Sussex Sprint Champs: Hove Park and Blatchingdon Mill School
Two courses for the price of one today (excellent value!)
This was about the fourth time I have run in Hove Park. According to winsplits I had a consistent but slow run. I felt reasonably good and navigation was easy (apart from control two which saw two of us running round a little building before diving into the bushes to find the control). I am very unfit at the moment – lack of time for training and lack of orienteering generally – so thought 24 minutes for 3.2km was not too bad, especially as it was becoming seriously hot in the sunshine towards the end.
The second course was a genuine sprint around two adjoining school campuses. I did enjoy this very much as the navigation was intricate and demanded total concentration, but with 26 controls I wished I was fresher. There were fewer long runs and more darting around buildings, up stairs and so on which suited me. I was not as slow as I feared but yet again lost concentration and missed a control, so was disqualified. I have a very bad habit of doing this at the moment.
The list of really good orienteers who were disqualified for the same reason (though at different controls) made me feel a little better!
There were some nice views of the sea and the breeze across the school field was very welcome.