The most nervous competitor in our house this morning was not, however, me. Emma was entered in the 750 fun run (year 2 and under) and seemed a little bit anxious. It was all very well done though with the same musical warm-up routine that the adults were treated to. Christine ran round with Emma (well, I don’t think they ran all the way). Emma looked very serious as she sprinted towards the finish line (Duncan was slightly distracted by the air ambulance taking off at this point) but was full of smiles when she received her medal. She even asked when the next one was!
Archive for the ‘Sport’ Category
Fun running
Sunday, September 25th, 2011Veteran Relay
Saturday, September 10th, 2011Having failed to put together an SOC team for today’s Test Way Relay, it was nice to get a call asking me to run for Southampton AC. It did, however, turn out to be in the vets team! After a trip to the supermarket I left in rather a hurry to make it to Wherwell for the allotted time. As it turned out, I arrived in plenty of time but that did mean I was in place in time to shelter when the rain came through. When a Southampton vest appeared on the horizon in first place I was all set to go however, another Southampton runner appeared from nowhere to take the handover for this, the A team. I didn’t have to wait long for my man though and he had an Eastleigh runner just in front so there would be a race to be had.
The next Eastleigh runner sped off but, to be honest, didn’t look like he was going to keep it up. I overtook him as we entered West Down which was a mistake as I didn’t know which was the right path and ended up climbing further than necessary (it’s a few years since I last ran this leg). When we dropped back to the old railway line I didn’t look back. The distance to Stockbridge appeared to be longer than I had measured in the car on the way there but that probably meant I kept up the pace better than I might have done otherwise. There were plenty of womens and mixed teams to pick off on the way and I also managed to overtake our A team runner (who looked distinctly more veteran than me!).
I enjoyed the run which probably means I should have been faster although the jog back to Chilbolton Common to retrieve the car seemed like particularly work! The A team apparently finished in second place, just 15 seconds down on Overton, with the vets team in 4th place behind Stubbington Green. A respectable position for a bunch of old men!
Dorset Coast
Saturday, September 3rd, 2011We had a great day at the beach in Charmouth on the Friday and met up with Christine’s brother and family that evening for dinner. (It was our anniversary and, after 11 years, I couldn’t wear my wedding ring as it has developed a split!)
In keeping with the tent’s previous outings this year – it was wet on the morning of our last night. However, by the time I’d been to Lyme Regis to do my short leg at the start of the relay and returned, the wind had done a reasonably job of drying it out. Having got everything back in the car we headed over to Abbotsbury where we were running the legs either side of the hill fort. We then weren’t on again until after Lulworth but sadly spent most of that time in traffic around Dorchester for the Dorset County Show. We had lunch on a windswept Povington Hill, watching the dark clouds form over the hills adjacent to the sea.
Christine ran the section from Flower’s Barrow to Kimmeridge. A hill team then brought the baton up to meet at Clavell Tower and I set off for Chapman’s Pool. With the restart at Lulworth there was, for a change, other runners around. I was fairly confident that I should be able to stay ahead of Jack Benham but as we approached Chapman’s Pool and I passed the fourth changeover for the Junior Squad team, I wasn’t sure I’d manage to hold them at bay for much longer. Thankfully the hill team weren’t quite as late as arriving as they had apparently been at some earlier handovers and I wasn’t forced to climb all the way back out of Chapman’s Pool.
We then set of for Studland where the children had a chance to play on the beach. The other members of the SOC team slowly assembled (three are required to run the beach leg to Sandbanks together) and we were greeted to the sight of Paul Whipple splashing through the water round the headland just as the Kerno team came down the hill. The blue and yellow tops therefore inter-mingled as we set off along the shoreline (where thankfully the sea was leaving some relatively firm wet sand) in the race to be third team across the line. I reached the ferry terminus ahead of the first Kerno runner but who were those next two runners? It turned out that Iain McNally (who hadn’t been there when I started) had arrived late but had caught us up which thankfully meant we had three runners home before the next Kerno runner appeared.
In the final reckoning we were fourth over the complete course and second in the handicap with a new fastest time for SOC of 8 hours 34 minutes. In addition Iain was crowned King of the Coast. And most importantly (given that I had told Christine to leave the waterproofs at home) the forecast rain didn’t return until the evening.
Brockenhurst Urban Score
Saturday, August 20th, 2011I’ve got rather used to going along to the orienteering club’s summer series events and getting round the longest course in around half an hour. It was therefore a bit of a shock to the system to get to today’s event and realise that it was going to be a one hour score event. Oh well – that’s only a maximum of one hour I thought to myself. I should, however, have realised that with Jane planning I wasn’t going to be back in much under 60 minutes. As it turned out, I failed to get three controls despite covering over 8 miles in 59:07. It was certainly a good workout though with my heart rate averaging at 172.
The others had done a yellow course whilst I was out. Unfortunately it started to tip it down shortly after Christine set off. We repaired to the car where Duncan proceeded to insert coins in to the CD player (anyone have a set of removal keys so I can turn it upside-down and shake them out?!). By Christine’s return there was blue sky everywhere – just a shame that more people hadn’t hung on a bit for the Summer Series prize giving and club BBQ.
Smashing AGM
Sunday, May 8th, 2011A note on the front windscreen explained everything: “I am so sorry, my little son broke your windscreen by a stone.” This was, however, a very honest chap as it also gave his name and phone number. The following day we therefore had the windscreen replaced under the car insurance and the errant boy’s father has promised to transfer the excess to our bank account. I didn’t offer to return to him the stone that was still resting on our parcel shelf! Other than the sound of glass tipping back and forth when the boot is opened (it will eventually grind itself small enough to come out the drainage holes we were told), everything is now back as it should be.
Longdown RR10
Wednesday, May 4th, 2011Tonight was the first RR10 of the year in which I’m eligible to run. The course at Longdown isn’t a favourite – I don’t mind the undulations, the rutted paths or the tree roots but I do dislike the tight zig-zags and the clouds of midges waiting at the finish. I had no idea how fast to run having only raced once so far this year and only recognising a couple of faces lined up at the start. I probably started faster than I would have done had I not failed to notice my watch was displaying metric rather than imperial! Generally I was pleased with my run though. My legs didn’t suffer any of the tiredness I’ve experienced in past years and I was able to push it right to the end where I cross the line in 11th place.
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