Here are the maps from the french 5 days orienteering event. At least, the bits that I came across! Click on the maps to see a bigger version. I can send copies to anyone who wants...
The whole area is basically pine forest over sand dunes. Days 1 - 3 had quite a lot of areas with scrub and waist to shoulder-high undergrowth which made things very difficult occasionally. Days 4 & 5 (same map, same start and finish - bit boring really) had much more defined ups and downs and the white areas were really fast if you could manage the hills of soft sand....
Day 1 first.
I didn't make any big mistakes here. This was basically a medium-distance event, to get used to the type of terrain. The open-area start was a bit worrying, but I didnt see much open after that, except 6 which was in shoulder-high pine treelets. I attacked it from the knoll on the vegetation boundary to the east.
Day 2 - it gets harder..
Made two mistakes on this day - note that the contours are 2.5 metres, rather than the usual 5. I mistook the path junctinn to the north of number 3 for the path junction to the east. Ridiculous but true. I lost about 6 minutes here. Then I had a blinding run till number 11. I got distracted by people running D45 who had the same number 10 and headed towards my number 11 - except they went somewhere else and I was left thinking where the XXX am I ?? This leg took me 12.21 minutes. Damn. It was not really difficult, just delicate navigation and no time to get lost and relocate.
Day 3 - bad to worse.
I stood on the start line and thought "I'm never going to find number 1" I completely failed to spot the ride going east to west just south of the control. Doh! So I took the first path to the right and tried to follow the row of knolls going north-east. Fat chance, they barely showed on the ground - so after 11 and a half minutes I stumbled on it by chance. Two and three were slow and at 7 I mistook the first path crossing for the second (getting tired) which wasted a bit. The run-in was awful - about 700metres of just running (staggering) uphill on dry sand, as it effectively started from number 11. Bad planning that.
Day 4 - the best day
Despite getting very tired, this was he best day by far. The dunes were bigger and easier to see on the ground. The first control was like one of the knife-edge ridges in Sunnyhurst woods! I found the path leading into number 5 from the north-east, flew down the sand slope on the ride between 6 & 7 and disturbed someone's lunch going through the campe site from 11 to 12. The run in was pretty awful again - all the rides were soft sand. I was 12th on the day - it was one of those times when everything seems to go right, and to be soooo easy.....
Day 5 - repeat the previous day with added aches.
As I said - same start and finish. Almost the same legs occasionally. H35A actually had the same last two controls as the day before. Not good enough really. The weather eventually turned HOT. We had late starts and I was really tired. In addition, I had pulled a joint in my right instep, so soft sand was even harder than normal. You will note that 6-7 crosses the same open spur as day 4 and the stretch to and from number 7 was too hot for (polite) words. There were no drinks controls for the shorter courses either. Lots of people just went and dived straight into the lake by the finish once they stopped - my brain was too cooked to remember it was there!!! Never mind. I managed to do just about the same time on day 5 as day 4. The scandinavians of course did day 5 faster than the previous day. I came 18th overall the 5 days, and first member of a french club. (and second brit!) so I am well-pleased.
Now I need to do some more training.....
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