Owls Count

Over the past few years urban orienteering has been going from strength to strength in the UK – whether it be navigating the complexities of a city centre or a university campus. In the past twelve months I have orienteered around Warwick, Oxford, York, and Stockport; and also Surrey, Warwick, and Sussex universities. Yesterday saw a trip into the City of London.

The day started earlier than this owl likes, but still later than intended, which meant we had to rush to catch the bus before using train and tube to get to Liverpool Street station. By luck I managed to pick the correct exit and walked straight into the Broadgate Arena, which was serving as the event HQ.

I got ready, talked to a few people, and then did a decent warm up. My parents were due to start, on their respective courses, just a couple of minutes before me, so I wandered over to the start. On arriving there there was no one in the start box on my course, so the start officials asked if I was happy to go a few minutes early and, as I was warmed up, I decided to take the offer and start.

I went off slowly – my compass did not want to settle and I was struggling to line the map up with the roads around the start area. I later realised that this was due to all the metal around the start area! The first five controls went past quickly, with a combination of strong running and navigating.

To the sixth control I struggle – losing twenty seconds getting confused by the small alleyways. For the next few controls I took it carefully, as we were in an area of more small alleyways. Going out of the tenth control I confused a friend – he had been due to start before me but with me starting early he caught me and was confused as to how I had got in front of him!

The next section was fast and good. I had settled into a decent pace and was reading the map well. Then, at control nineteen we entered the Barbican complex and the navigation got very complicated. The trick, which we only realised afterwards, was to realise that all the controls were on the same physical level.

My route to control twenty involved going down and up sets of stairs – not ideal, but I kept a fast pace and lost only a little time. Going to twenty-one was different – I lost a minute taking a too long route round and getting distracted by others. A little bit more time was lost o poor navigation through this area, but not that much time. From there it was a case of leaving the Barbican and putting on the speed into the finish.

Overall I finished 43/122 in 57:34. I am really pleased to be so high up and only 17:32 behind the winner. A quality event.

Event website – Map, and routes picked by some competitors.

I am impressed by this photo. Not only does it look like I was running quickly, but it also shows me looking at the map!