Chris Wright

Long distance orienteering has been around for a long time and in many forms. I guess my first effort was the Karrimor Mountain Marathon on the Isle of Arran in 1980, followed soon after by the Capricorn Long-O - similar in navigational style to the KIMM, and often using the same areas, but being a solo event without the kit carrying. I also have had a go at the Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon 2 or 3 times, and the Lowe Alpine once! The Phoenix is a relative newcomer, but being in the Cheviot Hills in Northumberland, it is one of my favourites. All of these are two day events in mountainous terrain. Locally, here on the North York Moors, the Cleveland Search and Rescue Team organise the Cleveland Survival in March each year. This is a 25 miler one day challange walk or run. There is navigation involved getting from checkpoint to checkpoint, but due to access restrictions, it usually incorporates major paths and bridleways in the circular route. In fact, if you get a leg along the L...

T his is a little experimental - so please forgive the layout! Anyway, in the autumn of 2005, I decided that there was a small area, which had previously formed part of a larger orienteering map, which would be great from a sprint race, having just returned from the Scottish 6-Day sprint race in an Aberdeen park. Lordstones is a plateau, lying between Cringle Moor and Carlton Bank on the Cleveland Hills escarpment, some 600ft above the Tees Valley. The owner had opened a cafe by the roadside, and had developed the surrounding area into a pleasant recreational area - he'd dug a few ponds, planted a few trees, and mown paths through the grass/heather. I resurveyed it and Paul T OCADed the map. So why not run a junior training session on the area - have a sprint race first, to which parents and other CLOK members were invited, and then use the controls for a training session afterwards! Well, it was a great success, and out of that effort was born the 2006 Autumn Sprint Race Series. I...