Sussex Sprint Series: Hampden Park, Eastbourne
Image of Hampden Park Finish.jpg
This was the last Saturday event until September and it was excellent. The course had 20 controls which called on all sorts of different skills and with a pleasant breeze it was not too hot. There were a couple of very physical controls which made an interesting change. Control 11 was at the bottom of a 2-metre deep ditch, requiring some climbing to access and one of the controls demanded a stream crossing on the way in and one on the way out (at least the way I approached it).
For me, it all went wrong between controls 1 and 4, which were in fairly dense woodland with lots and lots of paths, only some of which were mapped. I kept picking up the wrong paths and lost about 15 minutes in total, so that although the rest of the run was pretty clean and reasonably fast I was well down on the field.
Still. It was a quality event in interesting and sometimes tricky terrain and I had a good time.
By the way, this article and the photo were done mobile – starting at the event and finished at home.