Not brilliant but definitely better that total pants. I do, of course, refer to the Mallards Pike orienteering today. I got myself over to Brierly ahead of time and ran the 6km across to Russell's Enclosure - oooh, matron. Then after a brief chat - as you do - it was time to head out into the wild green yonder.
I only made one bad error today. There was slight mitigation but we'll some to that in a minute. Once or twice I got my bearings a bit confused, hitting the wrong path while emerging from the undergrowth but after recourse to the compass I got myself back on the right track, so to speak - more haste less speed, or something like that. The rain didn't help either, made reading the map tricky but it was only a brief shower and my glasses soon dried.
So as I said, the only really disappointing control was number three. I didn't know the symbol - a fallen tree root clump thing, cross in a circle - that's the my excuse. Some might say that's no excuse and that would be fair comment. Rest I assured a cross in a circle is now firmly ensconced in my memory banks. By itself I might have found it but coupled with a poor route choice meant I ended up running far to far. Hitting the path, followed by a loss of sense for a few seconds before I eventually took a bearing and found the damn thing. Have to say it was fairly school boy but after that things picked up.
With my newly acquired skill of locating fallen trump stump thingies, I made solid progress around the rest of the course. Eventually finishing in 1:04. I'll take that - to be fair, I don't have a lot of choice, they don't let you upgrade after you'ved finished.
Any then, after another little chat it was time to return from when I came and as I set off after a few minutes the heavens opened and I was drenched in seconds - doh. And now, safely back all that's left to do is put the feet up and relax. Happy day.
I only made one bad error today. There was slight mitigation but we'll some to that in a minute. Once or twice I got my bearings a bit confused, hitting the wrong path while emerging from the undergrowth but after recourse to the compass I got myself back on the right track, so to speak - more haste less speed, or something like that. The rain didn't help either, made reading the map tricky but it was only a brief shower and my glasses soon dried.
So as I said, the only really disappointing control was number three. I didn't know the symbol - a fallen tree root clump thing, cross in a circle - that's the my excuse. Some might say that's no excuse and that would be fair comment. Rest I assured a cross in a circle is now firmly ensconced in my memory banks. By itself I might have found it but coupled with a poor route choice meant I ended up running far to far. Hitting the path, followed by a loss of sense for a few seconds before I eventually took a bearing and found the damn thing. Have to say it was fairly school boy but after that things picked up.
With my newly acquired skill of locating fallen trump stump thingies, I made solid progress around the rest of the course. Eventually finishing in 1:04. I'll take that - to be fair, I don't have a lot of choice, they don't let you upgrade after you'ved finished.
Any then, after another little chat it was time to return from when I came and as I set off after a few minutes the heavens opened and I was drenched in seconds - doh. And now, safely back all that's left to do is put the feet up and relax. Happy day.
alas for the squiggle top right...
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