We arrived at Longmoor Army Camp around
2130, and quick set up our tents. As I was on the third leg I quickly got
my head down for a couple of hours kip. I was awake again at around
midnight I watched as 18 team runners went out on the mass start. Phil
Newall was out first with just over 8km's. The advantage of being on the
3 leg is that you can pick up good advice from the incoming runners as they
hand over. I seem to pick on the theme that runners were
telling their team mates to keep it simple, something I tend to do
well on night events. Phil came in and handed over to Graham Pring in 15th
place but with 4 other teams within 6 minutes. But Phil's efforts came at
a price he had done some damage to his knee early on but hadn't wanted to give up,
his run was looking better by the minute. Graham didn't hang around and
came in 11th. So it was around 0300 when I ran out into the dark for my
9.3km 265m 22c. On the way to #1 I tried to cut a corner through some
runnable woods, but it was a big mistake and I ended up head high bracken,
lesson learnt. I took that on board and opted for track options most of
the way with solid attack points. Slight miss at #5 couldn't locate
indistinct path but hit contour feature to the north of the path. By #10 dawn
was beginning to break, which was stunning. But still needed the light of
the headtorch in the woods. #14 didn't find small path as I cut across to
it so didn't have firm attackpoint. Second fastest split to #17!! I
handed over to Steve Eastley in 14th place. Steve had a solid run and
brought us back in 16th place. Then Club Captain Gavin Henderson had a
stunner and back up to 14th. At 0730 Andrew Campbell-Howes (his first
event for Kerno) and Scott Collier went out in the mini mass start, and even
though it was only 0730 the day was really hotting up. Scott had the
longest leg of the event 13.5km and got around in an amazing 121mins (Don't
mention Anne's time!) Andrew did well to get around, having only just returned
to orienteering and apart from 1 disastrous 49 min split had had a good
run. We eventually finished 17th/18, but in good spirits determined to
return. Congratulations to BAOC for putting on an amazing event.
Harvester Relays 2013, a set on Flickr.
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