Juniors compete in epic Peter Palmer Relay 2024
At the beginning of September eight of our juniors headed up to the Lake District to take part in the prestigious six leg Peter Palmer Relay.
They were treated to a beautiful sunset in a mountainous location, fish and chips, fast paced competition, atmospheric sunrise and early morning bacon buttys. Read on to find out how they got on.
The new school term brings along the annual challenge of the epic junior team relay – The Peter Palmer. It’s a 6 -leg relay which starts off at 5am in the dark. This year it took place near Cockermouth in the North West of the Lake District. There was a fair amount of discussion over whether we would make the trip as it was the first weekend after going back to school, it was a long way to travel, we were going to be camping (it’s usually based around a hall), and it was a slightly unusual area of undulating land with not many prominent features or changes in vegetation! However, we know that there is a lot of kudos in taking part in this event and it’s one of those experiences that can really spark enthusiasm.
Having polled our juniors for their interest, we found there were enough juniors to take part with a full team. Due to the numbers, we hired a minibus so we could get them there with minimal impact on parents. Having driven several minibuses lately for Scouts and of course being old enough to still have a D1 on our licenses, Pete and I decided we would do the driving between us.
We set off from Crawley at 10am on Saturday morning and after regular stops en-route we arrived at our base at 6pm. The organising team had done a great job of getting tents pre-erected for those teams travelling long distances, so we were shown to our tents (one for boys, one for girls and separate ones for the adults).
The next job was to take a walk to the assembly area to check out the start, finish and handover area pre-race, whilst we could still see (always a must at Peter Palmer). It was a short walk up the hill, but we were rewarded with a spectacular view – what a great area they’d chosen.
A quick team talk and then back down to the camping field to fuel up. The Fish and Chip van was doing a roaring trade – even selling battered haggis! For those juniors who’ve been in the South East Junior Squad and on Junior Regional Squad tours, it was then a chance to catch up with people from other clubs who they haven’t seen all Summer. For everyone else a chance to play some card games and get prepared for and early night.
The alarms went off at 4am in anticipation of the start at 5am. Ben was woken first so he had time to do some warming up ahead of his race. Next was waking up Thomas and Emma, so that they could both see the start. We all headed up the hill to assembly and the first leg runners gathered ready for the start horn. They were issued with GPS trackers – a new feature for this event. After a bit of waiting around (due to some controls being moved – unusual in such a remote area), the fourteen first leg runners lined up on the start line. Headlights on and they were off, sprinting down the hill.
Ben was in 4th position as they headed off up the hill opposite on their red course (4.6km 150m climb). It was quite a spectacle because we could see the headlights streaming across the hill and the addition of GPS tracking and commentary added to the excitement.
The pace was fast, even in the dark, for the first leg runners and in no time the ping ponging lights across the far hillside were heading towards the spectator control. Ben passed through this control and there was a nervous wait until he appeared again on the run-in in fifth position in a time of 28:04, with one runner very close in front and one very close behind him.
Thomas was ready and waiting, and with a quick handover, headed off into the dark for the teams second leg, on another red course (4.6km 150m climb). By now the eastern horizon was starting to lighten, though runners on this leg still needed a headlamp to be able to read the map and be sure of their footing. This was the first time Thomas had experienced the Peter Palmer relay and he took it all in his stride. The commentary and GPS tracking kept us informed of an exciting battle for first place transpiring between South Yorkshire Orienteers and West Cumberland Orienteering Club and lots of movement between all the other clubs.
By the time Thomas set off it was beginning to lighten so more people were starting to stir back at the campsite. Emily was woken ready for the upcoming handover.
Emma started getting ready for the next handover. Thomas started heading up the hill to the last few controls and then crossed the line in 34:06 and handed over to Emma in 8th position.
Emma was out on a Light Green Course (4.1km 115m climb) as opposed to the first two boys who were on red courses, so it was estimated that she would take slightly longer. Back down the hill to check to see if Daniel, Zoe, Maya and Katy were on their way. No need to wake them up as they were all on their way!
Emma said the course was very hilly but there were plenty of stone wall line features, it was very runnable and she could see a long way, so she made really good progress and finished her course in 33:28, maintaining 8th position.
Emily was now out on an Orange Course (3.4km 95m climb) which also headed down the hill and out onto the opposite hillside. We could see her GPS tracker which was going well and then there was a bit of hesitation on a control on the top of the hill where she hadn’t gone far enough – we were all willing her dot to move forward and it did and she was back on track, speeding down the hill to her next set of controls!
Our next leg runners were Daniel, Zoe and Maya. On the yellow leg (2.1km 90m climb) we could have up to three runners, to allow for newcomers to dip their toe in the water.
Everyone runs the course independently and the fastest clean run back counts towards the team score. This was Daniel’s first time at the Peter Palmer and Zoe and Maya’s second time. Emily came into the finish in a time of 34:59 having dropped just one place into 9th and the three of them were off. This time they stayed on our side of the hill and we could see them for quite a distance.
Whilst our yellow leg runners were out, we saw the first and second placed teams finish their relay completely. West Cumberland Orienteering Club came in first (for the sixth time in seven years) and just over a minute later one of the South Yorkshire teams came into second place.
Katy got herself to the handover area promptly as we knew this could be a quick leg. Sure enough 15 mins and 20 seconds later Daniel came sprinting into the finish lane, having got the team back to 8th place to pass over to Katy for the last leg, shortly followed by Zoe and Maya. They’d all had clean runs.
So, Katy was out on our final leg – a green course (5.3km 155m climb), the longest, most nerve wracking and most technical leg with a lot of controls. By this time (about 8am) the smell of bacon butties was starting to drift across the assembly field and the breakfast tent was getting very busy. All our runners who had finished were pleased of the opportunity to refuel. We were still keeping an eye on the GPS tracker and Katy was making great progress around the course, keeping a fast and steady pace. We cheered her through the spectator control and a short while later into the finish in a time of 49:07. We made sure Katy got her well-earned breakfast before ensuring we got some great team photos and congratulated everyone on a great team effort.
In total our team took 194:04 and would have placed 11th. Unfortunately, Katy’s dibber didn’t register a couple of controls on her course, which we were sure she must have gone to (as we saw her on the GPS and she had to go through a gate where one of the controls was), but just not quite got close enough for her air dibber to register. It didn’t detract from the fun of the event though and every junior who took should be really proud of their achievement. As Will said “The Peter Palmer Relay really is about the taking part, the excitement, the adrenalin, the adventure and the team camaraderie.” It certainly had all of that!
We’re waiting to hear where the relay will take place next September. It’s open to anyone in the M/W12 to M/W18 age category and we’d love to get two teams together next year. Maybe we’ll get a daybreak relay team (red, orange, yellow, red) in addition to a Peter Palmer Relay team.