second map printed on the back of the first?
I didn’t enjoy this event, I have to say. It was flat and fast, and contained some areas of interesting technicality, but the map had some significant mistakes in it which impacted my run a lot. In addition, some legs were pretty uninspiring, there was one 800m leg which followed electricity pylons for pretty much the whole way, and another tedious section whcih involved going between a large road and a motorway – a necessity as the M4 M3 bisects a lot of maps around here, but still frustrating. In addition, the more interesting parts of the map (the SW section) was largely ignored by the planner, for my course.
The extract shows one of the more interesting parts of the map, rather that one of my big mistakes (see below.) Number 15 was reached by following an unmarked path that appeared to be 100m further north than where it was. And Number 17, on the top left of the extract, was made confusing as there were 3, not 2, obvious paths radiating west from the road’s car park. If you look carefully, you can see the third as a narrow ride, whereas in reality it was just as big as the other two.
I made a massive mistake from 3 to 4, following an unmarked “linear marsh” rather than the marked one, and ending up 300m too far SW, as the second extract here indicates. Comparing my splits with other similar runners (OUOC were out in force) I lost just over 5 minutes here – compounded by running an interesting way back to No. 4 once I worked out where I was, to avoid the stream of people coming the other way (nothing more embarrasing…)
For running M21S, a 7.4km course with a pleasant 95m of climbing, I took a not-great 67:36, or 9.1 mins/km.
