For those interested in long distance races …
I have signed up to enter the first ever Purbeck Hill Challenge on Saturday 15th February. This offers courses from 22km to 37km long, consisting of a long cross country walk or run interrupted with some detailed orienteering stages. The format is based on the Grampian Mountain Challenge, of which I have never heard, but apparently works well.
I am running as a solo.
If you are interested in signing up, there is plenty of space left.
Details on Wimborne Orienteers website.
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We saw this too but regrettably are away competing in the Maximus near Madrid
Hope it’s well subscribed and a good challenge- the format looks a good way of stringing several disjointed areas into one event
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This took place yesterday and I’m hobbling about this morning.
There were 5 of us from QO: Adam and Ollie also took on the long technical, and Hazel and Linda did the short technical as a pair.
Fortunately the early rain stopped and we did the run in the dry. The detailed orienteering stages turned out to be at the start and finish, with the long cross-country run in the middle. My long route included the most scenic control site I have ever had - a perfect view of Corfe Castle from across the valley, before a long circuit around the coast path.
My downfall, quite literally, came only 20 minutes in when I tripped on a rock and fell on another rock. I wasn’t willing to quit so early, so carried on and completed but there was a lot of wincing, and I was barely able to walk by the end - last place!
Well done to Adam who won the long course with Ollie a close second, before heading off for their next challenge. Team Mudd finished exactly mid-table with a very good time on the final technical.
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It was a great event if anyone is tempted by it next year, and very well organised. The slight twist of having to mark up your own courses certainly added an interesting dynamic.
The trickiest bit for me was trying to maintain concentration for the rather technical bit of detailed orienteering at the very end of the course, having already done ~21 miles. There was a bit of route choice on the large ordnance survey section, but in reality most people would have taken the same route. The entries being limited to 100 however meant that I saw very few people until the final 5km.
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