UKC

I know there are a few orienteers on here - so good luck to anyone running the JK this coming weekend!

I'm slightly trepidatious - Lakes terrain offers so much great orienteering, yet I consistently deliver so little by way of performance...

https://www.thejk.org.uk/

I'll be there! Also a bit nervous about it, I've run very little this year and am both rusty and unfit! Slightly regretting not signing up for W40 short instead of long now...

Good luck!

Good luck to you both👍

If you're feeling a bit rusty then perhaps you should have signed up for WD40 instead... (sorry!)

I'm going to be a bag of nerves standing in the start box on Friday - it's going to be fast and frantic!  I find sprints pretty stressful.  Looking forward to the following days though!

W40L here. Been racing ok this year, but I have had a few days of "end of term" excess for who knows how I'll run! Lakes is not my strongpoint, hopefully good training for the 6 Days in the summer though. 

W40L...? Are you sure?  Might be worth checking before you pick up the map...

M55L for me.  Still a depressingly competitive and competent bunch (well, not me obviously!) so I'm not expecting big things.

Really looking forward to Scottish 6 as well - also running the Chris Smithard / Coasts and Islands week (on Harris!) as a precursor.  Super-psyched!

M35 and M40 less so, many parenting and happy to just get a run out juggling between early, late or open starts. M45 and up pushing it again, checking everyone elses route choices, split timings, playing it cool chatting before the boxes, then T minus 3mins it's poker face on.... (Not me of course).

"It's my right as a man!"  **

But yes, M40L  

** Seriously hope no one misses the concept that this is a quote from a quite famous film....

We've a about to be 6 year old to herd as well while we both race. So if you're looking for some combined parenting helpfulness, come find us over whereever the PFO lot are lurking. 

I'll be there (though not the sprint - trying to get off J36 on Good Friday gave me the willies!) 

M35L (baby of the class). I had intended to keep running 21E for as long as possible, but 8 months off running for medical reasons, and very little orienteering in 5 years - I think I'd still be on Bigland when the Scottish started! TBH I'm only doing the JK as it's local, I'm no longer up for schlepping across the country for O when I have the Lakes and Dales on my doorstep. Looking forward to catching up with lots of people though.

And on Friday I might take the bike over the bridge near J36 to see if I made the correct decision re. the sprint

Sadly not there, but I feel your pain, especially at events where the finish is a distance from the arena area, it just adds to the dashing around. 

I've had an unintentional weight loss plan induced on me - 12 hrs of toilet time after a dinner with work folks, through which I purposefully avoided alcohol! 

Feeling tired but ok, looking forward to eating something today :/ 

Go light, go fast...!

Hope everyone had a good sprint today!  I had a 4-hour drive from Sheffield (98 miles) so arrived late for my start.  Thought it was a timed start so had mentally given up the hope of a run.  Then found out it was OK to start late (punching) - but there were no loose control descriptions left (which added a couple of seconds to each leg).  Course seemed OK, no major errors.  Just happy to have got a run in the end.

I enjoyed the sprint, love the fast and furious campus races. Didn't run that well but I'm blaming that on the mad dash from London to Bingley on Fri morning (watching the women's finalissima at Wembley on Thurs night) then driving over in full on sunny BH weekend traffic before the race.

Today went much better, though the walk to the start was a bit longer than I expected and I got there with only 2 mins to spare before call up. Managed to make my way round with no major mistakes, albeit a fair few minor ones. But I wasn't last, which is the important thing!

God knows what Bigland will be like tomorrow. I ran my first ever blue course there at the Northern Champs a few years back and was out for 3+ hours, only just making it back before they closed the courses. Hoping my nav has improved at least a little since then!

Unlike my run... normal service resumed.  Never really got to grips with the map, frequently lost (sometimes very lost).  Lovely day though!  Fab area, but about as technically hard as I can manage.

How did you get on today? I found it really tough - technically difficult as well as very physically demanding! I managed to not be last and to get round a bit faster than last time I was at Bigland but it wasn't a result for the ages. Really glad not to be running the relays tomorrow, my poor feet and legs are in bits! Definitely need to get a bit fitter before the Scottish 6 Days.

I decided to run more slowly that yesterday's 'headless chicken' and try to keep the errors small.  Worked fine for all bar 2 controls, but I came unstuck big-style on #19 (in the tricky wooded slope as we approached the finish).  lost about 9 mins as I struggled to relocate.  Oh well, overall happier with the run (vs. yesterday) but further down the field.  Great event though!  Really lucky with the weather.  Like you I'm also glad not to be running the relays!

Four beers in so please ignore my ramblings…

Sprints - irritating that I’m better at these than forest but so be it. Some stupid errors that had me miss read a control or two, but happy with 11th.

Med - tough area underfoot and I never really got to grips with the map. Never felt in control. But happy with placing 15th I think? 

Long - f’me. M40L was brutal. First 16 controls were great fun, then we dropped into the SW part and it all went to s**t. Lost focus. Nearly bailed. Stunned to come in 16th.

Relays - usual faffing and hangover run from me and another, wife tutting at us. But as a team we ran well, 15th from 50 and happy.

String and White - best part of the weekend. 5 year old refusing all help in courses and getting round strings on own, white shadowed. Only asked for help once on Big Land White (missed start by 27 mins as wife and handover didn’t happen). Chuffed parents.

Good effort Greg - I've been watching your results, looks like you've had a great few days of racing.  Agree, second half of Bigland was pretty tough.  Lots of similar features made relocating tricky.  Luckily most people seem to have had at least one big error in that area!

Great news about your 5 year old!  It's such a great sport to challenge everyone in the family at their own level.  Any sport that you can compete at from 5 to 85 gets my vote!  It was my daughter who started our family orienteering a few years ago - we're just following in her wake!

Just checked - there were 3 people out on M90 and 1 on W90 on Bigland!  Unbelievable!

One of the great things about the sport - unfortunately I got bundled out at M50.  Starts early at the other end of the age spectrum too.

It's also one of the few sports where a novice being shadowed could have one of best in the world starting their 21E course next to them at the same time.

If you're a reasonable orienteer, then if you get in a mess on a difficult course, chances are most others will have got in a mess too. Never bail unless it's a health/safety issue - keep plugging away until you find the bu**er 😁

I was unable to go to any of the JK (away), quite wanted to do the Bigland day because fine contour navigation is one of my areas of weakness - not enough experience of that type of terrain.

Maybe it was returners luck, maybe it was because I was moving slower and not really racing, but I spent quite a bit of time over the weekend falling into my controls and nailing them.

Not all - still a few mistakes, but I had a lot less red on my winsplits than others, and no massive head-scratcher moments!

Managed to miss the M35L podium by 16 seconds - couldn't have made it anyway as I was out collecting 18 controls on the top of Bigland.

When I've been less fit (i.e. slower), I've tended to make less navigational mistakes and when I did, I hadn't "run" so far past.

I think top orienteers go hell for leather on any competitive run, knowing that they'll mess up sometimes (maybe more than 50%) but that they'll get a great result on days when it all works.

Sadly for us mortals many at the top of their game can float over the worst running terrain imaginable and hit the circle 19/20 controls. Some of the big international events where they have gps trackers are amazing, small mistakes do occur, but their speed of re-evaluation means time loss is small and errors aren't compounded. 

I agree that their abilities are rather good in all the necessary areas but I think it's more an attitude thing, having the confidence in their abilities to not worry about their fastest speed increasing the possibility of making mistakes because they know that over many runs they'll get enough good ones.

It's interesting - I wouldn't  say I was trying any less at the weekend (Hr attests to that), maybe I just put less pressure on myself and enjoyed the flag finding a bit more than I did a few years ago.

Speaking to others who have had a leap in running fitness (albeit already very good orienteers), they find a big uptick in results when they return to orienteering as they have that much extra capacity and can focus so much more on the navigation and hardly think about the running. And also because they probably care a bit less as well!