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| James Hargreaves on the run in. |
The
10th September saw the fourth edition of the London City Orienteering Race
organised by SLOW, 1109 competitors made the start line from over 28
countries. It was a race that I heard a
lot about and was determined to have a go.
Preparation didnt go well and I when I turned up I hadn't really run for
a month and half due a double calf injury.
I thought about walking around but as I got closer to the off I decided
to give it a go and see how my recovery was going. The pre race instructions had a lot about the
mapping around the barbican estate which had multiple levels, this just
confused me so I didn't dwell on it to much.
So after chatting to the Hargreaves brothers I headed to the start. Off I went to the first control which was on
some steps. I soon reached the top of
steps, as we had obviously started on the upper level no control, checked the
control description, foot of, so down I went.
Now off into the city, quick route choices and clean execution the order
of the day. Into a small park and then
back onto the street. Now this wasn't a
sprint event so, it was important to control the speed as the men's short was
6.1km straight line, so nearer to 10km probably. Obvious control sites early on so I
concentrated on flow through the controls which felt good, even if my basic
speed was not. The first city landmark
came on the way to 4 when I ran around the famous gherkin, then Lloyds of
London. Control 10 was the first
mistake. I ran down the road looking for the control in the park, to find an
uncrossable wall, had to double back and around to the park entrance to
eventually find the control only 1m from where I had been standing!!!! Out of the park and due south to St Paul's,
around the front and through a massive crowd waiting for the cathedral to open,
which had a wedding take place. Easy
route to 12 but no sign of the control just about to check the map then there
it was 10 metres away but down a level, after 50m detour I was at the
control. Clean to 15, before the tricky
leg to 16, keeping it simple I ran up the main road to steps on the east side
knowing I needed to go up a level, no steps! So back across the road to
underground entrance up the steps and over the bridge. The steps I was originally looking for turned
out to be steps off the bridge easily confused!! Clean in to 17, steps on way out took me to
subterranean playground with no way out, two runners had follow so felt OK
about this small mistake, decided to retrace steps to road to make things
easy. 18, 19 clean but slowing now as
legs getting painful. Ended up in dead
end in middle of leg, then wrong level so not a great leg to 20, went in early
to 21 so lost small amount of time. All
in all I was really pleased with my run 71:51 for 6.1km and 22 controls. Really
great event, which keeps you focused at all times, map contact key as it can be
difficult to relocate. The different
levels of the Barbican proved a challenge but are well mapped, and make for
interesting orienteering. On the whole
an amazing event and well worth the trip to London, next it will be city race
on the Saturday and the southern champs on Sunday so well worth the journey.
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