Orienteering: yellow course at Prudhoe

Sigh. Another weekend without a parkrun. The hip remains crocked. Still, at least I got a bit of fresh air this morning with the elder daughter as we made our long-awaited orienteering comeback.

The map for the yellow course at Prudhoe, marked with our finishing time of 24:37

Of course, you might notice the length of the course (indicated near the top of the bottom-left panel). Yeah, just 1.6km, or 1 mile. Not exactly a stretch for me, but the daughter deserves her moment too and everyone's got their own pace and capabilities, yeah?

Of course, this being orienteering, there were also plenty of pauses in this to check the map and get bearings before setting off again. The final time of 24:37 (a 15:23/km pace) might sound slow, but this is a kids' course really. And that time was enough to put us fastest on the course. Winner, winner, chicken dinner. 😛 (Ignore the fact there was only one other runner  — the Weddle Family — on our course.)

For me personally, it's always a bit of a shame that I can't go and do my own course as soon as I've helped the daughter round hers. Or before, if I want to avoid gaining an advantage from already having found some of the controls. Even with the pauses for map-reading, this would've been a good place to do a longer course, as there was plenty of gradient here. It certainly would've got the heart pumping.

But never mind that; getting to run with my daughter easily trumps any personal ambitions. I honestly thought I'd killed her motivation last year when I got frustrated with her forgetting everything I'd taught her, but today she was keen, engaged, and navigating really well for someone who's rusty. She enjoyed it a lot and I enjoyed that. Add a shared cup-a-soup from a flask at the end (yes, really) and you've got a proper bonding experience. I can almost feel the spirit of my own dad with me again on days like this. 🥰

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