It was the Clarendon Way Marathon today which runs from Salisbury to Winchester. The weather forecast was pretty dire with heavy rain and strong gusty winds predicted. In the end, there was just a persistent drizzle for most of the duration and you only really felt the wind on some of the more exposed stretches. More of a problem was what the rain had done to the ground: turning the exposed chalk in to a skid pad, creating a mud bath of much of the off-road sections and, in places just leaving wall-to-wall water.
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Muddy Marathon
Sunday, October 3rd, 2010Getting dark
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010It was our last run from Rufus Stone tonight and the last for which we’ll start at 6:30. Despite a prompt start, the fine drizzle meant that it was soon pretty gloomy. We did, however, manage to find Bramble Hill Hotel on the first attempt. Back to Fritham next week and an earlier start.
Four wheels better than two
Sunday, September 26th, 2010More of an issue was the sibling rivalry going on in the back. At one point Duncan was banging Emma over the head with a spade (of the bucket and spade variety I hasten to add! Today Emma insisted that I took her to the supermarket in the trailer (and that Duncan didn’t come.) In the end it was just as well that Duncan wasn’t there as we got a bit carried away with the shopping. Thankfully there aren’t too many hills on the way home!
All things considered, I think it was a good move. The trailer makes less difference to cycling than having a seat on the back and I’m sure Duncan will appreciate it for his ride to nursery when the weather takes a turn for the worse. Most importantly, it means one of us can take both the kids out (providing they learn to get on a bit better!).
Pond numbering
Thursday, September 23rd, 2010Unlike last week, it was a lovely evening for a run on Tuesday. As usual I stayed out of the discussion about where we would go but it seemed like Neil and Peter had come to some agreement as to where we would run from Rufus Stone. That didn’t stop us ending up doing two different runs! It all seemed to be down to what you consider to be the forward direction for the Six Ponds run from Fritham. Both Neil and Peter were heading for pond number two but Peter was numbering clockwise (Longcross Pond) and Neil was numbering anti-clockwise (Cadman’s Pool). You can work out from the track below who I was following!
Highland Hash
Wednesday, September 15th, 2010Now that Sunday’s courses are up on RouteGadget, the true horror of my run is available for all to see. My first problem was that I was still in “standing in a sunny field collecting car parking money” mode when I started (it had been a last minute reprieve which meant I was rushing to get out so that Christine could have a run afterwards). Three was where things started to go wrong as I just failed to pay attention to the direction I left two in and then tried desperately to make the ground fit the map around where I wanted to be.
Emma’s logic
Tuesday, September 14th, 2010I was impressed by Emma’s demonstration of logic this evening. I had replied to a question of hers “Do pigs fly?” to which, with little thought, she responded “Do bats hang the right way up?”!
Which two underpasses?
Tuesday, September 14th, 2010Holiday time must be over as numbers had returned to normal for tonight’s run despite the inclement weather. The run was a bit fragmented and there seemed to be a bit of confusion about exactly which two underpasses we were going through as a consequence of which I certainly ended up further west than the one I was intending to use. Thankfully everyone made it back though. Mike had put in a good word for us at the pub and consequently the speed of service was greatly improved!
Testing Way
Saturday, September 11th, 2010On Thursday night Christine, then Emma, then I, had been sick. Although Emma bounced back very quickly, Christine and I had spent Friday recovering and it was therefore with some trepidation that we set off for today’s Test Way Relay. Christine was running first leg for the Southampton Orienteering Club team, starting at Inkpen Beacon. As they had only two women in the team they didn’t qualify as a mixed team and hence she set off with around 15 men (the womens and mixed teams starting an hour earlier). It therefore wasn’t particularly surprising that she came in to the changeover in last place.
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