SOG Local Event: Blacklands Farm, near East Grinstead
There was frost on the car windscreen and shadowed grass this morning – the first this autumn – so it was a cold start for my first orienteering event in ages.
Blacklands Farm is a camp and adventure activity site for the Girl Guides, so has large, fairly well mown grass fields, but also lots of woodland, which has lots of tracks and various interesting (and confusing) equipment dotted around inside. The woodland is on the slopes of a stream valley.
I am not very fit right now, and felt it, but managed to run a little faster than I feared and was not expecting to be competitive, so I just relaxed and went as fast as I could. I really enjoyed myself. Once I was warmed up, the day was calm and dry. It was lovely to be running in woodland and across fields. I had forgotten how good it feels to navigate cleanly and “nail” controls and navigation felt straightforward, perhaps because I was not trying to go “hell for leather”.
I was delighted to find I had come 11th (out of 30 or so), my best result for a very long time.