The Capricorn 2011 – 21^st August 2011

It was suggested to me that I might enjoy The Capricorn, an orienteering event which was organised by Pendle Forest Orienteer’s, it was advertised as either 2 hour or 3 hour Score Orienteering event over challenging moorland surrounding Hollingworth Lake near Rochdale with courses designed for maximum use of paths and tracks to give good runability.

Stewart my regular running partner drove me over to Hollingworth Lake on Sunday morning where he registered for the 3 hour event, which meant that I had to do the same as he had the car keys.

An orienteering score event means that you are given the descriptions of a number of controls and the idea is that you visit as many of them as you can in any order and get back to the finish before your time is up, for every minute or part minute that you are late you lose points from your total. Each control is worth a number of points, usually the furthest or trickiest are worth the most points. The map that we would be provided with was a 1:25000 scale Ordnance Survey map printed on an A3 sheet of water resistant paper already pre-printed with numbered circles around the controls, but we wouldn’t get that until our start time.

The ‘clue sheet’ or control descriptions for this event were fairly basic for example:

Number	Description	Points
103	Stone Wall and Track Crossing	10
107	W Edge of Pond	20
113	Stream and Ditch Junction	30
120	S side of Ruin	50

The most complicated was the description for Control 111 - ‘top of re-entrant’, luckily I had done a bit of orienteering before and knew that a re-entrant was a U or V shape on the map going back into the hill, a small valley that often funnels water.

After registration, (£8 pre-entry; £10 on the day), we got ready to start, official start time was 10:00am, with entrants going off at 1 minute intervals, Stewart was going at 10:05 and me at 10:10. I started my stopwatch, (Garmin 201), took my map and set off at a slow jog trying to decide which way to go. A quick decision and I headed north from the start, up the main road towards Littleborough for about a mile before I could get onto the towpath of the Rochdale canal. I was heading for Control 109 located at Lock 43 worth 20 points. The maximum score possible today for getting all the controls would be 510 points; I had no chance of that!

It was nice running up the canal and I was covering a plenty of ground at 7m 30s pace, I soon found Lock 43 and the red and white orienteering flag or ‘Kite’, I clipped my score sheet in box 9 with the punch that was fastened to a metal post, the punch made holes in the paper in a pattern that would be checked later to make sure that I had visited the right control. The post that the punch was fastened to was quite short and I had already pinned my score sheet to the bottom of my shirt so I had to crouch and contort myself a bit to punch the right square, it must have looked a bit strange so I hope nobody was watching!!

I continued running north and had to decide which control was my next target. 115 was a short way off the canal up a track next to a reservoir on a bridge and worth 30 points. I left the canal and turned uphill, feeling fit I ran the incline but made my first navigational error, focusing on the reservoir I headed to a bridge near it without looking at the map.............no control?..........look closer at the map.........wrong bridge!!! The control was on a parallel footpath higher up the hill, found it, punch the score sheet and run on, I had already targeted control 105 described as ‘foot of S cliff, 6 mtr’. I wasn’t really too sure what that meant but I was on the lookout for some rocks.

As I ran I glanced at the map and looked at the features around me, just as well I did as I appeared to be going the wrong way, (2^nd navigational error in 5 minutes!!), time to get the compass out, I was following the wrong footpath and moving at 90 degrees to where I wanted to be. Forgetting one of the features of the event, ‘courses designed for maximum use of paths and tracks to give good runability’, I took to the open fell on a direct bearing towards control 105. I immediately regretted my decision as I stumbled across a rutted area full of stones which changed into long grass with tussocks and deep hidden holes, it was too late, I was committed to my route and struggled on. My bearing was spot on and the cliff came into view with the control at the south end of it, punch again and run on towards control 111 the ‘re-entrant’. I was back on nice tracks now, in fact it was part of the Pennine Way and I was enjoying it again.

The next few miles and 3 controls went really well but I hadn’t seen any other competitor I guessed that nobody else had turned north from the start. On my way to control 112 after about 8 miles I noticed someone running towards me soon followed by a couple more, I was glad I had gone my own way and was not stuck in a procession.

Two more controls and I met Karen Nash from Preston Harriers and South Ribble Orienteering Club coming in the other direction, Karen wasn’t happy, she had wasted a lot of time looking for a control that was in the wrong place, she didn’t say which one it was but I guessed it was 113 and I decided to avoid it.

Five minutes later I was following the Old Packhorse Road uphill towards Blackstone Edge a line of gritstone outcrops. ‘Road’ was a poor description for this slippery, boggy path but it took me to the top of the hill where I could have continued easily down towards control 108 or turn left uphill over Blackstone Edge towards the suspect Control 113. Forgetting what I had decided 20 minutes ago I turned left and carried on climbing along the edge before descending towards 113; I passed someone else who kindly pointed where it actually was on the map which saved me a lot of time.

It was now decision time again, did I continue south to cross the M62 by that bridge over the deep ravine just to the west of junction 22 or did I head for the finish?, no contest, my legs were tiring and time was running short so I took another bearing for a path on the map and headed almost due west climbing over the open fell on quite easy ground.

My legs were suffering by now and what would have been a runable climb earlier in the day was now a stumbling plod, I tripped a couple of times and ended up on the floor while trying to check the map when I began to doubt if I was on the right line. I should have trusted the compass, as rounding a small hill I met the path and started to descend a bit more quickly towards control 107 described as ‘w edge of pond’ and worth 20 points. On the descent I could see Hollingworth Lake which was the start and finish point, it looked far away and time was running short, I started to worry a bit. I punched my score sheet next to the pond and set off downhill again. I had 15 minutes left, how far could I get in 15 minutes on tired legs? At least it was still downhill, the running was easy but navigation was difficult on a series of small paths amongst bracken, down to a gate and out near someone’s house, decisions again, footpaths and navigation using the map? Or follow my nose and the track which I assumed would reach a road and the lake? The track won and I was soon back at the lake and then to the finish in 2h 54m 50s. Almost 5 minutes early, could I have gone for one of the low scoring controls near the finish? Don’t be silly, sit down and shut up, where’s Stewart with the car keys? He should be back by now he set off 5 minutes before me! He soon turned up but he was 5 minutes late and lost 50 hard earned points in penalties.

My Garmin said I had run 17 miles with 1750’ ascent at an average pace of 10:18 / mile that deserved a pint so we adjourned to the nearest pub for refreshment before heading home.

I was pleased to find out a few days later that I had managed 3^rd place out of 36 in the 3 hour category with 270 points, the winner had scored 330 points and second place 300. I hope they run this event again as it was good fun and would recommend it to anyone who can manage to follow a map and use a compass.

Written by: Richard Davies

Submitted: 23^rd August 2011

Edited by: Brenda J Earnshaw WRR Editor