Erskine
Posted on 19 May, 2010 by Lynne Walker | Filed under Blog • Orienteering
I have driven ‘through’ Erskine more times than I can count; I even spent six weeks on teaching practise in 1990 at the secondary school (Park Main HS) in the town. I never ever knew just what was lying behind the trees or just across the footbridge from the school.
The WOC selection races 2010 came to the west of Scotland. Both the middle distance and long were on EckO areas near Oban (Ardnaskie & Creag Mhic respectively). Oban however does not really lend itself to a sprint race so we all wondered where it would be – we then heard that it was to be at Erskine. I was away over the weekend as I was assessing for a UKCC L2CCO at Hexham. The B&B I stayed in on the Friday evening had Wifi so I was able to catch up with the sprint race and RouteGadget. Wow! It looked like a really interesting area to have the race.
Clydeside Orienteers then put a PDF of the courses on their website. Paul & I had to ‘go across the water’ and so I suggested taking our kit and having a go at the courses. There would be no markers out but we should be able to establish that we were in the right place reasonably easily.
We parked at the supermarket, changed and headed off into the housing estate. I have been having some problems with my right knee – likely to be a medial ligament problem I think – and I should maybe not be running on the streets but when did sense kick in? We timed the run to coincide with when the kids would be in school. The estate was really quiet with virtually no traffic.
The housing estate is best described like this. Give some 5 – 7 year olds various Lego bricks, ask them to make houses and you will get a variety of styles. Make duplicates of each style, pebble-dash them and then plonk onto a piece of ground and call it the ‘Park Mains Estate, Erskine’.
I really enjoyed my run around, found I was quite hesitant in the wood and then was faced with a different building style after the wood section. It was hard to get back into my stride then. I was sure that I was at the correct place with all the controls except for one (#14 on the women’s course) as I was not sure exactly where it would have been located.
Yes the knee was sore afterwards so we just went to the pictures – the latest Robin Hood which we were not impressed with.
I hear that there might be another race at Erskine. It will be worthwhile going to and would make a really good introduction to urban orienteering - go on, you know you would like to have a go at this full concentration orienteering!
I am a level 4 orienteering coach and a qualified Assessor & Coach Educator. I have been orienteering for xx years and have coached on many foreign tours.