Tuesday 4th June saw the latest event in the London park race series. It was DFOK’s turn to host, and the event was held at Greenwich Royal Park. I very much enjoyed the deliberate start: as we queued up to start we were west, and we crossed to the east upon dibbing the start box! Here is a photo of the plaque on the wall showing the line. (The Meridian is also marked on the map below).
I’d entered the event as I could get there easily after working in London, and plus invited my sister to come along as she lives very locally and knows the park well. Other Moles I saw there were Jennifer Sibley (racing her dad it looked like!), and saw on the results Ben Toogood and Dan Lewington.
As we started at the bottom of the hill, it wasn’t long before we were sent up the hill into oxygen debt. The planner made good use of the area in my view, with several legs giving you route choice (e.g. 3-4, 6-7), and plenty of changes in direction (e.g. 13-14-15-16). The works in the park, shown as out of bounds shading, actually afforded more options for the panner to devise legs with choice. Unfortunately for me I made a few errors both on simple legs and on those with some route choice, ending up a couple of minutes down from the winner Harold Wyber of CHIG.
My sister’s remarks back in the pub when she was the last to download at course closing time (!) was “well I thought I knew the park well!”. A pleasant evening, and lovely to chat with fellow orienteers in the pub after over a pint.
Results at Provisional Results – Greenwich Park Race – 04 Jun 2024 (dfok.co.uk)
Next park race series event is Tue 11 June (Tooting, by SLOW), then it’s our Mole Valley turn to host with an event at Beddington Park on Tue 18th June: see details at Beddington Park Race – MVOC. See you there!