Previous events have been through easy to navigate park lands with my son. This was my fourth event and I truly do enjoy them. I should let you know that not all orienteering events are like this, just as not every running event is like The Barkley Marathon. There was no medal, instead we were given instructions of ‘the car park is up that steep hill. A rather slow jog was taken to the finish line where I collected my sense of achievement. After finding the final check point, I threw my arms in the air and let out a rather big sigh. The final eight checkpoints were very close together yet hidden down various valleys and steep ascents. With all of that in mind, the zero human interaction, being completely out of my depth, legs cut up to pieces and simply exhausted, I did enjoy myself. However the lovely chap who took my details did check that I had indeed meant to write 8km.
Without much thought I paid my £16 fee and put my name down for the 8km. There was eight routes to choose from, starting at 1.4km through to 8km. Everyone was rather serious, so clearly I was the token idiot who was trying to have a laugh. I arrived at the Wendover Woods for an orienteering event, only to realise that this actually was the Regional Event that people had travelled all over the country for. With this in mind, I thought my blog title was rather fitting. Each lap is supposedly 20 miles, complete five laps within 60 hours and you will be classed as a finisher. And no, you are not allowed a fancy GPS watch or support while on the course (only at base camp). There is no set route, instead markers and you make your own way around to all of them. For those who haven’t, it can only be described as a trail event that is designed to destroy those who dare enter it. I’d like to think that we all have watched The Barkley Marathon documentary.
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