The Twin Peaks Weekend

Two areas either side of the Goyt Valley near Buxton.

Day 1 was a mixture of pine and birch forest with some extremely un-run-able open moor. I really enjoyed the technical legs in the green. Recent trips to Scotland have definitely helped my technique and I’m starting to feel quite at home blindly bashing through green on a bearing to pickup a vegetation change or clearing. One technique that I found particularly useful on some of the more ‘hit and miss’ controls was to get as close to the control as possible on some kind of line feature such as a ride or fence, even if it means running off line, before heading into the green This minimises the distance you have to run on a bearing alone, and reduces the margin of error in your bearing once you reach the vicinity of the control.

I finished 4th in M45L which was a bit frustrating because I seemed to be competing well on the technical legs but lost time on the pure running sections where I normally do well. Unlike the previous weekend I didn’t feel that I was running strongly. So much for keeping off the beer!

Day 2 was on the opposite side of the valley being typical open Pennine moor contrasting to the forest of Saturday’s race. I lost some time by not taking a direct line between 1 and 2, also missed 3 slightly otherwise no problems apart from not feeling particularly sprightly again. I finished 3rd behind Kevin Harding and Tim Tett but felt that I might have won if I hadn’t made those small errors – I guess that’s part of game.

Pat did really well in one of her first W50L’s to finish 3rd overall. Pretty impressive for someone who has been orienteering for less than a year.

Overall Results