Cottam!

Wednesday night saw the 4th Night Street league in Cottam. Driving past the start doesn’t bode well for taking part in an orienteering event.

Emma managed to make this event and she was hoping to get some map reading practice. Emma and I had planned to run together at the first event but unfortunately Emma didn’t manage to make the event do to…..communication problems! Albert and Neil had already registered and were just readying to set off as Emma and I came out of the pub. I think Albert didn’t want me following him.

Emma decided that as per the plan on the 1st event, we would run together tonight. Emma got her map 1 minute before me and had 1 minute to plan a route before I got mine. Don’t think it made much difference though as Emma seemed to look at the map blankly to start with. However when I started I did forget one key thing and that was to start my stopwatch. I did ask one of the other runners though en-route and we managed to work out what time we needed to be back for.

I tried to let Emma do some map reading but I think the competitive side of me kept taking over and whilst Emma was still looking at the map, sometimes I was already heading off in the direction of the next point. 1/2 way round we saw Albert who yet again suggested he wasn’t doing too well. Shortly after finding two pig shaped statues we headed for the only 1 of 5  60 point points. The 2nd 1/2 of our route though was definitely the muddiest, including a leap over a small stream and a dash to the finish within the allotted time.

I never managed to catch Albert and Neil at the finish as they headed straight off so Emma and I stayed for food and a drink. Chatting to one of the other runners, tonight's map was a higher scoring map which explains my 870 point score (my average is about 700 points).

One more event before Xmas and 5 more after Xmas. It’s a great alternative to normal running and if you fancy something different then you should give it a try. There is a Night event a week saturday in the woods near Kendal which I might have a go at to add a different flavour to the orienteering scene for me.

For more information visit www.sroc.org.
Results at http://www.sroc.org/menu7/menu7_1/2009/SROCnsl.htm