After yesterday’s event in misty woodland, today found us sitting in Kendal Town Hall waiting for our start time. This was Street Orienteering; like normal orienteering, but you play it in the street. I’m not sure what I think about Urban Orienteering; it’s fast and furious and allows you to run like a lunatic around the streets of Kendal.
We had a bit of time to spare, having parked in the local multi-storey, (maximum height 1.8m) and I had time to reconsider my footwear. For this orienteering weekend I’d packed my Walshes and Sportivas. Both good choices for the fell and trail. Not so brilliant for a street warrior. But hang on, this was Kendal, wasn’t this Pete Bland HQ? I jogged down the road from our rather posh registration in the town hall, into the shop, and said, “I need to walk out the door in road shoes, size 8.5, and my Start Time is in 20 minutes”. With that all sorted, we had plenty time still in hand to wander to the Start and feel twitchy. There’s something about a big event that gives an extra tingle of excitement to procedings; the 4-minute call-up, the briefing, and the 4-beep (beep, beep, beep, BEEEEP!) countdown (that always gives me bizarre flashbacks to riding the Kilo on the velodrome).
Yep, so urban orienteering. I’m not a fan. It’s fun to do once in a while, but you have to think so much, and so quickly. I was seeking a bit of redemption for yesterday’s poor performance so I did hammer it, but I have a tendency to stop and try to explain to small children in the street who ask me what I’m doing, and I suspect neither they or I get much out of the interchange.
Three days of orienteering; different locations, different competitions, moods, results and emotions, and a fair bit of unfinished business.
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