Today was a lesson in many things, not least of which is probably 'check details of events that aren't entirely clear to you before turning up'. Well, I say that, but actually, the unexpected can be quite enjoyable and the events of today were no exception! I'd seen a leaflet for a series of races titled 'Twin Peak' taking place in Manchester this weekend, and while I could not attend the 'two-part sprint' on Saturday as I was working, I decided the 'City of Manchester Race' on Sunday, described as "A full length Urban event in central Manchester" sounded quite interesting. As the Women's open course was advertised as only 7.5km, I thought given that Sunday is my 'long run' day, I'd be then carrying on, perhaps down to Salford Quays, to turn it in to an acceptable length. However, I realised all was not as I had imagined fairly quickly when I turned up to register. The races I have participated in before have all had one, specific and clearly marked route that everyone follows. I had gathered that there were multiple courses, and hazarded a guess that there would be some map reading involved but I was quite surprised to discover that this 'Urban Orienteering' race was actually more what I would describe as a treasure hunt... a virtual one at least as there was of course no treasure!
All Set with Map and Dibber! One of the organisers, a kind lady who I was sorry not to have had the chance to catch up with at the end, insisted in a very friendly way that I should sign up for the shortest course first as I had no experience of orienteering. As this course was only 2km, I felt a little reluctant, however she promised that if I got on well with it, I could come back and do the full 7.5km course for free. That seemed pretty fair to me, so I was equipped with a 'dibber', a small plastic tag, strapped to your finger and used to register your arrival at a series of markers, each identified with an orange 'kite' and a little digital box that flashes and bleeps as it 'checks' your dibber. You are also given a list of the order of the check points as appropriate to your course and a map. The map is only supplied to you after you have started the race and contains an ordnance survey style graphic, indicating the start and finish and the order (not geographically sequential!) in which you should visit each point. There are no road names or building numbers, indeed any other written information and so I was extremely glad indeed that I was relatively familiar with the area! In all honesty I felt very out of my depth, but always up for a challenge, off I went. I got the hang of the idea pretty quickly and once I'd set aside the expectation of what my 'long run' would involve, I started to quite enjoy the challenge of working out where the next point was. Unfortunately, disaster almost struck at only the third check point when I managed to slip on some strange algae type growth on the canal-side paving stones and landed heavily on my side, cracking my head with a quite sickening whack directly on the concrete! I must really be a runner though, I was far more concerned to carry out a damage report on my legs than on my head. Not too scraped but pretty bruised. Once I'd established that I was not apparently concussed, I carried on quite well but the constant stopping and starting to read the map and check in at the points meant I couldn't get into a steady rhythm of running at all and my bruised thigh and hip reminded me that it wasn't happy every time I set off again. Not deterred and feeling like the 2km was a little less than challenging, despite my minor injury, I returned to 'base' to claim my promised 'free' run on the full length course. It's worth noting at this point that the distance refers to a straight line between the points and not only is it impossible to follow this route, you are entirely at liberty to follow any route you like, the only restriction being to visit the points in the order as specified on your map. As there are multiple courses, some of the check points are shared, so working out if you are at the right one or not is really quite important.
My 'Drunk Spider' Course 7 Route! The second run was going well up until check point (you guessed it!) number thirteen, which I just could not find. After running round in circles (literally) for at least half an hour, I finally decided, though this would mean I hadn't officially finished, that I was going to have to move on or risk never finishing, even unofficially! There was a check point where I felt I should find it but it was labelled '158' instead of the '153' I was looking for. Eventually hoping I was misreading the 3 for an 8 or vice versa, I dibbed it anyway and ran on to find my fourteenth point. Despite this frustration, I managed to get round all the others, darting about left, right and city centre, realising just how biased my perception of the place I live in is towards my personal routine routes. It was fascinating to get home and upload the route as tracked by the Garmin (See above). The poor thing must've wondered what on earth I was doing and I'm surprised the auto pause didn't give up on me completely!
| These are the list of check points I had to find and the print out of my results that you get when you download the data from your dibber at the end. Sure enough, as I expected, I failed to check number 13! the rest didn't go too badly though and from conversations I enjoyed with various, far more experienced orienteers at the end, I gather I did pretty well for someone who is not only a total beginner but didn't even know what an orienteering race was when she registered at 10 am! On reflection, despite having come close to thinking 'sod this for a game of coconuts!' at more than one point in the day, I think it's a great idea, and right up my street (no pun intended) in terms of city exploration and interactions with urban spaces (See my arts site for more on all that stuff), however, I don't really feel like I got a 'proper' run in. Whilst I was certainly running when I could, there was no chance to get up a regular pace at all and though I ended up clocking in over 8 miles, it took me far longer than I would consider acceptable to be classed as a normal run! |
I have to admit though, it was genuinely physically challenging in different ways and I was way too knackered to try and run again in the afternoon (as well as deciding to try and rest my poor bruised leggie), so the event turned into my 'long' run after all.
Still, finishing week two, and the mid point of Juneathon on a totally new experience of what a run could be can't be a bad thing! I just hope I can walk tomorrow; I'm anticipating an excitingly purple glute in the morning!
Still, finishing week two, and the mid point of Juneathon on a totally new experience of what a run could be can't be a bad thing! I just hope I can walk tomorrow; I'm anticipating an excitingly purple glute in the morning!
Juneathon week 2 - Loadsa Runnin'!
