A belated post about last week’s Tuesday night run. It was probably most notable for the presence of the legend that is Mike Yeo. Having proved that he is still alive though I’m not sure if he ceases to be a legend at that point? Perhaps he can remain a legendary runner as he disappeared in the car as we set off running! The run itself was the two underpasses.
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Living legend
Friday, September 18th, 2009Dire Dibden
Sunday, September 6th, 2009We went orienteering for the first time in ages today and it showed! We were down at Dibden early to set out the string course (yes – it’s come to that!) so my brain wasn’t entirely engaged. Things started out well enough on my course with reasonable speed and not much requried in the way of navigation. On the way to five I somehow decided I was running along the fence to the south of the control and when I didn’t see a bend in it decided I had overshot. It was only after wasting about three minutes that I eventually hit the open ride and twigged what I had done.
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Running from Rufus
Tuesday, September 1st, 2009For September the Tuesday runs have moved to Rufus Stone. We ran round the three cricket pitches with Ian finding them all with impressive accuracy. We did less well on getting back to the underpass, as evidenced by the rather wiggly line below. Thankfully we missed the downpour about an hour earlier and got away with just a little very light drizzle towards the end of the run.
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Escape to Chilworth
Saturday, August 29th, 2009Partly in preparation for the impending birth, and partly to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary next week, we left Emma in the hands of her grandparents last night and decamped to a nearby hotel. Chilworth Manor is not the most luxurious of places (it used to be the University’s conference venue) but it served our purpose and the new leisure facilities provided for a very nice swim in the morning. We did, however, make the mistake of walking to the nearby Chilworth Arms for dinner. The walk itself was fine – we even stumbled in to the Chilworth Conservation Area whilst strolling around the grounds of the manor. The service once there was pretty poor: we were given someone else’s starter, the table next to us were brought the bill when they hadn’t asked for it, and the man on the table behind had asked whether a sauce was gluten free when ordering but it was brought to the table without anyone having checked. The food was also pretty variable. The “rustic bread” starter tasted pretty foul and had been drowned in olive oil. Christine enjoyed her salmon but my chicken, mushroom and leek pie mysteriously came with no pastry or other topping. Even the waiter commented that he thought this a little odd for a pie. As with our last visit a few years ago when Christine received a burnt starter, we didn’t pay for the entire meal as Christine found a piece of broken plastic container in her dessert. I think it’ll be a while before we eat there again…
Plain sailing
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009It was the last Tuesday night run of the month yesterday and hence the last from Wilverley for the year. You couldn’t quite sail on the plain but there was certainly plenty of water about although thankfully none from above. Quite a nice anti-clockwise circular route although a bit of a long drag back to the car (I passed on Neil’s additional foray in to the undergrowth this week).
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Home run
Thursday, August 20th, 2009The plan was that I’d miss out on this week’s Tuesday night run in the forest so that I could have a good crack at the last RR10, due to be held in my own back yard in the IBM grounds at Hursley. It’s true that I had a little more bounce in my legs that on some previous occassions but still not enough pace to keep going flat out for the three lap course. I even lost a place on the sprint finish, falling back in to 22nd place. It was enough though to ensure that I scraped in to the top 20 for this year’s series. My only encouragement is the significant number of veterans ahead of me – there’s still time yet!
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Wilson Christening
Monday, August 17th, 2009We headed up to Lancashire this weekend just gone for the christening of Christine’s cousin Cath’s son: Daniel Wilson. We stopped off in the Midlands on the way up (must remember that the “South” in “Warwick South Services” refers to the direction of the carriageway, not the location!) and completed the journey on Saturday morning. I had unfortunately been looking at the weather forecast for the south of England and hence wasn’t quite prepared for the downpour we experienced whilst out for a short walk with Steve’s family. We stayed the Saturday night at Cath’s parents before finding our way to the venue for the Christening: St James the Less in Rawtenstall. The priest delighted in telling us how short the ceremony was and then proceeded to regail us with a detailed history of the church to compensate. Daniel didn’t seem too put out about being dressed in a white frock and only resorted to tears when inverted over the font. It was good to seem so many of his family and just a shame that we had to disappear off early to start the long trek back down south.
Caught in the act
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009It was a lovely sunny evening out at Wilverley yesterday and this week I managed to arrive before everyone had set off. We completed a nice loop with much of the time spent in the shade of the trees. We weren’t the only ones out in the sunshine though: just before returning the car park we stumbled across a couple who were – how shall I put it? – enjoying each other’s company without the need for much in the way of clothing. Tip: if you don’t want the moment to be disturbed by a group of passing runners, I’d suggest avoiding the vicinity of a New Forest car park on a Tuesday night!
PS Nice new feature of the XML Google Maps Plugin: if you click on the red icon with the magnifying glass on the left edge of the map then it will open a copy of the map that fills the browser frame.
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