DFOK District Event – Shorne Woods Country Park
As I am on my own this weekend I decided to travel round the M25 to Gravesend in Kent to have a go at the Green course at this district event.
Things did not look very good at first. When I followed orienteering signs from the car park I ended up heading towards the start and had to ask someone where registration was. Once registered, I was able to start quickly but heading into what was marked as “white” (open) forest towards control 1, I was confused by an abundance of rhododendron bushes which made running almost impossible. I was relieved to find the control without becoming completely lost and with confidence restored I set off on the 750m path run to control 2. I had travelled about 100m when I turned my left ankle right over – very painful but it took my weight and after a few steps was easing off. I was soon running again, only to do the same thing – this time at least twice as painful but remarkably quickly easing so I was running again. The path was very uneven – with lumps of concrete and brick poking out at odd angles. I have to admit that this experience made me a little cautious, but I managed to get round without doing myself more injury.
I had a reasonable, but not great, run. There were some nice controls, requiring careful navigation using contours to read the ground and we were encouraged off the paths. I made two significant mistakes – missing the key path from 6 to 7 and running round a long way and then opting to follow a gully to control 12 instead of the obvious path. The gully was much smaller than it was marked on the map and I crossed it heading into a featureless area before heading back, then seeing from the control that it would have been obvious from the path. Oh well.
I finished in 69 minutes for 4.5km and was 20th out of 28 – beating one or two who are usually better than me and not too far behind the pack.
I was impressed with the “eco-friendly” visitors’ centre at the park, but not with the incredibly slow service from the cafe it contained. I must say the bacon baguette was very tasty when it finally arrived.
Writing now, the ankle feels a little bruised and tender, but is working fine and moving well, without the twinges or pain that would say I have injured anything. I think I may have got away with it.