JK 2019 - Day 1 (Sprint)

Aldershot Garrison
Course 3 - M40
3.5Km, 30m Climb, 27 controls
Start @ 14:15

First day at the JK, all new for the kids so we arrived good an early to setup camp, and have a poke at the traders etc. Since we were starting late, everyone was able to see how the start and finish worked, and have a go of the model course to try out the EMITtags.Warm sunny day, so it was going to be warm running. I had gone for a training jog the previous evening, and knew the heat was definitely going to hurt.

Went to the start, got the kids sorted, did a bit of a warmup alongside the pitches then got into my start box. Silent starts were in effect (since it was a WRE for the elites) - dont like them particularly, but rules are rules. Clock beeped, started my watch, punched the start kite, and grabbed my map...

Quick jog around a corner of a building to the start kite. Glanced at the map, saw a line of uncrossable wall marked, and made a quick decision to head around to the left. At the time, I was pleased I had seen this route, but in hindsight, there's a much better and obvious route straight across the carpark. KISS.

Next few controls are straightforward (2/3/4/5), a guy I'm running with makes a mistake out of 5 and heads left before realising its a dead end - I just run around. On the way i consider my route out of 6, and decide to just go straight through 6 and around the bottom of the building to 7.

Out of 7, head up a wheelchair ramp to cut around the outside of the building to 8. theres potentially a shorter route through the middle via some covered stuff - I wasn't sure if it was actually open or not, so payed it safe. Collided with a guy coming back out of 8, no damage to either thankfully. 9 is fine, run along a small hill to 10, round the back of a shed to 11, and then around a hill and left of a building to 12. Starting to hurt at this stage, there's been no real navigational challenge, so just trying to go as fast as I felt i could maintain. Grab 13, then 14, and slow down on the way to 15 (gassed). Grab 15, push myself to run again and grab 16.

Running along a nice road between what must be senior officers houses to 17, then backtrack to 18. Theres a bit of a trap here, there's a control on the near side of the building where 19 is (the circle would be almost identical, just its on an outside corner, and on the wrong side of the building), so if you misread the map, you could easily go for it, or worse, mispunch. I dont fall for it, and run around to the real 19. Back to 20, down the path, no issues.

21 is an easy run between buildings and up some stairs. the rest of the course is very straightforward - just sprint, grab, sprint. Nearly collided again on the way to 23 with a lady coming through the archway halfway along the building. No fatalities. Hear the announcers on the way to 26 - at this stage, I'm running on fumes. Try to push for the last control, and the run-in. And suddenly, its all over.

I finish in 20mins, about 5 mins down on the winner. It was really a very easy course, so it all came down to the speed - who could run the fastest without making a mistake. But then again, maybe that's the point? Sprint is sprint. I just would have like a few more traps, to keep people on their toes - as it was, I could zone out for good chunks of this.

Finished mid-table, all happy. Good start to the weekend.

JK 2019 - Day 2 (Middle Distance)

Old Windmill Hills, Surrey
Course 5 - M40L
5.6Km, 100m climb, 24 controls
Start @ 12:15

Woke up, day was predicted to be a scorcher (25-28 C), so slapped on plenty of sun-cream. Headed over to the venue (short drive), and got the tent etc set up. Our start was pretty late, so plenty of time to watch the early runners go and come back, and grab some photos at the run-in. Anne-Marie decided to do an entry-on-the-day course, so she had time to go out, do that, and be finished before we started.

Headed up to the start, got the kids sorted and then got into my own start box. Sun was beating down at this stage, so I hoped I'd hydrated enough. Clock beeped, started my watch, and we're off. 100m run to the start kite, so plenty of time to look at the first legs.  Headed off to the right into the forest immediately after the kite, planning a straight route to number 1. Drifted a bit to the left down a spur, but was aware of it, and corrected at the bottom. Lots of people milling about at this point, so had to keep focused on my own run and ignore the other controls (there were lots). Headed up early to number 2, so that i could follow the shape of spur around to get it easily. Down the spur and onto a track heading towards 3. I was a little bit off here, hadn't really got to grips with the green on the map yet, but saw another runner heading into the control, so no major time lost. Easy leg to 4, just follow the path to the big bunker thing. followed the fence around to the road on the way to 5, then stayed to the right on the high ground. Straight to number 6. At this point, its super hot, and I haven't paced myself very well, so I'm feeling rough.

Took a router around to the right of the steep hill towards 7, trying to avoid climb, and swap scrappy twiggy undergrowth for paths. Just followed the stream to 8, boggy area here, but my feet were super hot, so glad to get some cooling. I was also pretty sure I had a blister at this point, due to sweat/heat over the first section. 9 had the first proper choice of routes, due to crossing points on the canal. I chose to go right (east) to the road bridge, as it looked shorter (to me) and had an easier approach to the control. I still haven't measured it, but I don't think there's much in it.

Went around the spur to 10, and similar approach to 11. Steep climb out of 11 towards 12, really feeling gassed now. The spur that 12 was on was quite steep, so we had to drop down, just to climb back up again. Shuffled towards 13, stuck to paths because my brain was melting. Same for 14, but I was starting to get second wind at that stage. Contoured around and down to 15. Made a bit of a mistake to 16 - followed the path around OK, branched off to the left of the hill fine, but got disoriented and started veering to the left a lot. Noticed my mistake when I could see the open area at the top of the spur ahead of me, and corrected myself - my map had been folded badly, and I hadn't noticed this until it was ahead of me. Grabbed 16, then path for speed towards 17. Lots of pits on the top of the spur, so I joined a gang of 5-6 people looking for the kite. I saw it pretty quickly, and we had a train going.

The next few controls were fine - I was tired, but I was being careful, not wanting to make a mistake so close to home. It was all fine until the train I was in collectively made a mistake to 22 - no-one to blame but myself, tired and tuned out, arrived at the corner of the arena field, much head scratching ensued.  the area around 22 turned out to be confusing anyways - mapped as rough open, but in reality there were quite a few trees in it, so it kinda looked like (very) open forest. Grabbed it, straight to 23, and gunned it to 24 and home on the run-in.

Overall, it was an OK run - I made a few small mistakes, but nothing massive - lost maybe 4-5 mins overall. My main issue was that I started too fast for the distance (I ran 7Km by the end), and the heat just killed me when the climbs got tough. Still finished mid-table, so happy enough.

JK 2019 - Day 3 (Long distance)

Cold Ash, West Berkshire
Course 6 - M40L
11.9Km, 325m Climb, 26 Controls
Start @ 13:35

Woke up to another scorcher. The forecast was for more of the same hot weather from the previous day, and this year, the course lengths were very long - on paper, I had 11.9k and 350m climb ahead of me - ouch! The last time i had a course that long was IOC the previous year, and that had been super tough (I didn't finish it after running 12km, and making a few bad mistakes.)

Arrived good and early, setup the club tent with the rest of the Irish contingent, and watched the early runners go and return, bringing tales of nice running in open forest. Eventually, got changed, and wandered up to the start (very close to the arena) with the kids. Got them started, setup my watch, and queued trough the start boxes. Nearly picked up wrong control descriptions, but thankfully realised my mistake when I looked at the course length (14.8k).

Clock beeps, start my watch, and I'm off. Running alongside Brian Corbett, who seems to have a very similar first set of controls to me. Start steady enough, pacing myself, very aware of the long distance ahead. First few controls are fine, settling into the map nicely. Follow the path to number 1, up the hill and right along the path, then down the edge of the green to 2, straight line to 3, passing the green blobs on the way. Veer a little to the right on 4, but correct quickly when i see runners on the path, trot over to 5, and then enjoy the complementary minute to cross the road to number 6 (it would be removed from overall time later) - so far so good. Feeling happy at this point, time is ok.

So, 6 to 7 was the first long leg. I took a route using a series of paths looping round to the right, which was relatively easy to follow, and avoiding unnecessary climb. I almost went wrong at one point around the middle of the leg where I wanted to take a sharp bend to the right, but turned too early - realised quickly when the next junction to the left didn't appear, and fixed myself up. Felt myself flagging a bit along here, probably needed to slow down - the temptation to run faster on paths was high, but I wouldn't have had the stamina for later. I ain't that fit!

To 8, we had to wriggle though some strange little country lanes with residential houses on them - people out mowing the lawn, etc. When I re-entered the forest, I was heading towards a nice sturdy gate to cross the fence before it became uncrossable, when I was accosted by an elderly couple. They were adamant that I wasn't to cross the gate, and that the forest inside the fence was private property. I apologised, ran out of sight, then hopped the fence - if it ain't marked out of bounds, I'm going there. Anyways, I'm pretty sure this was the intended route - the alternative was a long detour past number 16. 8 to 9 was just a matter of using the crossing point (since I was now inside the uncrossable portion of the fence), then following a nice path through some horse paddocks, and then heading across some nice open bluebells forest to the control, on the side of a large pit. Had a gel along the way, even though I actually felt pretty good at this point. Elephant tracks through the bluebells led directly to 10 and 11, so no navigation required - easy legs anyways, as the forest was very open at this point.

Heading to 12, back along the path to the horse farm, cutting through a field into another lovely bluebell path through very open forest. Followed paths and rides to a big clearing, then plodged through some swampy stuff to the control. Back out to a quiet road - considered going around and following the stream up to the control, but went straight instead - green forest turned out to be fine, and hit the stream a little below the control. Followed the re-entrant up to the path, then headed west towards 14/15 - the area at the end of the path was a little fuzzy, but got 14 alright, depite my unsureness that I was on the correct little path. 15 was my first proper mistake, lost about a minute looking for the end of the knoll, that turned out to be a slightly raised lump of ground in the middle of a much larger and well defined depression. Pretty obvious route to 16, following the paths that led past the edges of some large fields in a strip of forest. Was caught at this point by another runner (Andy Glover of LEI I think), and we stayed together for a few controls. Came at 16 by going north around the top of a large building.

At this point, I'm pretty tired, so I have my second gel. Started to 17 by crossing the hill after the crossing point, then a combination of paths and straight lines through some scrappy forest (lots of small fallen branches). Turned left onto the big open path and then took a line up through the forest, past the clearing to the control. Continued north out of the control, using paths to get close to 18. Through the forest to 18 was steep, marshy, and branchy - I was slow here and veered to the left, thankfully correcting myself near the top of the slope. Easy run out to 19 across a quiet road with a marshall.

Last section now, just focusing now on not making mistakes - fairly clean so far, and happy enough with my time. 19/20/21 were easy short legs, just kept it clean. We had another free minute to cross the road to 22 - I took advantage of every second to stand and rest beside 22 (my split was 1:01). Set off to 23, having planned to follow a nice looping path around the hill to it. (looks like Andy had some issue here, losing 20 mins on this leg). No issues for me, back up the paths to 24. Some brambles here (first of the day) getting out of the circle at 24 to the path. I'm running faster now, I can hear the announcers in the arena. Down the path to 25 - I hesitate slightly to check the map fearing a last minute sneaky control, but its right in front of me. Pushing down the hill now to 26, turn the corner into the arena, and all I can hear is "Come on, daddy!". Final push to the line and its over.

Its the longest orienteering race I can remember finishing in recent memory, and I was pretty happy with my performance. My final time was 1h47, having covered just under 15km and 330m ascent. The JK results are a bit up in the air, but I was around 20th out of 40 or so, middle of the table. My navigation was good, happy with most of my route choices, only thing that could have been better was my speed - but that's just a matter of training. Overall, great success for me.