Camberley, 14th August (back from WMOC).
So the Long Distance final. James and I had start times after 1pm, so was always going to be hot. Understatement! Assembly area was at 2000m and the starts 300m higher. So dehydration and altitude – difficult. It was a great area – runnable forest with rock and contour features. It took me 4 – 5 controls to get into the map, so already losing time by not being accurate. Disaster at Control 9. Big uphill slog, and then couldn’t find the control. Eventually decided I am usually short of the control, so went a bit further after trying to fit all the features to the map and there it was. After that was relatively clean. Finished in 67.03 and ended up 21st.
Waited around at the finish for James to finish, slightly puzzled that he wasn’t around. He was contouring around the hill from 15 – 16 and he went off the map but it wasn’t obvious as there were alot of similar features off the map. Eventually he slogged back up the hill to relocate, and wondered why it took so long. By then too much time lost. Real shame as he was going very well up until then.
It is on areas like these that I realize that orienteering in the south-east does not prepare you for this sort of terrain. You need to live in Scandinavia and orienteer on this terrain all the time to get good at it. I am the fittest I have been for years, but the lack of experience really told.
Great WMOC. Fantastic areas and nice to meet up with other Brits every day.
Brazil???. Chris
