When Manchester District Orienteering Club announced a countryside score event I was hoping to make a few of them. Sadly, I will make one of seven due to other commitments but I am so glad I made one.
I hadn't run Dunham way for a while. I went through a short phase of doing long runs down there due to the ability to loop between the canal and the Trans Pennine Trail and it being quite flat with a number of good cafes plus the Dunham Massey house to finish up at.
MDOC don't officially allow dogs on their runs, but they haven't stopped me yet. And with Martin away, and having had to take most of the weekend off with a virus, it was a good opportunity to event with Oscar dog in tow (or in fact in canicross). The MDOC events are also very family friendly and many people walk them rather than run them. And whilst a paper map was handed to you at the start, the tracking was all done using MapRun on your phone rather than dibbers. This latter point caused some problems for new initiates but it is worth getting your head round as there are so many events and standing courses on there.
I was a bit early getting parked up at the village hall as I wanted Oscar to do his 'business' before we got going. I couldn't take him in the hall to register but he sat in the car whilst I did that bit. Four pounds later and we were registered and went for a short warm up walk the canal (and Oscar did his business). The canal was pretty busy with walkers and cyclists, which I worried about for later but it wasn't a major problem.
We were among the first to go, having chosen the 90 minute course (60 minutes would cause me too much time anxiety!). I dutifully did not turn my map over until I hit the 'go to start' button on my app and off we went. Well, we didn't really as we had to turn over the map and make a plan. I immediately spotted a loop of controls going off along the canal and coming back parallel with the TPT so we trotted off in that direction. I remembered to start my watch about 5 minutes later, which caused me timing anxiety later (how many minutes ahead of the watch am I? 5? 4? 6? Arghh better head back!). We hit the first control (geo punch, all done by satellite, very clever) quickly and thankfully my watch and phone beeped to show everything was working well. I did stop and help one family who had a false start but Oscar and I were never going to be competitive (one lady slightly rudely said I was cheating with the dog but that is her problem).
We left the canal at the first bridge (another control- hurray!) and did a short road section before joining a footpath. A few runners were stretching across the field ahead of me and I was trying to decide quite how to play this. I don't do enough of these events to have a real feel how long things will take me, and this being a point score, we could potentially cover quite a way. The map had a huge number of controls in all directions. I decided I would take the detours to nearby controls as long as I could see the path and so I chucked Oscar over the stile in to the horses field and we trotted across to the control by the farm, narrowly avoiding being chased by horses on the way back, which was a bit scary. We rejoined the footpath across the fields and took the next detour to the TPT to pick up another control.
The TPT was quite busy and as I spun back around after my phone beeped for the punch, a person behind me (not orienteering) asked if I was going the wrong way. I flapped my map at him and ran back to get back on my loop. We must look entirely mad to people who haven't done orienteering.
The line of runners I could see was thinning a bit as we reached another road crossing by a chicken farm. I guessed several people would be turning to run back on the 60min course. I hadn't decided until the last minute to go on and do another loop I could see out along a track. With the dog I wanted toI was overtaken by a much faster runner who said hi but it was generally much quieter but still easy to navigate. Turning south west I realised I would have to chose how brash to be in the next section as there were a cluster of controls, rather in a star pattern and I was sure I didn't have time for them all. I was aiming to get on the TPT and cut back east on that. This was where the watch business and my own timing anxiety kicked in. I went conservative and only grabbed one before doing a reasonable stint on the TPT with only one control to later show for it. In hindsight, leaving that point and grabbing a few more around Carr Green would have been a better strategy.
Oscar had slowed a bit. I think he wanted a drink but there hadn't been a stream today. I felt mean and let him drink from a puddle which was probably not the nicest water. We grabbed the control on the TPT, spun and head for the road junction, only to be held up a bit by some horse riders. I always walk past horse rides, and one of them horses was already flighty. But soon we were back running and heading back down Back Lane towards Dunham town.
The roads around Dunham confuse me. I was glad when the control beeped as expected as I have expected to be on the wrong road. Really I should have looked at my phone to see how long we had left as I might have pushed poor Oscar a bit less on this section. We jumped on the canal and ran the short distance down it and up on to the road (me praying for no cars on the bridge), before running in to the car park where the finish control beeped us in. Phew! My watch actually said we had 8 minutes spare but in reality it was 4. Damn it, could have done another control at Carr green but we had hit a nice round 400 and were currently 1st of 4....not many 90 min course people were back and it did not stay that way long!
A lady from my running club I hadn't seen in a while was waiting by the village hall and kindly got me a drink whilst I held the dog. We then sat and chatted on the bench whilst the dog drank a load of water and other people we knew or who I had seen a few times on the run came to chat and pet Oscar. It was such a lovely morning and I enjoyed it immensely. Oscar has slept all afternoon so it was definitely worth the 4 pounds too!
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