Elvet Striders

NE Score Champs, Wallington, 11th October

60 min, 30 controls

Dougie Nisbet

Saturday hadn't gone well. I got bored sitting in a long queue of traffic waiting to get to the Alwinton Border Shepherds Show so gave up, turned round, and went for a walk around Cragside instead. Driving a scenic route back to Durham we passed Wallington where I saw some signs saying "Caution - Runners" and I wondered what that was all about. When I got home I read Colin's email about an orienteering event at the Wallington National Trust site, checked the weather forecast, and that was Sunday sorted.

It's just over two years since I last did an orienteering event. That was a gentle 'Come and Try it' event at Chopwell Forest. The timing for me was interesting because when I did the Chopwell event I was just starting running a bit more seriously and at the time I rather simplistically thought of orienteering and running as a bit of an 'either/or'. I thought there were people who did orienteering and people who did running and that there was little or no cross-over. This is obviously nonsense. At Wallington there were all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds with all sorts of fitness and abilities.

Two years since my last event, and two differences struck me immediately. First, my eyesight. Sadly that seems to have declined noticeably. I peered curiously at the blobs and text on the map and decided just to concentrate on the obvious stuff. River, fences, walls. That's about all you need. Second, the technology. Great Fun! Gone are the incredibly low-tech punches that I used to think were so sophisticated. Now it's all things that go BEEP and apart from my initial bewilderment it's all very straightforward. This was all taken care of and explained to me when I signed in.

I decided to got for the Score 60 event. This is simplicity itself. Go to the start. Start. See how many Controls you can get round in an hour. Finish. I was intrigued that there was no pre-arranged start time. I just wandered up when I was ready, beeped the dibber in the gizmo marked START, and off I went. I started like a rocket, raced across the picnic area and through the gates, out onto the path and into the woods. Once safely out of sight I got the map out and had a look at it since I had absolutely no idea where the hell I was. Presently, and more sedately, I headed off for the controls that took my fancy.

This event turned out to be exactly what I needed one week after the Loch Ness Marathon. It has none of the conventional pressures of a road or trail race but it's still a good idea to shift it when you get the chance as it is a race against the clock. Different orienteers have different styles; some manage to map read on the run. I prefer to lean against a tree, decide where I'm going, then go as fast as I can for as long as I can before I inexplicably need to stop to look at the map again. This usually mysteriously co-incides with me needing a bit of a rest. It's a bit like interval training, or perhaps more accurately, fartlek.

Event map with Colin's route, click to see full size

Roberta decided to go for a walk that coincidentally followed the main paths that skirted much of the route. There were times that I felt like a labrador puppy as I kept crashing out of the undergrowth and bounding along only to bump into her again as she strolled steadily around the estate. I resisted the urge to pick up a big stick in my teeth and drop it at her feet.

After finishing I spotted Colin and Elfie and we immediately started a detailed deconstruction of the course, the controls and our route choices. After the first two controls (with just another 28 to go), Elfie's eyes began to glaze over and she left us to carry on with our post-mortem and wandered off to investigate the restaurant.

This was the first time I've done an orienteering event since I started running seriously and I was really pleased at how much I felt it helped. I often think I don't do enough cross-training or include enough variety in my training and this really fits the glove. I really want to do more of this sort of thing. This was a great event as it included cross-country, fartlek, road, trail, and optional water crossing (I took the bridges, Colin forded the river 4 times. Wish I'd thought of that!). You can pretty much customize and mix and match the whole race to suit your own tastes.

Results

38 finishers.
485 points available.