With a second lock down and some very open interpretation of the rules, I haven't been going to far recently. I have done the odd dog walk up Rivington way (technically Lancashire I have now been informed- oops!) but runn wise most of it has been very local. Work is also a nightmare but let's not go there....
So when the Blacksheep of Chorlton Runners (well, mostly Brian) organised an orienteering challenge, I really wanted to have a go, and started scanning the calendar for a time I could head over to Dove Stone reservoir near Oldham. The opportunities were sparse. Work is taking over my life. Even if I am not on shift there is so much other work to be done..... but today there was a gap in the madness and Martin kindly agreed that I could go run even though it was also 'our day' together. Even better, Eryl said she wanted a go too.
The only orienteering I have ever done is a night street league run by MDOC. This involved running around urban streets and finding 'controls' in the form of street furniture. Its amazingly fun! I only have managed to get to one but would love to do it again. Oh, and I think there was an orienteering thing on an outward bounds course I did when I was 11 but I don't think I understood it then.
In fact, I suddenly realised I didn't really understand it now! But I knew I would prefer to work of a map than my phone so sent off for one, downloaded the app to run in my bag and met Eryl at the reservoir pencil in hand.
It turns out, Eryl hasn't done much of this either. Despite this, our morning was great fun!
So why is orienteering so great? Well, it is a combination of navigation skills, running, hills/fells and cross country (bushwacking perhaps). There are a number of approaches, of which I don't pretend to be an expert. One is to run a set course; you must visit a set number of controls in a set order and collect a symbol, punch or other demarcation of having been there. You try to do this as fast as possible. Then there are score courses where there is no set order, but you have different controls, often worth different points, of which you visit as many as possible in a set time. A control is a post with a red and white square on it, followed by a code.
The courses I know about are permanent but I expect temporary ones are erected for events. The ones in Manchester are predominantly set out and maintained by GMOA, and apparently there are 50 courses i Greater Manchester! Some are more sedate, in parks or local beauty spots, and some full competitive courses with check points well in to rough ground. I think Dove Stone counts as the latter....
Anyway, Eryl and I jogged to the start line at S2, and wasted 2 minutes try to work out if the timer had started (it had). This left us with 1 hour 13 minutes (1hr 15 if you know how to use the app) to find as many controls as possible and reach the finish point at S1 (no, I don't know if you can do it the other way). I had a vague game plan but only a vague one. So we headed off and promptly found our first check point before realising we weren't sure if we needed ot write them down, photo it or something else to get it to count. So we did both the former and got the phone with the app on out to check and it had regiatered it so we carried on. The next post was marked differently on the map then the app so we had to visit both points to get the phone to ping but then we got in to a reasonable rhythm to get some points. There were a few where the code was missing but we photo'd those. We missed one stuck on a wall and ran around for a fair few minutes to try find it. BUt generally we were geting it. So on the east side of the reservoir we went ambitious and decided to pick up some rough ground markers....
The ground here is much more tussocky. We were both in fell shoes but with no path to follow there was a lot of giggling an squealing and occassionally disappearing down holes. We'd made excellent time to this point but thiss short section slowed us down loads. We got only three check points in nearly half an hour! Not efficient! But certainly it was an adventure and we were both proud to get those three. Jumping the fence at the bottom we had less than 10 minutes to cover the stretch to the finish and grab a few checkpoints on the way so we hared along like mad women, managing to grab two or three more checkpoints and arriving less than a minute over time.
Looking at the app, we had done 15 check points, though when I checked it later, it hadn't pinged for at least one we definitely visited (we do also have photo evidence having photo'd them all!). We had a 10 point penalty but 290 points was an 'Ok' result apparently. Looking at the result table, I beg to differ, it was really not good! But it was also a first attempt and more to the point, we had fun!
Word of warning though; if you are going for the trickier controls, gaters or long trousers may be sensible as my legs are a bit bracken whipped and had scratched.
Eryl and I are already keen to have a go at another course and are going to have a peruse of some of the maps. Would definitely recommend having a go at your local course. Its treasure hunting for adults and who doesn't like a treasure hunt?
