Long O 2008
A variety of viewpoints
Long course
I chose to start late owing to having a few too many glasses of wine at a wedding the night before...
The long course was excellent, made all the more challenging by the low visibility. I chose to start late owing to having a few too many glasses of wine at a wedding the night before. Completely went wrong on the first control trying to shortcut through the woods and getting stuck in the tough gorse and bracken. At least my thrashing around was rewarded by seeing an adder but I had to completely retreat and start again.
Out in the open the going was much easier as I was able to use the path network extensively until at the far west end of the course beyond Alderman's Barrow where the tussock grass reduced me to a walk. Shortly after a quick chat with a rather lonely looking Roger Craddock at the manned control on a misty hill top it was back to running on paths almost all the way home. It was nice to take in Dunkery Beacon on the way back. At the very end I got lost again in the same wood near the start/finish but it seems so did everyone else.
On returning to the hall I was briefly cruelly misinformed that I had won, before being told I had been beaten into second place. But I had a great day out and hope we can do more events on the moor in the future.
Richard Sansbury
Medium course
Having planned and organized this event for the previous five years, I was looking forward to actually competing for a change. The low cloud and steady drizzle throughout the day would require some accurate navigation to point controls if massive time losses were to be avoided. In fact although in more or less constant rain, there was no wind at all and the temperature was very mild, permitting running in minimum attire.
Martin made excellent use of Bill’s purpose produced map, planning a course with a good mix of technical point controls, long and short legs and stunning views(?) I feel navigation would have been much simpler in good visibility, although a quick scan at the results splits shows that many people struggled in the thick mist on the Dunkery slopes, searching for the final controls in the open ground. For me personally, contouring in the right direction over rough ground, on one of the myriad of unmarked animal tracks and relying on good compass work proved successful rather than lengthy detours to the major tracks between controls.
A marked lack of fern growth aided the runnability of the area. An added bonus for all was the noticable reduction of climb than in recent years on some of our other venues. I was finally grateful to be beaten into second place at the last moment by a later finisher having been the first to arrive back at the hall during the day following a lucky error free run. If this had not been the case, it could well have been difficult asserting that fact given my partner was the controller!
Andy Rimes
Short course
On the way to Wootten Courtenay we did spot a small patch of blue sky somewhere over Exmoor and wondered if we might be lucky...
Coupled with the Devon Long O this event was the second day of the Two Moors Challenge. Challenge it was with horrendous conditions at Okehampton on the Saturday and forecasts for similar on the Sunday.
On the way to Wootten Courtenay we did spot a small patch of blue sky somewhere over Exmoor and wondered if we might be lucky, however this was not to be. It didn’t rain all the time, but when it did, that coupled with thick mist above the tree line made conditions pretty miserable. Martin Longhurst and Rosie Wych had set some very challenging courses which in good weather might have been too easy but with the mist, two controls on cairns were possibly a bit of a lottery. Gorse bushes took on the same shape as cairns in the mist and could, and did, cause distractions.
The map produced specially for the event was, by necessity, lacking the detail that is found in normal cross country orienteering events but was adequate for the purpose. Waterproof paper for the map and control descriptions is really a godsend in those conditions. Mine was showing slight signs of wear at the end and might have benefited from the added protection of a poly bag. The short course was a 8.9 Km with a very imaginative 290 metres of climb. I counted 38 contours at 10 metres, this, coupled with knee high heather on the lower slopes, made the off path running, perhaps walking, very tough. Bill’s non competitive time of 2 hrs and 11mins was particularly good.
Mike Crockett
Controller's / Organiser's comments
I hope that you will agree that the Martin Longhurst Years got off to a good start! The event I think will be memorable for the singularly damp weather which probably made the excellent refreshments and comfortable hall even more welcome than usual. Well done especially to those who had completed the Devon event, it was understandable that that they suffered by comparison to those with fresh legs.
The small team of helpers really do put a huge amount of time and effort into making the whole thing work. Martin and Bill over the months before and Sue, Lennox, Judy; and Roger especially on the day for his lengthy manning of the checkpoint in thick mist.
For future reference some fine tuning of the planning is needed to help us know more accurately where runners are along the way and it would be appreciated if the stated closing time of the courses could be kept to by all competitors.
Thank you to all the car drivers who reacted so very agreeably to being directed to park in various parts of the village as the parking field was so wet. Martin was worried that it was going to be too easy, the weather worked in his favour here and some controls that would have been very easy proved nightmarishly difficult for some unfortunate souls.
It was a shame that some of the glorious views we had both in the summer heat and stormy previous day putting out controls could not be seen. You also missed much of the gorse and bracken that made summer exploration painful and tiring. It is always satisfying to have positive comments.
Rosie Wych
- Taken from QuOnicle 134, November 2008