Compass Sport at Hampton Ridge
Last weekend I travelled to the New Forest, to compete for my club in the south central and south west Compass Sport Trophy round at Hampton Ridge – the inter-club competition for small, UK orienteering clubs. (There is a Compass Sport Cup for the larger clubs.) In addition to the orienteering I wanted to extend the run to somewhere between 15 and 20 miles.
I did not make a good job of the orienteering. My Garmin track shows some of the doubling back I did, but manages to hide the couple of long routes I took – particularly the massive curve I did to the first control. The Garmin information also hides the time I was standing still, which was around four minutes. Definitely something for me to improve on!
My club had a good day and we qualified for the final. It was a close battle with the second place club – we finished 1 point ahead. It definitely helped that the area was so local for a number of our members, as we had around sixty people running.
After the orienteering I went for a run along the road to the north of the area. Six miles and then back to Sandy Balls, where I had a warm shower.
