It has been a busy long weekend for many of the WIM members who went to the 'Springtime in Shropshire' event. There were 3 days of events and our best overall results were
Sue Hands 1st
Kevin Pickering 1st
Grace French 2nd
Richard Brightman 2nd
Jo Pickering 3rd
Keith Henderson 3rd
Wendy Bullen 4th
Debs Mays 5th
Well done to all of them and to all the other WIM members who took part.
Chris Branford
Day 1 - Brampton Bryan
The splendid Finish - photo by Wendy Bullen
Day 2 - Stapeley and Rorrington
Intending to run all three days, I entered M65 Short (Course 10). A good decision as it happened, since Day 1 blisters begat Day 2 stumbles that declined to Day 3 staggers. Two pairs of socks might have saved the frustration of plodding painfully over beautifully runnable open.
Stapeley and Rorrington was my favourite venue, a physical and technical challenge which demanded the whole gamut of skills, not least making intelligent final approaches to controls rather than just aiming for them. I was very pleased to hit 1-4 accurately and curve south below the spur to sweep nicely into 5. A minor wobble on 6 (it seemed NW of its mapped position) and then it was back to compass bearings and collecting features, propelled onward by excellent brown & green mapping. Great stuff!
The only niggle was 8 to 9 which took us down a very steep descent for no obvious navigational reason, since the route to 9 was clear from some distance. A W75 from Norfolk OC fell into the deep re-entrant by 8 at the top of the slope but despite nasty cuts & bruises to her forehead she fortunately broke nothing, and ran the next day. It was an avoidable hazard for older competitors - there were better alternatives - though it seems harsh to criticise an otherwise superb test of orienteering skills.
I was 6th out of 12 in M65S and very happy with it too. I compete seriously with just one person - myself - and today was a good day. I slept well.
Mike Kite
Day 3 - Corndon Hill
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This was the day I was least looking forward to - the longest of the three days, a rather large looking hill and rocks and crags. I have always struggled on rocky terrain finding it really hard to marry up the ground to the map, and my legs were rather achy after day 2's steep climbs. Looking at the start lists I could see that the current leader of my class was starting only 4 minutes behind me; I decided that if (when !) she caught me I would try and keep up - obviously while doing my own navigating of course ! | ||
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I got to the start way too early as usual so I was cold when it was finally time to go. A quick glance at the map showed me that at least I wasn't going to have to go over the top of the hill. I took a bearing to the first control and ran (slowly) over the nice smooth grass. I arrived at the area of depressions, looked in the first one I found and there was the control - amazing ! Ok, well let's hope the rest are this easy. Straight up the hill to number 2 and again straight in. Still not going very fast (it was up hill) I ticked off the next few controls surprisingly easily. I was really concentrating on sticking to my bearings and it was working. Slightly longer leg to no. 8, but there was a path just before the control and a lone tree if I dropped too low. I lost a bit of height but still found the control without too much bother. 9 to 11 somehow worked as well, only a little bit wide on the approach to 11.
I had forgotten all about the leader catching me at this point as I was happily ticking off controls, and I had warmed up (a lot). I was aware of another lady running not far behind me, but tried to concentrate on getting in and out of the controls without giving their position away too much. No. 13 I overshot - so cross - and the lady behind came past, and also suddenly the leader I had been expecting. I dug deep to catch up, and somehow I overtook them both so was leading them through 15 to 17. For 18 I had to slow down again to concentrate on the tricky quarry section. It didn't really match up with the map but the ground was so open the controls were quite visible - you just had to be sure you were running to the correct one. We were neck and neck into 19, despite taking different routes, then it was a sprint for the last control and the finish. The leader had beaten me as expected but it had been a good race. | 
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I downloaded in 3rd place and then had to wait for everyone else to finish - and stayed in 3rd place. Brilliant.
So the run I was least looking forward to turned into my best run. A great end to a fab weekend. (Just a 3 1/2 hour journey home to look forward to.....) Wendy Bullen | ||
Photos by Charlie Leventon
Day 3 - Team WIM photos
by Andy French
Background photo by Mike Kite looking NW from the Day 2/3 assembly field