AYROC expedition to Cumberland.
Threkeld Knotts Start
Eight AYROC members travelled to England to take part in the four-yearly Lake District Five Days Orienteering festival.
During the first week of August eight of us travelled to England to take part in the four-yearly Lake District Five Days Orienteering festival. Contrary to expectations we had stunning blue skies and high temperatures all week. There were about 1.200 competitors each day. The McNamara ladies won a clutch of firsts and seconds in their races while the rest of us did our usual stumbling best. Congratulations to Chairman Phil for grit and determination to run his age category race while still carrying stitches from wounds received on Arran the previous week.
The five days had an interesting variety of areas, from open moor and marsh to deep rough forest. Running on the limestone hill high above Kendal was pretty spectacular, though your reporter ran right off the map. The day with the shortest courses turned out to the most technically and physically difficult. On day four the finish was next to a cool mountain stream and at one point there were at least fifty people sitting in the stream in 30 degree temperatures. The most popular person on site was Mr Whippy at the ice cream van. If you look at this link https://www.lakes5.org.uk/ you will find the results for all days, with a routegadget race simulation.
There was a "rest day" urban sprint held in the streets of Penrith on the Wednesday. None of our contingent took part that day, but my Penrith Correspondent reported a fun day with enthusiastic local spectators and some minor language difficulties. Visitors to Penrith should not be surprised if they ask for pepper in a restaurant and find that they are handed a sheet of paper.
The photographs are by the official Lakes5day 2022 photographer, Oscar Wilkinson of Keswick.
We are now looking forward to the next Scottish 6 Days in Moray next year;
https://www.scottish6days.com/day-information/ .
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