Tamar Triple 2016

Chris Branford writes: We have just had a busy weekend in Devon and Cornwall.  A beautiful sunny weekend.

Saturday was the Plymouth City Race using The Hoe, Barbican and the Citadel.  Exciting racing which certainly got the brains working. Top 3 results for WIM were
Junior Women 1st Charlotte Oakes
Young Junior Men 2nd Harry Bratcher-Howard
Vet Men 2nd John Oakes
Vet Women 3rd Wendy Bullen

Sunday was a long race across an old airfield on part of Bodmin Moor.

Monday was the South West Middle Championships at Mount Edgecumbe - Plymouth
Again top 3 results for WIM in the South West Championships were
M10 1st Harry Bratcher-Howard
W65 1st Sue Hands
W65 2nd Lynn Branford
M70 2nd Martin Cross
W45 2nd Wendy Bullen
W21 3rd Becca Ellis
M75 3rd Richard Brightman
Well done everyone
After that we came home!

Saturday 28 May - Plymouth

A beautiful evening in Plymouth marked the start of the 3 day Tamar Triple. The start was up on the Hoe watched by plenty of curious locals. My course quickly threw us into the tight complex Barbican area with cobbled streets and plenty of climb. Then it was into the Citadel (smile for the machine-gun toting soldier on the gate) for a really fun star-shaped section of the course, mirroring the ancient walls. I loved this section with the quick decisions and many armoured personnel carriers to run around. I did have a word with the chap who had parked his enormous truck right in front of the passageway through the building ! We were then kicked out and on to the foreshore, which for me was less fun. I really struggled to read the map here so stuck closely to a fellow runner, who also helped me feel a bit safer running past all the "jolly" young locals who were enjoying the evening. Overall though a good run and I was pleased with my 3rd place.

Wendy Bullen

Part of Course 3 (VW) - click & scroll to zoom

        

        

Photos above by Roger Hargreaves

Sunday 29 May - Davidstow Moor

A total contrast to the tight and twisty streets of Plymouth, day 2 was on Davidstow Moor. Extremely open fast running, over largely featureless terrain. Luckily it was another beautiful day as my course (Blue) was rather unimaginative and was a bit of a slog. The last 4 controls were visible from quite a distance, together with the finish flag. Not the best course I have run on !

Wendy Bullen

Davidstow is mostly open moorland, flattish and firm underfoot with scattered marshy areas, earthbanks and gullies. It was sure to be a runners' course and at 68 years & 97kg I half expected younger, fitter folk to go steaming past. They did! The first 5 controls resembled a procession of hares passing a plucky but deluded tortoise.

The woodland from 5 to 9 seemed more promising. I happily jogged past a few uncertain navigators and emerged into the light with new optimism. Now if I could just complete an error-free run... 9 to 10 was dead easy so I could relax concentration, though I took the precaution of rechecking my compass bearing half way. No idea what I did but that's when I did it.

A collecting feature is one you check off en route which confirms you're heading in the right direction. The predicted gully below the slope before 10 was thus reassuring. It would have been nicer had it been the right gully below the right bit of slope. Cresting the rise, no control appeared. Incomprehensible! I immediately went into headless chicken mode and ran off.

Minutes later it dawned that if I'd looked left at that point, I should have seen the control features. On the way back to punch 10, I passed several Green runners coming the other way who I'd earlier held off or overtaken in the wood. Gosh, I thought, what a nuisance.

The rest of the course was fine. I like east Cornwall because areas like Davidstow, Hardhead Downs or Cardinham Moor demand sharp focus on reading brown features and accurate compass bearings. Not so good though if you let easy legs in open terrain lull you into idle daydreams!

Thank you, Kerno, for a testing event.

Mike Kite

Mapping data licenced from the Ordnance Survey with the permission of the Controller of HMSO. Crown Copyright 2009.
All rights reserved. Licence Number 100015287.

Club meal thoughtfully organised by John Warren - great food and company

Monday 30 May - Mount Edgcumbe

The sun was shining again for a very pretty drive out to Mt Edgcumbe Country Park. I arrived very early so watched a bit of sheep shearing then walked down to the cafe for a coffee. The walk back hinted of climbs to come. Eventually my start time arrived and I dragged my tired legs off down the hill. This was to be a very different area again from the previous 2 days with lots of undergrowth and climb. All was going well until control 7 when I couldn't find it ! Eventually it appeared just as I was entertaining ideas of giving up. I had to push hard after this disaster and kept the rest of my run clean, but boy was I tired ! Somehow I held 2nd place in my age category, only 9 minutes behind the winner. I was happy with this until I saw the split times and realised how many fastest splits I had. If only I hadn't messed up that one control I could have won......if only....... 😜

Still, it was a great weekend, helped by the fantastic weather and great company of fellow WIMS.

Wendy Bullen

     
Two photos above by Mark Lockett

 

 

Background photograph of the Tamar estuary taken from Simon Branford's Flickr collection - thank you Simon and Chris.