WMOC 2008, World Masters Orienteering Championships, Portugal, 29th June
...or what I did on my holidays.
Colin Blackburn
Day One in the Big O-ther house...
Well, we arrive in Portugal without any hitches and Neville manages to stay on the right side of the road long enough to get us from the airport to the Event Centre and then to our apartment in Porto do Martinho. Nev plumps for the luxury bedroom, John and I get the medium bedroom leaving Chris and Gary on the put-you-ups in the slightly smelly lounge.
The World Masters is the biggest orienteering competition in the world for old gadgies. In orienteering money that means 35 or over. Some 3000+ competitors ranging from 35 to over 90 and from countries as far apart as Finland and New Zealand are taking part this year in a very sunny Portugal. There are even a couple of guys from Nigeria, not a country known for its orienteering until you realise that they run for Finnish clubs. It's an open event that now comprises a Sprint and a Long Distance competition. The Sprint has one qualifier and a final, the Long has two qualifiers and a final. Depending on performance in the qualifiers you run in one of several finals. The A final in their age group is the aim of everyone here but I'll be hoping for the B final, in some of the bigger age groups they'll be hoping to avoid the E final.
Day Two...the competition begins
Orienteering sprints are won by margins of a second. The winner in my age group will take about 17 minutes to visit 24 controls over 2.4km of winding twisty streets. There can be no dithering over route choice and no errors in navigation if you want any chance of being in contention. Of course I can only dream of a decisive error-free run, still I can try.
For this event the entire town of Leira was closed off to traffic by the police and military. We parked in the car park of the local football stadium where we were "quarantined" until our starts—this is to stop us exploring the town before our run. Fifteen minutes to go and I walk up to the town's castle where my race is to start. The organisation is amazingly professional. At five minutes to go our names and numbers are checked, at four minutes our dibbers, at two minutes we get a list of control descriptions and with a minute to got we stand beside our maps.
10 seconds to go, fingers on the map, on the long beep it's off! The first five controls are all in the ruined castle. The map is very detailed and it is difficult to see where there are gaps in walls so there are a few hesitations here and there. It's not the way I normally visit castles but three minutes later I'm finished in the castle and heading down the steep cobble lane into the town past the queues of those waiting to start.
The town is a maze of narrow alleys and stepped passages. At one point a control is found only by running through an ice cream parlour. Another is annoyingly placed in an underground car park where I make an error in going down the wrong ramp. A complete circuit of the car park later I find the control but at the expense of at least 60 seconds. The flowerbeds in the park are out-of-bounds so I take care not to get myself disqualified on a technicality, just. 24 minutes and 14 seconds later I punch at the finish control and it's all over.
It was very hot out there and I'm glad I was running in shorts and vest (NFR) rather than full orienteering kit as some were. Once all five of us are back we head to the apartment for a swim in the chilly but refreshing Atlantic. Elfie, back home in the UK, did us all a favour and checked on the web what final we were all in and our start times. Amazingly I had made it into the A final.
The smell in the third bedroom is getting worse. Even the apartment's owner held her nose when she came in to drop off clean towels—she must think all orienteers smell lke this. It smells like a small army of mice have peeed somewhere.
Day Three...the sprint final
The sprint final takes place in the seaside town of Praia da Vieira, again closed off by the police. This time it's a sprint with a difference. It starts and ends in the town but the middle third of my race is in the wooded sand dunes on the edge of town. It is the same sort of distance as the qualifier but this time the middle section would be the undoing of many sprinters. This is where I made my big error, at least three minutes. The winner completed the course in a staggering 13:40. I was ten minutes off that pace but I still finished in the top half of the world!
Oh, we discovered the source of the smell. An old vase that had contained some flowers but now contained only the rancid left-over water. Chris and Gary can sleep well tonight.
Day Four...a day off
A day off, so what do we do? Go orienteering! Three of us head up the coast for a model event. This is essentially a self-timed practice in a woodland similar to those that will be used over the next few days. Controls are set-out and a map is provided but you pick your own course. It's a useful way of getting a feel for the terrain. It turns out the terrain is fast and complex—forested sand dunes with no serious undergrowth, to do well you need to be fast but being fast can mean making big mistakes.
After an hour out in the woods going our different ways we decide to set off for a little sightseeing only to discover that the Volkswagen van has dug itself into the sand at the side of the track. Nev spins the drive wheels a little just to make sure it is good and stuck. Then with two passing Swedes arguing over whether the twigs should be put lengthwise or across-wise under the tyres and the help of a few burly Russians we managed to push the van back on to the track.
Once we have freed the van and are on the way back we stop for a traditional sardinha (grilled sardines with potatoes and salad). I have the sardinha sin-sardines but with a very nice Portuguese goats' cheese instead.
Day Five...the real work begins
We arrive at what seems like a carnival in the huge forest at Pataias. There's a band with a belting female singer doing classic covers—at least she's not covering The Cure's Lost in a Forest! These extensive coastal forests were first planted for the building the Portuguese ships that helped them colonise large parts of the world. Today they are a great natural resource for wood, wildlife and leisure. They are also very sandy and the running can be difficult once a sandy path has been churned up.
I have an early start time today and so head off to the start taking in the small warm-up area. Once I have started I find to my expectation that the dunes are very complex and I stuff up on two controls but do fairly well on the rest. I'm out for 77 minutes which feels good for me but isn't going to worry the winner of my heat who managed the same 8.3km course in just 49 minutes.
Once I have finished I have to hang around for the rest of the guys as our start time were spread out over two hours. What better way than to relax with a cool beer or two. They know how to do their orienteering abroad.
Day Six...no rest
The second long-distance qualifier starts and ends in the same place as yesterday but the courses head south instead of north. At least I know what to expect. As I have a late start today I hang around watching some of the other competitors start. I see the british competitor Elizabeth Brown start. She turns 90 this year so she's running in the W90 class, though she seems to be doing the same course as the W85s. Incidentally she got the gold medal in the sprint event for her class a couple of days ago. The M90s and W90s have "minders". The minders are young Portuguese orienteers who shadow their charges. They keep a respectful distance not helping in any way but being there in case of a fall, where a quick response is more important than for younger competitors. There was a rumour though that her minder had to push Elizabeth up a particularly difficult dune!
Pretty much the same performance for me today, two mistakes and 75 minutes for 8.4km. The same guy who won yesterday wins today in 42 minutes. He's French as well! I know I won't be in the A final but hopefully I'll have made the B and avoided the C. That's me looking pensive after finishing!
Day Seven...sightseeing
Another day off. We take in a monastery, descend what must be the most spectacular show cave in the world and walk in some dinosaur foot prints in an old quarry.
Day Eight...the grand finale
Yes, I'm in the B final. That'll do. It still means my final is longer than my qualifiers at 8.7km. The forest this time is at Pedrogao (there should be some accents in that) and it has a little more undergrowth than that at Pataias. The running is likely to be a little slower for me. The same carnival atmosphere greets us when we arrive.
I have an early start today, it'll be good to get it over with and watch some of the A final winners coming in. It is absolutely sweltering today, the heat and the undergrowth take their toll and I am out there for over 96 minutes. I made one horrendous mistake in a complex area of high dunes which meant too much climbing to relocate. I finish way down the field but at least, unlike two years ago in Austria, I wasn't disqualified. As I cross the line I'm given my commemorative metal plaque.
The best of our group, Neville managed 66th in the A final for the M55s. Not bad considering the finals went all the way down to D for his age group. Chris decided not to run the last day due to a recurrent back problem. Gary and John both compete in the M40 B final, Gary managing 5th place.
Although none of us challenged for medals the Brits did very well overall finishing third in the medals table behind Sweden and Finland and ahead of Norway! 5 golds and 13 medals in total. Sweden dominated the event with 23 golds out of their 46 medals.
We all head, exhaustedly, back to the airport where the other four fly home. I take a bus into Lisbon have a wander round and then get the overnight train to Madrid to meet Elfie for a very enjoyable holiday where I don't run once! Portugal is a fantastic place to orienteer and I'll probably revisit for a holiday some time. Next year the World Masters are in Australia, too far for me so it'll have to be Switzerland in 2010.
