Sal's Ultra Blog

I’m Sal, mainly an orienteer but blogging about ultras because somehow long races are more angst-ridden and (therefore?) memorable! I live in Derbyshire and am married to Dave, also an orienteer/fell-runner. We have 2 daughters who used to come along for the shopping but became very good at opening thermos flasks!

Dave and I are members of Derwent Valley Orienteers and compete in 25-30 races each year, as well as planning and organising race on behalf of the club. Over the last five years, Urban orienteering has taken off in the UK, so clubs often combine an Urban with a Countryside event in the same weekend. Urban maps are 1:5000 versus 1:7500 or 1:10000 for normal maps. Every building is shown, and I think that makes the navigation much easier than forest O, where things like vegetation boundaries and contour features can be a bit subjective. In 2016 I mapped the town where I live, with some help from a Club mate: The Belper Orienteering Map.

For eleven years now I have been editor of the club’s newsletter, called Newstrack. It’s been great fun reading articles from my clubmates about their orienteering adventures. They’re a very well-travelled bunch of people, as orienteering is truly an international sport. You can read Newstrack online without being a club member.

In July 2016 I contacted the Guardian Weekend Magazine’s fitness column with the idea to include Urban orienteering as one of the sports. I was interviewed by phone in August and photographed in my kit in the streets of Belper. Here’s the final piece! I was keen to convey the sport as fast and exciting, and I think they’ve done a great job : ) The photographer was jetting off to LA to photograph Will.i.am after snapping me in my running kit!