All three (plus some family members) took part in the Ightham Seal Knole Trail Challenge on Sunday 8 August starting from Crown Point. This is an orienteering event over 7, 14 or 21km run by Saxons OC. After registering, runners are presented with a brightly coloured map, a running number and a "dibber". The dibber is dibbed in the dibbing points ! It is an electronic tag that attaches to your forefinger and, in some giant game of hide and seek, runners tear around the countryside trying to find little orange flags (controls) which have a small electronic box of tricks attached. The dibber goes in a hole in the box which then beeps. Simples !

Not so simple you overgrown rat. First there is the fact that the 21 km route went straight up and over the muddy hill from Crown Point to Godden Green, then cross country to Knole, around part of Knole I didn't know existed and then back over the [expletive deleted] hill to Ightham. Toughest half marathon route I ever ran. 90% was off road, 10% wasn't even on a path. Then there was finding the little buggers. Hiding them behind a tree, by a rock or in a bush is just sneaky, but apparently fair game.The first 10 weren't so bad because there were 40 or so other people to follow, some of whom were proper orienteers. But once in Knole it all got a bit spread out. That's when you discover why so many people wear running tights. It wasn't long before I was swearing away, knee deep in bracken, brambles and nettles.

It really was quite hard going, but very enjoyable in some masochistic sort of a way. Firstly the mental effort of finding the way and not falling flat on your face whilst running looking at a map, was very distracting. So much so that the miles went past without really noticing. Also the event was very low key - it only cost £6 - and there were lots of people from running clubs who were there having a laugh too. Finally it was all so ridiculously hard that you really couldn't take it too seriously.

For what it's worth here are the placings and times:
1st place    Ed Catmur    SLOW    1:35:02
8th            Dave Lobley                 2:16:11    1st M45
26th          Dave Truman                2:43:30    3rd M50 (of 4)
41 Finishers, out of approximatley 60 entrants, 3 hour cut off time.

Dave Willumsen was helping young Louis fine tune his map reading skills, or maybe that was Louis helping Dave. Dave was last seen organising a search party to find the remainder of the young Lobley's and Willumsen's who had been running around getting lost for the best part of 2 hours and when they were found, the smiles on their faces made him realise they thought getting lost was all part of the job and made you a proper orienteer !!
Recommended. Give it a go next year.
Dave Truman