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On your bike

Wednesday, October 17th, 2012

On Saturday, after a bit of indecision, we finally decided that we’d go to the orienteering at Dibden Inclosure and not the Hants Cross-Country at Farley Mount (or, indeed, both). It was a lovely day but the orienteering was decidedly average. Dibden is not the most exciting of areas with only the occasional squiggle of contours to break up the otherwise featureless forest and marshy, heather strewn, open. After the first few controls, I even found myself checking that I had actually picked up the blue course map rather than the orange!

Emma and Duncan seemed to thoroughly enjoy the yellow course though. Plenty of mud to squelch through and Duncan walked the whole way round without any bribery or complaining. At Christine’s suggestion, we’d put the children’s bikes in. Nine months on, Duncan’s balance bike actually fits him. He particularly enjoyed the off-road riding although struggled a little with balancing whilst traversing slopes! Emma has never spent more than a few minutes at a time on the stabiliser free bike that she got for her birthday (other than when hooked up to the back of my bike) but that was all set to change. She started just scooting without her feet on the pedals. Then she would cycle with me holding on to the saddle and it was soon apparent that I was doing a lot less holding than on previous occasions. Once we hit the open, Emma just needed to help getting started and then she was off… Hopefully it is just the start of many fun filled years of cycling.

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First at last

Sunday, October 7th, 2012

It was not the best preparation for this year’s Clarendon Way Half Marathon- Emma was up twice in the night and threw up in the car just as Christine dropped me off at the start. My throat was also a bit rough (probably having burnt it on the previous night’s dinner though rather than illness!). Then I bought a gel, only to leave it in my bag that was going on the bus to the finish. I was therefore pleasantly surprised to settle in to second place in the first half of the race. I thought the pace was a bit fast but eventually calculated that it wasn’t going to see me back in much under my guesstimated target time of 90 minutes. As we approached the half way stage at Farley Mount, I started to wonder whether I might actually come first as the young lad I was running with needed a bit of a push up the hill. As on previous descents , he pegged it off down the other side but I reeled him yet again and we wound through the woods and finally broke him in the next muddy ascent. I felt surprisingly good at this point, not least for being out in front, and pushed it a bit harder, particularly on the climbs which seemed all too numerous in the closing stages. At 1:27:36 or thereabouts it wasn’t my fastest Clarendon Half but the other times all date back to when it was run over the Salisbury end which is definitely flatter. I’m not too worried about the time though – it was just nice to finally win a race. Mind, I shan’t be too disappointed if I have to stay at home tomorrow and look after Emma as my legs aren’t looking forward to the cycle in to work!

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Duncan reaches three

Sunday, October 7th, 2012

Duncan had a bit of an extended birthday this year: cakes at playgroup on Tuesday, the day itself on Wednesday, more cakes on Thursday and his party on Saturday. Just as well that this year he seemed to have decided that birthdays were a good thing! Emma was still the first up on Wednesday morning, keen to give Duncan his present from her (a monster finger puppet from the newsagents!). My being locked in to John Lewis at closing time on Tuesday night trying to find a till that was still open, failing, and having to get one re-opened, paid off as the bus car storage went down well.

Having the party at lunchtime was definitely a good move as there was less time to get stressed beforehand and also time to go out and enjoy the sunshine afterwards. There was supposedly a bus theme which meant that yours truly’s cake decorating skills were once again put to the test. I wasn’t entirely convinced by the salmon pink icing but Christine refused to let me put any more food colouring in! There was quite a mix of ages with siblings making up a third of the numbers but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Even Emma seemed to have a good time although she was definitely sickening with something as she had to have a lie-down in the middle of it all. In fact, both of them were in bed by the end of the afternoon!

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Fun (?) run

Monday, September 24th, 2012

Unfortunately Saturday’s good weather did not extend to the entire weekend. Christine cycled down to Hursley for the start of her 10K. The rest of us followed later, arriving just in time to see Christine finish. Unfortunately we then had to wait about an hour for the children’s fun run to start during which time the rain strengthened. Emma went round in wellies and waterproofs and even then, wasn’t too happy with the rain driving in to her face. She was smiling at the end though and her medal went in to school today. No-one had much enthusiasm for attending the Hiltingbury Extravaganza in the afternoon though.

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First London City Race

Saturday, September 22nd, 2012

It may have been the fifth City of London Race today but it was a first for us. Christine was running first and the rest of us headed in to the race venue (Kings College Students Union) to pick up my number and drop off a bag. We managed to lose Emma there as she raced off up the stairs but turned off at the toilet floor whilst Duncan and I carried on up to assembly. We were eventually re-united though and headed out in to the sunshine to await Christine’s return.

I enjoyed my run. I didn’t make any major mistakes (no dead-ends for example) but I made a few bad route choices. In particular, in the Barbican my eyes just glazed over looking at leg 9-10 and I decided to head out and around the roads. Even then, I failed to take the shortest route to get out to the road. That said, I lost at most a minute and a half and that’s making the big assumption that I would have executed the straighter route correctly. I don’t know whether my eye sight is failing but, in general, I couldn’t make any of the fine route choice decisions whilst on the run. I also wasn’t too impressed by the dust, bricks and mortar that raining down on me in one stairwell as some adjacent scaffolding was being removed. Even more so when I discovered I had to go back that way again!

Christine had taken the children off to see St Paul’s whilst I was running and then we had a trip along to Trafalgar Square (not sure what the children will have made of the SlutWalk demonstration!) and in to the National Gallery (it’s Art Week at school next week). Duncan had largely shunned the buggy that we’d brought with us but we were thankful for having brought it when he had a short nap in the gallery!

It was a good day out, helped by some sunshine, and I’m sure we’ll be back for more in the future

20122209 City of London Race GPX

Posted in Family, Orienteering, Travel | 1 Comment »

Navigating the Test

Saturday, September 8th, 2012

Iain McNally ponders his route to the finish.

Somehow I ended up being responsible for putting together an SOC team for this year’s Test Way Relay (thanks Roderick!). The Portsmouth crew took the first two legs with Jes Dickin leading off and handing over to Andrew Nash. Christine was also running the second leg but for Eastleigh.

I was on the third leg, from Stokehill to Middleton. This isn’t one I’d done before and I failed to recce the route which probably cost me a minute or so due to hesitations and two points where I set off down the wrong track. In both cases I realised my error within about 20 metres so no great harm done. From there the Morans (Ian and Tamsin) took the team down to Stockbridge. The Currie clan stopped off for their traditional dip in the Test at Chilbolton Common. The sun had brought the hordes out but it didn’t make the water any warmer!

By this point we were just 10 minutes behind my (unscientific) schedule. Kevin Bracher took us to Mottisfont and Philip Cooper from there to Romsey. Iain McNally was on the last leg down to Totton which is where things went a bit awry when he decided to check out the trout fishing possibilities. I’m not sure that it cost us any places but put us well over the five and half hours for the 44 mile route. The tide being in, Iain got even more intimate with the water on the way in to the finish. He didn’t, unlike one runner, try and build a bridge across!

Posted in Orienteering, Running | 2 Comments »

Back to Dorset

Wednesday, September 5th, 2012

At the weekend we were back in Dorset, this time for the annual Coast Path Relay. Originally down to run the first leg in Lyme Regis again, we made our excuses as this year we would have to travel down on the morning of the event. We consequently joined in the action at Abbotsbury Castle where I helped with the hill up from the coast, Christine ran to the end of the castle,  and I took over to the next road bend. We then went up to Hardy’s Monument for the kids to have a run around. Having met our team captain there, Christine picked up an extra leg to Kimmeridge Bay. I took over from there for my usual leg to Chapman’s Pool unfortunately this year without a hill team to help me up to Clavell Tower. By the final climb I was reduced to a walk and wasn’t travelling much faster than yet another KERNO hill team making their way back to the car!

Next stop was Studland Bay where the children had a good play on the beach and we enjoyed watching the displays by two Tornadoes and a Vulcan courtesy of the Bournemouth Air Festival. Sadly SOC had slipped some way off the pace of the other teams, not helped by a stray rock draining the oil from the sump of one of the team’s cars. There were still five of us to enjoy the final run along the beach to the finish line. We were greeted by a fly-by from a Spitfire and a Hurricane which perhaps reflects the more sedate pace of our team! The results speak for themselves.

Posted in Family, Orienteering, Running, Travel | 1 Comment »

Vacation Part 2

Thursday, August 30th, 2012

We arrived back from Dorset with a week still to go before returning to work. We made a few trips out when the weather was kind to us, otherwise trying to get a few jobs done at home (including getting this blog back online). The day after we got back we didn’t go far – just a trip up to Farley Mount where the children’s favourite activity (after the play equipment) is building dens. It’s also an excuse for Christine and I to take turns at having a run.

After a day spent on back-to-school shopping, we decided to get out the National Trust cards one more time. This time it was for a trip to Mottisfont Abbey. The children enjoyed the Wind in the Willows Quest which meant that, when we had to retire to the house to avoid the downpour, we could play weasel spotting rather than admiring “Rex Whistler’s trompe l’oeil design in the drawing room”!

By now we were sufficiently rested for a trip to the Science Museum in London. It was a close run thing as the children’s favourite – the train/underground ride there or the museum itself! We started with all of the hands on exhibits which the children thoroughly enjoyed. I suspect Duncan could have played all day with the water in “the Garden”. We went to see the free “Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles” show where, as you can see, Emma go to be encased in a bubble.

The Google Web Lab was a bit disappointing: five exhibits of which two were broken, one had a long queue (the virtual visitors had half of the robots drawing in the and), and one just told you what you had (failed) to do in the others. When asked for his favourite bit of the museum, Duncan replied ‘the steam engine’. Let’s hope he doesn’t turn out to be a complete Luddite!

We spent the bank holiday recovering from our trip to the big smoke. Emma and Duncan even got to watch Emma’s Tangled DVD end-to-end in one sitting. (Duncan just about stayed awake for the whole thing although is breathing slowed considerably!) The forecast was set fair again the next day so we cycled over to Fleming Park to make the most of the paddling pool before it closes for the winter. With the sandpit and playground the kids could easily have stayed there for the whole day.

After a trip to my parents, it was time for Christine to return to work and Duncan to go back to nursery. Emma and I went to Manor Farm Country Park where she particularly enjoyed feeding the calves. I had to milk the cow though when they brought out the one that had given her a (friendly) head butt earlier in the day! Back to work for me on the Friday. Even that wasn’t too bad: 500+ emails reduced to three, setting me up for the next week.

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