British Sprint Championships – Sussex and Brighton Universities – 9th April 2011

Having just returned from a winter in Spain and Portugal this was my first event back in Britain. Consisting of qualifying heats and a final race on two different parts of the University complex.

Qualifying heat – 2km & 75m climb

The start was within the Falmer campus and the route there took us over the railway, through Falmer Village and past the impressive, but still under construction, stadium that will be the new home for Brighton and Hove Albion FC. Warmed up well and had a good start through the first two controls, but then hesitated slightly over my route choice through the smaller accommodation blocks on a steep hillside. Took the best route to 8, I think, as you really needed to be on the right side of an uncrossable wall at the end. Then there was a long leg over the railway bridge and into the northern Uni complex. Had to spot a couple of small gaps between buildings etc , which was not easy at speed, to ensure the best route to 14 and 15. Then it was hard running uphill through 16 & 17 into the woods and out on to the playing fields for the run in. Finished 4^th in my heat of 18 runners (8^th out of 62 from all heats in my M55 class) and safely through to the A Final.

A Final – 2km & 65m climb

The first leg, longest of the course by a long way, needed some quick thinking right from the start to assess the best route. I decided to head directly downhill through the trees to hit the road as quickly as possible with the thought that once on the road I could start planning ahead. I ran through the next few quick controls as smoothly as possible and from 5 belted downhill fast – too fast perhaps as I hadn’t fully appreciated the exact location of 6. I ran straight up the middle of the rows of buildings when I should have been on the NE side, so had to go round the end of the block and double back.

Trying to make amends and in a bit of a panic I ran very fast to 7 then I had to consciously re-gather my composure and concentrate when I realised I hadn’t even looked ahead to see where 8 was. Took 9 ok, then had an easy longish fast run to 10 to start planning ahead again. Could just see Mikhail, another M55 runner, ahead which spurred me on, but had to take care and look hard on the map from 11 to 12 to ensure there actually was a route through the buildings. I left 13 just after Mikhail – he went right, but I thought I could see a good route staying left – and it might have worked. However uncertainty crept in when I couldn’t clearly see a way through on the map round the end of the building into 14 so I finished up doing a bit of a dog leg losing a bit of time to Mikhail. However, I managed to eventually get ahead of him when he made a small error overshooting 17 and I ran fast through the small gap to 18, through the woods and up into the run-in.

With my couple of small errors I didn’t expect to finish as high up as I did so was really pleased with third place and my first medal (bronze) at a major event. 17 secs behind James Crawford (GO) and 20 secs behind Gavin Glegg (WSX).

International Meeting of Arraiolos – Alentejo – Portugal – March 2011

The tiny village of Gafanhoeira was surprisingly the event centre for this international meeting. With only about 100 houses, a couple of cafes, a village hall and surrounding farms this small hamlet has a thriving orienteering club with very enthusiastic members. The wonderful local open and runnable terrain of undulating cork and holm oak with rocky outcrops is also probably a key factor in its popularity and success.

Middle Distance Course

 

Middle distance 4.3km 145m climb and 18 controls.

The first 6 legs were the longest and took us round a lake through undulating fast forest – could have been a little faster here perhaps. Then it was into the short, sharp, legs constantly changing direction through rocky and rougher terrain which required high levels of concentration. Kept it smooth here running fast where I could and mostly direct and the controls came up very well.

Nearly came a cropper towards the end after catching another competitor but caught my drifting route just in time. Finished 1st out of 32 with a time of 27:51 12secs ahead so was very pleased with that and it put me in a fantastic position to go for 1st overall of the combined Middle and Long races.

The night event had unfortunately been switched (I would imagine very late in the day) from the very interesting old town of Arraiolos to the village and surrounding fields of Gafanhoeira. Some 80% of my course was round several features of an open, stubbly and muddy hill top field with only the last few controls in the urban village setting and even those were not very imaginatively located.

Not a good course and not a good result for me. Inadequate head torch and no street lighting in the fields didn’t help!

Alentejo Camping Family Spectating in the Rain

Long distance 6.1km 175m climb and 16 controls.

This area contained more open spaces with pockets of denser vegetation usually around rock outcrops with some forest and scattered trees. There was a big climb and downhill again towards the finish. Unfortunately ran into trouble early on looking for no. 3 in amongst some vegetation and rocks. Looking back I can see I was very close to it several times and even after re-locating for the second time found it difficult to find. Lost some 6mins on a shortish leg – oh dear! Being just a little annoyed the next two legs were very ragged but then I began to get to grips with myself and the terrain despite the now near torrential rain. I knew I had to work very very hard to recoup any lost time at all and must make no further mistakes. The last two thirds of the course went well running as fast as I could even on the tricky steep hillside. After the heavy rain the narrow run-in was a quagmire of sloppy mud.

Prize Giving with Home Made Prizes

After the mistake I was pleasantly surprised to finish second on the Long with a time of 53:20 and only 2 min behind the leader – obviously everyone else also had problems somewhere on the course. Overall with the combined Middle and Long times I was 2nd only 58 secs behind Matti Hautala (FIN) and 2:42 ahead of Urban Larsson (ESP). The prizes were novel and made by the local inhabitants of the village.

Urban Night Sprint – Portalegre – North Alentejo – Portugal – 7th March 2011

This event was part of the Portugal “O” Meeting in the previous post and took place in the mostly narrow cobbled streets of the town of Portalegre.
One of the town squares provided a bustling and colourful assembly, start and finish area all in one location.

With only about an hour to go to the start of the event I was changing in a nearby car park when I saw a couple of vans pull up with all the controls and stands. They were very well equipped and were wearing waistcoats specially tailored to hold many SI Units in individual pockets.

This being my first night sprint race I was a little uncertain how my small head torch would perform , but as the streets were mostly well lit it was ideal just to slightly illuminate the map. I had a good smooth run and I think I chose good routes, but it was hard going up the few hills and on the cobbled streets. The cheering locals outside the odd bar also helped to get the legs pumping.

I finished 5th out of 37 – 46secs behind 1st position and 28 secs behind James Crawford in 3rd. Surprisingly 1st place was taken by two runners on an identical time.

Portugal “O” Meeting – Alter do Cho, Crato & Portalegre – North Alentejo – 5th to 8th March 2011

Amongst some of the massive rocks

This northern Alentejo region of Portugal provided some fantastic orienteering terrain in a beautiful rolling landscape of cork and holm oak forests interspersed with a lot of outcropping granite, scattered rocks and some massive boulders! The small towns are full of history and character and are surrounded by vineyards large and small, olive groves and grazing cattle.

POM 2011 was a four day event of two Long (days 1&4) and two Middle Distance (one a World Ranking Event) races with overall classification being the combination of time from all four. There was also a Night Sprint round the town of Portalegre on the evening of the third day and 3 model event maps were available. All this was only 40 Euro about £34 and the organisation and mapping was excellent.

Close to 2,000 competitors from around the world were entered. 660 from Portugal, 237 Finland, 213 Switzerland, 88 Norway, 80 France etc … UK being 9th with 56 including Tim and Carol Sands from SOC. Outside Europe there were 18 from Brazil, 8 Canada and 2 USA (one of whom Kean Williams we got to know quite well). There were 85 in my class which included James Crawford (GO) just 2 places ahead of me at 4th in the BOF M55 ranking so someone to pace myself against.
The event centre was in the castle of Alter do Chao and the assembly area venues and run-ins were very well sited. Day 1 at Coudelaria de Alter stud farm where they breed and train Lusitanian and Arab horses; Day 2 at Herdade do Gamito a large vineyard with its own winery for production, barrelling and bottling; Days 3 & 4 at Entre-Ribeiras farm with an unusual tall tower folly surmounting the rocks.

Entre de Ribeiras Tower & Day 3 and 4 Terrain - spot the orienteers & find the tower on Day 4 map below!

As it turned out the model event maps were mostly very rocky and more representative of the Middle Distance terrain so the openness and variety of terrain of the Long first day was a slight surprise.

Day 1 - into an olive grove

We started in little thickets and clumps of rock, out through more rolling fenced pasture, past a couple of lakes, through an olive grove, back into some thickets and finished in the arena of the riding stables. One overshoot early on cost me a couple of minutes and I finished 11 (3:19 behind James in 6th).
Thinking about the complexity of the rocks I was likely to encounter on day 2 I fixed a magnifier to my thumb compass – in retrospect this probably wasn’t a good idea and Ithink contributed to my having quite a few problems. I realised afterwards that with my glasses, the magnifier and now a scale of 1:7500 I was only seeing a small section of each leg at any one time, missing the larger picture, and getting confused and out of touch with the map when moving the magnifier away. 22nd was the result whilst James was 7th – not good!

Day 3 extract in the rocky terrain

Typical Terrain

Suffice to say I didn’t use the magnifier for the remaining races, and taking on board advice from my coach (my wife Catrin) was determined to be more relaxed and enjoy the race more. And it worked! Day 3 Middle was again intricate amongst the rocks and boulders but I paced myself better, kept in contact with the map (mostly!) and planned ahead. Finished 11th again closer to James who was 6th only 2:41 ahead.
I was a little surprised to be as high as 11th overall at the end of the third day with the combination of two 11ths and a 22nd – so my goal was to try and get myself into the top 10 on the last day. Picking up my map I could see several long legs which needed some route planning and a couple of tighter twisting sections in trickier terrain where I would have to be particularly careful.
After a cautious 1st leg everything came together well – choosing good fast flowing routes round the veg and relief of the first 5 control loop then keeping up the speed and stretching out on the three very long legs.

Day 4 Long Map

Then it was into a loop of 6 trickier controls in quick succession. Slightly missing the first probably made me concentrate even harder and slow to a sensible pace and the remainder felt good. I ran the final section as fast as I dared, mostly downhill through the rocks, and felt really happy with my performance. I actually finished 5th only 4:16 down on the winner and 4:23 ahead of James in 11th.
Overall for the four days of challenging but very enjoyable orienteering I finished 9th and James was 6th. Carol Sands had a difficult first day did very well on the last three days finishing 10th overall in her class, but Tim fared less well at 21st overall with the third day being his best at 9th.

Conil de la Frontera – Andalucia – Spain – 27th Feb 2011

This was a town sprint event organised by the Club Almadraba for Sunday evening during the Andalucia-O-Meeting in the previous post. When we arrived the town was heaving as there was a large motorbike rally, but they were mostly on the promenade whereas the sprint was primarily through the old town’s back streets only darting out occasionally into the more crowded café areas.

Starting below the Torre de Guzman

It was a low key event , though numbers were obviously boosted by the nearby larger event, and it was a step back in time too! – there was no electronic timing and we were back to hand punching control cards. I’d forgotten how tricky that could be, getting the pin punch aligned on the appropriate square on the control card, and all at sprint speed too.
There was a nice combination of longer legs followed by some tight and twisty sections. I had a good start and enjoyed the climb up and section through 5 to 9 in the little park which was rather scruffy and more like wasteland with some local lads sitting around pointing out the control behind the bush.

Control 12 was in the far corner of the plazza

Unfortunately I cut in left up an ally too early for 11 and someone I had overtaken earlier was now hard on my heels when I finally turned down the dead-end to 11. It was so very narrow in that last section I had to wait for him to come down, punch and leave before I could get out!!

Thank goodness there was no-one behind him or I could have been there all night and without splits it is difficult to know how much time I wasted there. After the last twisty section the last three legs were very fast and into the busy square for the finish and punch card hand in. There were no results on the night, other than the top three in each class, so it wasn’t until the next day I found out I finished 11th out of 59 and just 4 seconds ahead of Peter Haines (AIRE).
Whilst in the area we stayed at a very good site – Camping Pinar San Jose – which had a ‘back door’ straight into the Parque Natural de la Brena and only a very short walk to the beach through the villageof Zahora.

Andalucia-O-Meeting 2011 – Canos de Meca – Spain – Feb 2011

Canos de Meca is a small sleepy town on the southern Atlantic coast of Spain in the Cadiz province and is adjacent to the magnificent Parque Natural de la Brena which is made up of an umbrella pine forest situated on a complex area of micro-dunes.

Canos de Meca & the Lighthouse

A lighthouse, Cabos de Trafalgar, sits on a spit of land surrounded by coastal dunes and the battle of Trafalgar took place off the coast here. It’s also a bit of a surfing and especially kite boarding mecca when the conditions are right.
The International Orienteering Training Centre Costa De Trafalgar is based here and attracts orienteers from around the world to hone their skills which helped boost the entry close to 600. Many Scandinavians made the trip for training which was not possible at home because of snow.
This was a two day event with a Long Distance in the Brena forest and a Middle Distance on the coastal dunes and beach. One interesting and exciting feature was that both events finished in the event centre, a holiday apartment complex, which meant the last few legs were through the back lanes of the town. There was also a Score-O/Rogaine, which I didn’t do and a Model Event was also available to help newcomers appreciate the terrain and mapping which, unusually, used full SI controls and a simple DIY download and print-out.

Long Distance Map & Micro Dunes

Micro Dunes Under The Pines

My Long Distance was 5.3km with 16 controls and more downhill than uphill as it was a fair hike up to the start to enable the finish back in the event centre. It was really lovely running terrain mostly up and down the small micro dunes on soft pine needle covered ground with a variety of low bushes that didn’t impede progress too much. The biggest problem was coming across areas of open sand which could fill your shoes up quickly!
Navigation and running went well until towards the end when, after a particularly good and fast leg for me, slightly different steeper terrain and indistinct paths caught me out resulting in 4 mins lost re-locating to no 12 – I was leading up to that point but dropped back to 2nd behind another Brit, Peter Haines (AIRE), who caught me up at that problem control. Suffice to say I hammered down the hill to the last forest control and through the lanes rather annoyed with myself.
Can anyone help me? as this seems to be a bit of a recurring issue? – maybe I’m not alone – a lot of my errors seem to happen after a particularly good leg – how do you make yourself slow down just before the point of losing it?

Beach O Middle Distance Map

The “beach-O” was great fun too in the shadow of the lighthouse, though hard work with more soft sand. I was caught out by an inland lagoon that had a much higher water level than depicted. As I was using one straight side as my pointer to one control I missed it wide by 50m. Otherwise a good enjoyable run to second again but this time only 40 seconds behind Peter. Overall results were the total of the Long and Middle so I finished 2nd out of 18 in my class.

Running the Beach O with Africa in the background

Andalucia-O-Meeting 2011 Website

Results

Murcia – Spain – 20th Febuary 2011

We escaped the wintery weather in December keeping ahead of the snow and made our way south through France and into Spain stopping at Vilanova I la Geltru south of Barcelona. I found it difficult to find local orienteering and it wasn’t until later in February when staying further south in the beautiful Sierra Espuna near Murcia that I took part in my first event in Spain.

The start in the pines and rosemary bushes

A Liga Regional Murciana event ‘ I Memorial Antonio Gonzalez Seva ‘ in a low lying, lightly contoured, pine forested area just off the motorway. The undergrowth was very light with next to no green on the map. There were a number of dry river valleys and the ground was often covered in smaller loose rocks and stones making it a bit hard on the soles of the feet.

First 'Score' controls followed by a Line

The format was a new one to me with a score followed by a line followed by another score and finishing with another line. All the score controls had to be visited in any order and there were no points for them. It was an enjoyable format though I might have preferred the line element first to get into the rhythm of the map and terrain from the start – it was in this first score section that I had my only major problem floundering around the top of the wrong valley for too long convinced I was in the right one!

There was quite a good turnout of around 250 though a lot fewer veterans than there would have been at home on a similar event – I finished second 6 seconds down out of only three in my M55 class and there were less than a dozen men or women over 55.

Murcia Orienteering

Results

I can highly recommend the Sierra Espuna natural park for anyone wanting to get away from it all in some wonderful clean mountain air and scenery. There is also some interesting wildlife such as the Mouflon or barbary sheep, wild boar, a unique red squirrel and eagles all of which we saw during our week long stay. We stayed at a small campsite at the ‘end of the road’ in the small mountain village of El Berro from which there are paths into the park for walking, running and cycling (and there’s also good climbing too)