David Currie

A frosty morning saw Petr, Andy, Matthew and myself heading up to Cold Ash near Newbury for the BKO district event. None of us had checked the details so it was lucky Andy got the 9:05 train not the 10:05 as last start was eleven o’clock due to the Yvette Baker Trophy final that followed. We obviously weren’t the only ones though as just after I started, they began to push competitors through at half minute intervals to get everyone out in time.

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After a frustrating week at work it was great to get out in to the Forest for a run today, particularly with the sun putting in an appearance. Mike Yeo had laid on a local event at Knightwood Oak (doing himself an injury in the process). The longest course was a green so no excuse for not running hard.

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We headed over to the Forest of Dean today for Bristol Orienteering Klub‘s district event at Moseley Green. I went out on the brown course and was pleased to discover that the planner’s primary concern seemed to be to ensure that competitors saw the best bits of the area and didn’t have to fight their way through too much of the bramble infested woodland (even if this meant the odd dog leg in to and back out of a control).

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We went over to the BADO district event at Chawton Forest Park this morning. Yesterday’s sunshine was still with us and it was a pleasure to be out in some of the more runnable bits of the forest. This was probably just as well as I didn’t have the best of runs on the Brown course. My legs felt tired, my cold still hasn’t gone away completely and I have failed to do anything about my ankle since the OMM. On top of this I wasted at least five minutes on just three of the controls.

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Sunday was another glorious day. This time we were out in the New Forest for the SOC November Classic. Cruelly, not only were we helping early, but I was shouting out names at the start line. This wasn’t good for either my alcohol induced headache or sore throat! When the time came to run I was dehydrated, my legs were tired (mainly from the OMM last weekend) and my left ankle was sore from slipping off a kerbstone in the previous day’s city race.

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Saturday evening saw the JOK AGM and dinner of which there is a short write-up on the JOK website. I managed to escape the AGM with a question on why Google AdSense had paid the club just 18 pence (this being the transfer to validate the club’s bank account). Earnings are so far around $60 – still too little to actually receive any money. Someone obviously wasn’t drinking their fair share of the wine at dinner as far too much of it ended up in my glass. Indeed, I don’t remember Christine’s speech at all despite having taken several photos of it!

220OUOC were blessed with a fantastic bright autumn day for their Oxford City Race on Saturday. Three hundred competitors converged on University Parks for what was to be an exciting day’s racing. We both had late starts so were able to soak up the atmosphere and hear the stories from early runners. One thing was certain – care was needed when navigating Wadham not to end up in the college kitchens!

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