Best of 2008

[Adrian]

I've just spent a couple of hours catching up a backlog of blog posts, including my Top 15 events of the year. Sorry for putting my own event first! There are obviously several great events I wasn''t able to get to, including the London City race. Does anyone have any less obvious picks for events of the year?

Adrian
http://reentrant.wordpress.com/2008/12/

[mappingmum]

BOC 2008 at Culbin and the Scottish Champs weekend at Tullochroisk of course.

[Tatty]

Has to be the City of London race

[RJ]

A contender has to be the WCOC Beer Trail. Control 4, cave at S Fence bend, Burnbank Fell overlooking Loweswater Lake and Mosser Fell. Conditions.... cold (-5) with ground firm and crispy underfoot.... perfect running!

[Scott]

A top four (in no particular order) of the City of London, the JK day at Leith Hill, a KERNO district event on an absurdly runnable Craddock Moor back in September, and the gorgeously icy SWOC event on Cwm Lickey last month.

[redkite]

Has to be Culbin and day 1 of Croeso on Merthyr Common

[greywolf]

Well i'd usually vote for Culbin, but as I didn't get to run at BOC...
JK at Leith Hill and Scottish Champs at Tullachroisk were pretty good, but for big events it has to be WMOC - brilliant weather, organisation, areas, particularly Praia de Vieira and Pataias (sprint final / long qualifying).
more locally, the RAF Roseisle sprint race 2 weeks ago: been a long time since I was sub 5 & 1/2 mins per km!

[distracted]

At home - the British at Culbin and the London City Race, thought the JK Sprint was pretty good too! And admiring views of snow-topped fells in gorgeous winter sun from the top of Yewdale at the beginning of December was the best I've ever seen of the Lake District.

Abroad - the French 6-day in Aveyron was impressive to say the least And the most enjoyable Scandi orienteering was the Måsenstafetten relay - map here although the first experience of TioMila was up there too.

[awk]

My orienteering highlights (in chronological order)

January: SYO Regional event at Tankersley. Great new map, great courses.
March: JK Sprint Race and Leith Hill. Both excellent examples of their type: sprint and middle.
April: both days of the British. The individual was great, but the relay was fantastic being unblighted by long straightforward legs - just loved that low visibility technical stuff.
May: Ebor Middle Races in Gilling. Just shows what choosing the appropriate format and good planning can make of an otherwise fairly ordinary area.
May: Scottish Sprints at Stirling followed by SOL at Touch. A weekend of great variety and quality.
July: Days 1 and 5 of the Oringen. Some of the best orienteering I've ever done in Scandinavia: rough, tough, technical. Day 5 totally found me out physically!
September: Peter Palmer Relays. Just loved being a part of this great event, and seeing it all come to fruition with a great climax on the last leg. Hanging kites in the storm at midnight is something I won't forget for a long time!
Oct: not just the London City race (brilliant!), but also the district event on Hampstead Heath the next day: perhaps the best planned course of the year in my book, given the nature of the area; great map too! A glorious end to the summer.
Nov: Yorkshire Pudding weekend. Two days of super and varied racing.

There were others I could have included as well - this is a year I've enjoyed more than most, not least because we are now starting to seem some real variety. If I had to choose one, I think it would have to be the London weekend closely followed by the British, but it's a very close call. I hope 2009 lives up to it!

[IanD]

Two events at opposite ends of the country and size/importance scale stand out for me. Culbin was probably the best technical area I ran on this year, and I particularly enjoyed it because the clarity of the map enabled me to read the contours on the run - a rarity in a complex area.

And my other choice is a District event at Tennyson Down on the Isle of Wight, not for the quality of the actual orienteering but for the beautiful weather and stunning views.

Other outstanding events have been the World Masters, the Welsh 6 Days, of which I think days 1 and 5 were the best (Day 6 might have got the vote in better weather), and the City of London race, which gave me my first taste of three-dimensional orienteering.

[Mrs H]

Actually Day 6 of the Welsh gets my vote partly because of the weather - the JK relays and the last MADO on British Camp for the same reason - great courses enhanced by tough conditions which make them stand out in my memory.

Also Day 5 of the Oringen ( a 2k leg without a single path on a 3,2k course )
the FCC middle distance race at Hopwas.
Urban races at Skipton, London and Stockport in that order.

Sprints at Sheffield, Leeds and Warwick Uni.

[DaveK]

Yes, JK relays at Eridge Park were awesome. Looking forward to the Saxons Regional event there, using the new colour coded course structure, this coming Sunday, 4th January. It will be good to run again on this quite technical area in (hopefully) much better conditions.

[gingerflyer]

I really enjoyed the Yorkshire Pudding!! Was yummy *JOKES*

[EddieH]

WMOC Long final had everything I could want.
IN UK the SOL at Craig a' Barns was brilliant except that I never managed to warm my hands up.
Just as important - not a single event I haven't enjoyed - so thanks to all that have been involved in putting them on.

[King Penguin]

Northern Night Champs on High Rigg in February - a wonderfully clear evening to be out on the fells.