What it’s all about
Saturday 1st November saw 130 competitors including myself took part in a brand new event in Sherwood Forest. The concept of this new race was mainly based on orienteering but there were six challenge stations where addition race credits could be earned using a combination of physical strength, skill and a little bit of luck.
I arrived at Sherwood Pines in my tights and muddy race top and walked into a medieval themed race village with Robin Hood, Friar Tuck and a host of other characters
The race format was organised as a 75 minute score event where you get a set number of points for visiting each of the 30 standard control points, the extra challenges give the opportunity to boost your score. Any longer than 75 minutes then penalties are incurred.
A tip for this race is to wear full-length legwear, really I hear you say! I never wear more than shorts on my lower half for racing. However I would recommend that the torso must be covered at all times, this would wipe out plenty of our macho bare-chested runners.
I arrived at Sherwood Pines in my tights and muddy race top and walked into a medieval themed race village with Robin Hood, Friar Tuck and a host of other characters. There was even a village idiot, he probably has a perfectly respectable job during the week such as a GP but fitted his weekend role perfectly.
We must have looked hysterical to spectators as all the runners seemed to fan out in different directions, with their map in hand, praying that they went the right way
We were given a thorough race briefing, educated in how to use the dibber to register our visits to each station before being led down a number of tracks to the start point. At the start there was a feed station which supplied water and red bull, this was visited by virtually everyone racing before we gathered round Robin Hood for a final race briefing. We were all handed our scrolls containing the map of the area but warned not to open before being told to on pain of disqualification. After a short wait came the instruction to open the scrolls, we had a minute to study the map before Robin blew his horn signalling the start of the event.
The race
We must have looked hysterical to spectators as all the runners seemed to fan out in different directions, with their map in hand, praying that they went the right way. I was soon into my stride heading to my first challenge control; I managed to pick up a couple of the standard controls on the way to the archery. Arriving quickly I strapped on the arm guard and took aim. The challenge was to hit the target within the black outer circle once and there were 3 arrows in which to do it.
I hit the first arrow closer to the centre than the black outer circle so I was able to pick up maximum points for minimum effort.I then targeted getting to the next challenge control, I picked up a couple of standard controls on the way and also bumped into Liam, one of The Team Muddy Races competing for this event and on course to the first challenge control which was a straight-forward rope climb to gain an additional 20 points- Result!
Next due north to have a go at catapulting the onions through the archway of Nottingham Castle - two fails here, I think Liam was particularly disappointed as he managed to get through an arch but was adjudged to have got the wrong one.
Crossing the line a can of red bull was thrust into our hands, then we picked up a meal of beef stew washed down with a bottle of excellent beer
Time was now ticking away with around 20 minutes left to race and we were at the far west on the map but with plenty of controls in proximity. We knocked off another 3 controls in literally 5 minutes and were on our way to another challenge control.
This turned out to be a complex balance beam whilst carrying a wooden pole. Additional difficulty was added with a low door frame towards the end of the beam which we had to negotiate ourselves under whilst continuing to stay upright. We both aced the balance beam and subsequently collected our bonus points and were back on our way.
Tip - look out for anything sponsored by Red Bull, they tend to be awesomely well organised and good value for money
We were heading towards the finish line but had around 10 minutes to spare. We dipped into the control close to the finish line but were subsequently advised by the event staff (dressed in period costume) that we needed to go to the finish line. We were slightly perplexed by this as we believed we’d just dibbed in at a control. At the finish line was a further control.
A quick word with the event staff at the finish line and we were advised that we were still free to go after other checkpoints and with 6 minutes remaining on the watch we spotted one last potential checkpoint around 500 metres away along some pretty major paths which we made a quick effort to make.
Sensing that time was pressing on Liam realised that things would be close and subsequently pushed on alone towards the checkpoint leaving me a short distance behind. Liam managed to bag that last control and get back to the finish line with plenty of time to spare and fortunately I did the same arriving at the finish around 30 seconds behind me but well within the 75 minute cut-off point.
Crossing the line a can of red bull was thrust into our hands, then we picked up a meal of beef stew washed down with a bottle of excellent beer.
Apres Race
It was a fantastic, adrenaline-charged end to what was a well run event which hopefully will return to Sherwood Forest next year (Hopefully to a different set of woods for variety). It’s given us a buzz to try more orienteering style events with the possible view of building up to a mini mountain marathon event over the winter.
Conversation drifted to how much everyone enjoyed the event and some people discussed strategy, I must admit having a strategy seemed a bit serious.
For the record I managed to sit in 65th place halfway down the field with roughly half the point of the winner, Liam was 10 points ahead of me in 56th place.
This event was an absolute bargain for £5 (no I didn’t miss the 0 off); a compass, 4 cans of red bull, free parking, a technical t-shirt, a meal, a beer, almost unlimited red bull from the build-up to post-race and a really good challenge. If you’re good at orienteering, there was some serious prize money available.
I can whole-heartedly recommend this event to others as something different if it fits in with my race calendar next year, I’ll be back.
Event Idea
This event has got me thinking, how about one of the wonderful race organisations producing a score style obstacle course event. The course map just showing where each obstacle is without a route and points awarded for completing each obstacle within a time limit. I’m sure it could be done but I’ll leave the rest to our expert course designers and race directors.
In the meantime, look out for anything sponsored by Red Bull, they tend to be awesomely well organised and good value for money.