Setting Up the Start

We were entered for our Club's Flasby Fell event this morning but they were short of volunteers so we helped to set up the start before we ran.

The Moor was waterlogged so we were soggy before we set off.  It was certainly scenic on top of the Moor first thing as we laid out the -3,-2 and -1 boxes, the clear and check stakes, map boxes and control descriptions.  My blip shows Tony on the far left making up the boxes; A getting out the maps to go in them; T pinning down the sample maps and S checking how it all looks and if it works as a system.

Tony and I were manning the start on the second shift so we had to get off sharpish once the set up was complete.  I was a bit worried about my cranky knee and thinking I should have dropped down to my age related course instead of doing the longer green which I had elected to go for in preparation for the British Championships next weekend.  It was tough going across the tussocky, wet moor, bisected by deep ditches.  I was keeping an eye on my watch so that I would not be late for my shift so my concentration was not as focused as it should be.  I made several errors which cost me a few minutes early in the course and fell over again in the thick dead bracken which encircled a hill!

Navigating along the final ridge I lost it completely and arrived at an incorrect control.  I was fed up of contouring along the steep slope and took the decision not to go back to look for the correct one, then promptly mispunched at the penultimate control!  That was me disqualified then, but at least I had an outing and the knee had stood up.

Back at the start, the rush was over and we just had a few competitors coming through, mainly Airienteers who had been on the early shift.  The sun had disappeared and the wind got up and we were pretty cold by the end of our shift so we packed up and headed home for welcome hot baths and cuppas.