Kong Mini Mountain Marathon

ROUND 4 OF 4 – SADDLEWORTH, PEAK DISTRICT, 24TH NOVEMBER 2019

Unbelievable as it may sound to navigationally challenged P & Bers these types of orienteering events are actually quite popular. When I finally got my a**e in gear to enter, it was full.

Dr Seddon was already entered and it was critical to my self-esteem & general well-being to join him & try to give him a damn good thrashing.

A frantic internet search then commenced & after much pleading & cajoling a place was finally achieved.

On the day the weather was kind, which was good, as the terrain wasn’t. Anything not on a path was boggy, heathery, brackeny, tussocky or in most cases a combination of all 4.

From the off the Doc went south to take what he called ‘the more interesting route’. I went directly down the middle of the course & then looped North & in fact we didn’t cross paths all day.

A frantic dash at the end ensued I got back just 30 seconds over time & so with minimal time penalties. The Doc was only a couple of minutes later so again minimal penalties, although in the end the winner gave us both a damn good hiding being super speedy & getting nearly all the checkpoints!

Debrief & grub was in the local boat club, lashings of hot drinks, soup, cake, etc, all as part of the entry price.

Generally smashing & challenging events, at 4 hours they are an hour longer than the similar Peak Raids & with more route choice so it’s pretty much impossible to get all the controls.

Results, times, and stats over on the RouteGadget.

(Thumnail pic by Brian Barnett)