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.
1046No self-respecting British blog could let the Olympics pass by without at least one mention. We had two cracks at the torch relay as it visited both Winchester and Southampton on different loops of the route. I’d stupidly booked a meeting to clash with the first so, although I cycled in and soaked up some of the atmosphere, I was back at work by the time the torch bearers hit the city (although I did cycle past a bus containing a whole rack of torches heading the wrong way out of town!). The torch was due to end a day in Southampton and the whole family headed in to see the spectacle. We weren’t the only ones by any means – we failed to buy a ticket for the train as the one ticket machine at Chandler’s Ford station was overwhelmed and I finally handed over my credit card to the guard on the train as we hit the tunnel on the approach to Southampton Central.
Unfortunately, it was rather a damp wait for the torch. We had some over-priced food to eat, had our photo taken with an unlit torch (Duncan looked particularly wet and grumpy!) and picked up some fairly naff freebies from the relay sponsors (Samsung/Lloyds/Coke). We watched the Isle of Wight ferry arrive carrying the (lit) torch and Emma may have had reasonable sight of it from my shoulders as it passed by on the road in front of us. We decided not to wait for it to return from its long tour of the city and the lighting of the cauldron.
Unlike many friends, we had been successful in the first ballot for tickets having bagged two tickets for the Women’s Modern Pentathlon. Unfortunately we didn’t get anything for the children so, whilst up in Monmouth, Christine took them to see some Women’s Football at the Millennium Stadium. The Japan vs South Africa match wasn’t the most exciting with no goals. Apparently the tip up seats were the most exciting part of the trip! The classic quote from Emma was apparently “Why don’t they just have a ball each?”!
Fast-forward to the last day of the games and, with Christine’s parents minding the children, we had relocated to London and were on a six o’clock bus to catch the train to Stratford. We were in to the Olympic Park shortly after the gates opened at seven which gave us time to explore a little and still get a good seat in the Copper Box for the fencing. I can’t claim to have any previous experience/knowledge of fencing but with every competitor having to compete against every other then there was plenty of time to learn the ropes. With two Brits in the mix there was also plenty for the home crowd to cheer for.
There was a reasonable break between the fencing and the swimming which gave us a chance to explore the rest of the beautifully landscaped park before hitting the aquatics centre. In contrast to the fencing, the 200m swim was over in no time at all. We then had to hot foot it across London to the final venue of the day, Greenwich Park, for the horse riding and combined event (running shooting). The horse riding was a lottery in every sense (there is a draw to allocate two competitors to each horse). The argument is that its a test of the riders skill to be able to tame any horse but some were definitely more obliging than others. There was one in particular that kept refusing jumps. Another competitor cleared a jump while hanging from the under side of her horse!
It was only as the last few riders completed their rounds that it became clear that Samantha Murray would enter the final stage in the mix for a medal. As the chasing start got under way for the combined event, the volume of the crowd steadily rose as she worked her way up and entered the stadium for the final time in second place. A silver for Britain in the final event of the Olympics! A fantastic end to a fun day out at the Olympics.
Posted in Sport | Comments Off on London 2012 Olympics
1037I’m using some vacation to catch up on a few blog posts (which I’m going to shamelessly back-date). The end of July saw the last in SOC’s Summer Series of events which was notable for a) actually feeling like Summer unlike most of the other events in the series, b) being on a new area: the IBM site at Hursley and c) being organised by me! Simon Bevan had done a great job of the map, building on some initial work by Charlie Richardson. Given the lack of traffic on the day, I think I had been overly cautious in marking all of the car parks as out of bounds which limited the shape of the courses. On the day, I also spotted a couple of places where I’d been a little careless with the overprint that meant route choices weren’t as clear as they should have been.
Anyway, I didn’t hear any complaints on the day which I suspect had as much to do with the sunshine as anything else. It was certainly good to see so many people staying around for the prize giving and barbecue afterwards. Christine and I picked up first place certificates for the series. We have been to all but one this year which, when set against the fact that we are currently slipping down the British Orienteering rankings having completed insufficient ranking events, says a lot about our orienteering at the moment! We got to know some new club members particularly well when we discovered that Duncan had turned the car lights on at some point and we needed their assistance to start the car.
Thanks go to IBM for allowing the event and in particular Rick Kellaway for his support. Hopefully this will be the first of many orienteering events at Hursley!
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1028Christine is now a member of Eastleigh Running Club and volunteered to help marshal at their annual Marwell 10K. This, of course, had nothing to do with securing free entry to the wildlife park for her and her two little helpers! I had to run 10K to get my ticket in to the event! We arrived early for Christine’s briefing and then I had to sit outside the entrance for half an hour until competitors were allowed in to the park. I then watched the fun run with them (Emma was a week too young to run) before heading off to warm up.
At the start, I placed myself squarely in the 35-40 minute start box. There were a fair number of people in the box in front but it’s an undulating course and, as the results show, only two people actually made it back in under 35 minutes. I found it pretty hard going and when we hit the downhill stretch from 6k to the finish I couldn’t pick up the pace. Still, I finished in 37:33 which was under the 38 minutes I would have predicted and over a minute less than my time from 2005 so I must be improving with age!
Christine failed miserably to take any pictures of me running so here’s a random one of me from one of her club mates. Although it was a little bit nippy, we then proceeded to make the most of the rest of our day at Marwell.
Posted in Family, Running | Comments Off on Wildlife 10K
We decided to sneak in a trip to the first event of the orienteering club’s summer series before Emma had to head off to a party. Unfortunately Southampton Common wasn’t at its summeriest with a steady drizzle eventually turning in to a downpour. Emma, Duncan and I went round the yellow whilst Christine had her run. We made it round the 2km course in just under 35 minutes which must be some kind of a record for Emma. We may even have to start her on some navigation soon! Duncan, meanwhile, stayed resolutely in the pushchair. The rest of the family then departed in the direction of Longdown Farm (with my lunch) and it was my turn to tackle the light green. Theoretically no real navigational challenge but I still wasted a minute at number 9 having failed to realise which clearing I had run up and another 30 seconds or so at 17 when I got ahead of myself on the map. That would have brought me under 4 min/k which would have been nice but I’ll settle for a first place in the results. It’s a shame I then got completely soaked cycling back home!
1004There was a full weekend of orienteering on offer on the weekend just passed. In the end, we decided not to make it three trips to the Forest and spent Saturday enjoying the sunshine doing a bit of work in the garden. I then headed down to the Hamptworth Estate on Saturday evening for the British Night Champs. I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with night orienteering. You can’t beat the pleasure of running through the pitch black and seeing a control looming out of the darkness. Sadly, I tend to spend rather too much time running around in circles and this was not to be an exception.
As RouteGadget shows, I made two major blunders. Everything started well enough but at the fifth control I was rather thrown by the presence of contours in the New Forest and turned up-hill just 10 metres short of the control. Actually, I think I was thrown because my attack point was supposed to be a ditch junction whereas, in the daylight, it was evident that the ditch on the map actually turns in to a veg boundary. I had more trouble with vegetation boundaries at 12 where it looks like I had the rhododendrum boundary out by 90 degrees.
Each of those mistakes cost me five minutes. On top of that, in the tussocks and brashings I was generally too cautious and when I finished I was third out of three and a good 25 minutes down on the leader. As it transpired, the remaining three runners in my class managed to take even longer so I can still claim a bronze medal!
On Sunday, the sun was shining again and we all went along for a fantastic day back at Hamptworth. I took the children round the string course whilst Christine ran. Duncan walked the whole way and both were pleased to see sweets at the finish rather than the usual SOC raisins! We then sat in the sun next to a large puddle adjacent to the finish waiting for Christine to return.
I found the area much more enjoyable in the daylight when it was possible to make use of more distant objects in the vague terrain. Two mistakes again on RouteGadget. The first at 8 where, in the presence of Tim Britton, I failed to realise that I had drifted to the north. Then another two minutes en-route to 12 where I failed to negotiate the rhodies successfully. I was six minutes down on Jack Benham so my running speed was definitely up on the previous night. I can’t quite work out where I’ll end up in the SCOA Champs as a result – probably second or third.
I got back to discover that Christine (with a little help from the sweets) had persuaded Emma to go round the string course twice more (on her own this time) and Duncan had even walked round again. All in all, a fun weekend of orienteering although given my aching legs today, not one to be repeated too frequently!
Posted in Family, Orienteering | Comments Off on Hamptworth: dark and light
998On Sunday we went to the Wessex event at Black Water near Burley (not in Dorset, despite the name of the event: Dorset Delight). Although Thursday night’s snow had disappeared from around our house, it was still very much in evidence in the forest. We were therefore grateful to Christine’s Mum for taking the children round the string course and saving us all from a prolonged day of split starts in the cold. It was a lovely bit of runnable forest and I enjoyed my run in the crisp snow and ice. The mapping and planning left a little to be desired (the former perhaps suffering from a summer revision and the latter from the former) as did my navigation. My meanderings through the forest can be seen on RouteGadget which explain why I ended up nearly six minutes down on the winner. Although my calf was a bit sore, my ankle stood up to the test so time to enter some more events…
Posted in Family, Orienteering | Comments Off on Black Water white water
986At the weekend, we went to our first orienteering event of the year (and Christine’s first as a W35!). I went round the 2.9km yellow course with the children which, when combined with the 800m to/from the start/finish and the hills proved a bit of an epic and we ended up in our usual position in the results. Other than a little pre mid-course snack whining from Emma, both children seemed to enjoy themselves although Duncan only climbed out of the buggy to punch at each control. I went for a run afterwards, sticking to the paths as my ankle still hasn’t fully recovered nearly three months on. I’m now on anti-inflammatories to try and remove the last of the swelling from the joint and hopefully allow the physio and exercises to do their work properly.
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!
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