Military challenge - MTBO and foot-O 19th Dec

[madmike]

Hope thta was control 158 Had 7, yes 7, attempts before finally coming across it along way from the circle on a completely different gully

That's the one Tatty - I have requested they remove that split as the control was put in the right place for later runners - and that's not fair.

Nonetheless still a really enjoyable day.

[Roger]

- much more on-road riding than I'd expected, a lot of it on fairly busy roads.

There was much more this year (at least on the B course) than previously, so your one experience is probably not typical.

- maps B5 and B6 had been printed on the back of old Greenham Common maps, and the ink hadn't taken on the shiny paper. Mine were entirely unusable - the route overprint invisible and much of the map detail missing too. ... they must have been like that from the start.

That particular paper seems to be a nightmare, particularly for amateur printers. I spoke to Nigel Benham (who used to use it for his professional printing of O-maps) and although the 'paper' is indestructible and completely waterproof, even he, with lots of experience and professional kit, had some trouble with the ink flaking off. The maps aren't too bad if you just hold them, but one poor soul at the recent Greenham mid-week event put his into a map case and by the finish it was mostly white, presumably caused by friction between the map and the case.

I suspect that your printing was fine to begin with but rubbed off during the race. I had trouble early on with maps flapping and sliding off my board as soon as I tried to go fast (another drawback of the shiny paper!), so I put all but the current map into my bum-bag. Map B5 was pretty bad when I extracted it and B6 (folded with the relevant course on the inside) was little better. I blame the early flapping.

Interestingly the Greenham maps on the back, professionally done by Nigel for the 2008 Southern Night Champs, are completely intact.

[Jon Brooke]

David,

Yesterday's event wasn't typical MTBO. For a regular event you have one map with lots of route choice like regular O. If you're lucky you have a specially made map for MTBO with simplified greenery and no features like pits etc. Nor would you usually go onto the road.

Also, even a normal long MTBO would only be about 90 minutes.

From my POV I thought the event was fantastic. I was the first rider away just before 9.30 and with the sun still low in the sky and snow and ice everywhere it was really beautiful. With some icy roads I was being a bit tentative, but for some reason (or lack of reason) I did something stupid just after CP17 and tried to ride across the edge of a huge puddle thinking the ice would crack and I'd get some grip. It didn't crack, or not until my knee hit it anyway. Would be interesting to know how many people did fall off. Probably the most treacherous bit was the little bridge over the railway (about a third of the way round the long course) but I managed to stay upright there.

Also just managed to get back in time to do the long run too, but about half way round I started to bonk and groveled for the second half. Never been quite so happy to see a cup of hot coffee and the very last burger.

Great event chaps. Thanks.

[David Young]

Jon and Roger,

Thank you for the replies - reassuring!
It's true I don't know what the maps looked like at the start and it is possible they deteriorated in the bag as I shuffled B1-B4 to bring the current one to the top.
My biggest disappointment of the day, by far, was not beating you to the last burger!
I didn't fall off, to my surprise, but my friend did, coming down off the pavement to cross one of the icy roads in the army camp area. He got a bruised knee too.
And just to confirm, since I had a bit of a moan, I really enjoyed the event and my friend (who had never orienteered in any way before) wants to do it again next year.

[ifor]

I did not have any trouble with the A maps and the printing. Only trouble was trying to get the old one out with gloves on. I gave up trying to do it on the ride after almost comming off eventualy and just stoped to do it as apropriate. Did not fall but got very close on a number of ocasions.

[stsam]

Was a truly beautiful day....Im afraid I chickened out of the 40Km cycle after wheelspinning driving up Kings Ride and an eye on next weeks Snowboarding hol, but the Black was excellent. Although my route choice to 6 was a bit daft, its not every week I get to wade through knee high snow drifts! The view from the top of the Range (after control 20) was magical too.

Its also not everyday you match second for second world champ gg, amazing run by Ed Catmur for the win.

[stodge]

Only fell off once when I touched the front brake in a panic at a forest gate when I was about to take the wrong track, must have been some ice under the snow, but had some very near moments a number of times.
Had biggest moment exiting the event when I got a real clarkson esque tank slapper going in the car at the bottom of the hill, held it though just !

For people wanting to look at some MTBO courses check out the results section of the chasers website http://www.walton-chasers.co.uk and look for links to routegadget and map files going back to 2006.

Event report on my blog plus a search on MTBO (type MTBO in the search box on the left hand side) should give a good flavour of what to expect from MTBO in the UK, lots of videos from the world champs is Israel too !
http://www.stodgell.co.uk

For me the Military Challenge says Christmas is coming and the snow only added to that this year. A little too much road but enjoyable all the same. Really anoyed with myself for making two mistakes towards the end