Southampton Orienteering Club

This is my entry for the Big Pit trophy.

There is something about the British that we revel in our disasters rather than our triumphs.

My disaster came at the BOC relays last March at Beaulieu. I was in the Jolly SoCs relay team with Jack Hutchison and Kevin Bracher.  Jack ran first, and put in a fantastic performance, finishing in ninth position.  However much I train I never seem even to approach his level of fitness.  Kevin ran next, and maintained a good position, finishing eighth.  I felt that the honour of SOC rested on my unworthy shoulders, and that at least I  should maintain our position.

I therefore tried to stay focussed on what I should do when Kevin arrived: take it easyand carefully until the first control, until I was familiar with the map and forest.  Instead all I thought about was the horrendous finish I had to look forward to, where I would have to run uphill in full view of everybody, who would no doubt be yelling at me to keep running.

Kevin arrived and I started running.  Of course I ignored all my mental preparation.  There seemed to be lots of other runners on the same course and so I ran behind them hoping they would do the map reading for me.  And then, as often happens, I was suddenly on my own.  I guess all the people who seemed to know where they were going were bluffing as much as I had been, and had careered off onto other routes.

But I did have a pretty good idea where I was, and the first control was only a few hundred yards away.  Down into a shallow valley, cross the stram at the bottom, then up the short hill, and the control should be hiding behind a small isolated thicket.  Easy!  I had read the note in the pre-event blurb about avoiding uncrossable marsh, but the only marsh in the area was a good 100 yards to the right of my planned course: or so I thought.

I got down to the stream.  Before the stream was what looked like a small rabbit path at right angles to the water, with some water lying on top.  A few logs which I could have stepped on if I wanted to keep my feet dry.  But I really enjoy leaping into a stream or some mud.  When I come home from an event covered in mud that is a sign that I have had  a really tough run battling against nature! 

And so I ran forward into the mud.  And found that I was, literally, out of my depth.  I must have fallen though a very thin mat of vegetation into clear deep water.  My arms came up, with compass in left hand and map (already soaked) in my right hand.  My feet groped for the bottom, but found only squidgey mud.  My momentum carried me forward so that I could reach some tree roots, and I used them to pull myself along for a few yeards until I was able to haul myself up onto the bank of the stream.  A short leap across the stream, and then I was running again in clear beech forest up to the first control.  It was all over so quickly that I had not had time to feel how cold it was, and I had barely broken my stride so that it seemed like a perfectly normal way of crossing an obstacle.

For the rest of the evnt I had to keep scraping mud off my map, I had smears on my spectacles, and I found that my feet, weighed down by sodden socks and with water sloshing around inside my O shoes, were as heavy as lead.  My Ron Hills, thankfully, were not impossibly heavy, and they had half dried out by the time I reached the finish.

I did not manage to keep our team in its position, and we slipped to 17th place (although still out of 42 competitors)   But at least I had a good excuse for a poor performance.

Neil - I also recall Heidi telling me how you managed earlier this year to enter a NOC event in Sherwood Forest online instead of the next one on the Fabian4 list in the Forest of Dean!

I could probably be the life time owner of the Pits and depression trophies, due to the senseless errors I make on a regular basis.By the way I've already been the proud recipient of each trophy.

Jack Hutchinson thought I was totally mad on Sunday when I told him of my latest escapade at the Bracknell colour coded event on the blue course which did have an unusually larger number of control 23 I think, I managed to miss out a whole loop without realising until I went to download to discover I'd been disqualified. Apparently I went from control 13 to 18. Could we have a dementure trophy as well??

Neil the Nutter