Archive for the ‘Sport’ Category
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010
I finally made it out in to the Forest on a Tuesday evening and was treated to the Telegraph Hill run from Fritham. I chatted to Sam most of the way round (he’s on loan to a different area at work so I don’t see him every day at the moment) and the time seemed to fly by. Think I’m going to have to remember to curb my crisp eating afterwards though!
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Posted in Running | Comments Off on Telegraph Hill
Monday, April 5th, 2010
845For the JK Relays we returned to Braunton Burrows. I was running third leg on the JK trophy behind Matt Whipple and Sam Massey. Matt got off to a steady start despite getting a foot in his face in the scramble for the third control. Sam then picked us up one place on the short middle leg. I didn’t get off to a good start, visiting one of the other gaffles on the first leg despite not having anyone to lead me there. In fact, my feeling was that there were far too many gaffles on the course as, although there were certainly other runners about on my course, I never relt I was running the same course as any of them, part of the fun of a relay. In a sprint finish I came in just behind Duncan Archer in 17th place. This would have put us in the top half of the results. Sadly it wasn’t to be. When I downloaded it seemed I had run straight past control number 6. I’m still not quite sure why – I think I was just running too hard and switched my attention to the wrong circle. It’s a long while since I’ve been disqualified in a relay – let’s hope it’s a long time until it happens again!
Posted in Orienteering | Comments Off on Blunder on Burrows
Sunday, April 4th, 2010
842Our accommodation has a wonderful view over Saunton Sands and Braunton Burrows which meant that we didn’t have far to travel to today’s event. I drove Christine down for her run and took Emma around the string course. Emma enjoyed running up and down the dunes so much that we had to collect all of the off-string controls (although the walk to and from the start was a bit much for her, particularly with all the puddles to jump in). The enjoyment was increased by the copious amounts of sunshine! There were 4 hours between split starts so I could drive everyone back to the cottage, have lunch, and then drive back for my run!
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Posted in Family, Friends, Orienteering | 1 Comment »
Saturday, April 3rd, 2010
Having relocated our accomodation base to Saunton in North Devon it was then a long trek back down south to the first day of the JK individuals at Cookworthy Forest. A journey that we questioned whether it was worth it. One small mercy was that we were in the parking for those with under 6s close to the assembly field which meant we didn’t have the long bus journey (or wait for the bus) that others suffered from. It did, however, mean that we planned to just run straight to the start from the car. Half way there, there was a sign saying ‘No whistle, no go’ so I ran back to the car for a whistle and also picked up pins for a race number. When I got back to the race numbers there was no start list to tell you which number to take and I wasn’t going to run half way across the assembly field to find what my number was.
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Posted in Family, Orienteering | Comments Off on JK Mudfest
Friday, April 2nd, 2010
839Having exchanged my parents for Christine’s, this morning we packed everything up in to the car and headed to nearby Bicton College for the JK Sprint Race. The college grounds provided a mixture of open fields, woodland and a complex of buildings. I was running M21E and the courses started out across the fields before heading in the to the woodland. This is where I faultered a couple of times, struggling with the large scale for what is otherwise classic orienteering terrain, as shown by my GPS track on RouteGadget. That was more than enough to see me way down in the results. After some sunshine, the rain returned in force whilst we waited for Christine to finish. Ambulances aren’t an uncommon sight at orienteering events given the nature of the sport but the arrival of a police car is always somewhat worrying. It was only later in the day that we heard the tragic news that Dave Stubbs from Berkshire Orienteers had passed away whilst out on his course.
Posted in Family, Orienteering | Comments Off on JK Sprint
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
It being the last Tuesday before the clocks change, we met early to get a trip out to Lordswood before it got too dark. Given the weather conditions I’m not sure we succeeded as it was fairly dark in the woods and certainly muddy. Still, it was good fun and it meant I could get back home in time for bedtime stories. Roll on the New Forest…
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Posted in Running | Comments Off on Last outing of the winter
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
830Neil and Alice are off on the other side of the world for the next week or two and have kindly lent us their cycle chariot. Emma was certainly keen to give it a go as she was sat in the seat with the cover over whilst I finished assembling it! Unfortunately Saturday wasn’t really the best day for venturing out on a bicycle as it was drizzling from dawn ’til dusk. By mid-afternoon we had to get out of the house to maintain sanity and a bike ride round the local playgrounds seemed as good an idea as any. As you can see from the photo, Duncan was slightly less keen about the whole idea but then he did go off to sleep shortly after we set off! I certainly found it an easier ride towing two rather than having Emma in the rear seat although there’s not much in the way of hills around us to really provide a test. Given its size, it remains to be seen whether we take it away with us on holiday and, given the price (now about £800 for this model), even more so whether we decide to buy one for ourselves.
Posted in Cycling, Family | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
Having put on my new road shoes for the first time last night it was typical that a route was proposed that, when first run in my absence last year, was apparently ankle deep in mud. The route in question starts by hacking out across to the Common (via the site of Southampton’s Court Leet) and then takes in Hollybrook Cemetery and the Lordsdale Greenway that encircles the Coxford district of Southampton. As well as keeping us off the roads it meant that we got more than the usual level of ‘encouragement’ from local youths! Thankfully it was pretty dry this time round and the trainers came out pretty unscathed. I must remember to tie the laces less tightly next time though as I had pins and needles in my toes for much of the run! An early start next week to take in Lordswood and then we’ll be switching back to the Forest for our runs.
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Posted in Running | 4 Comments »
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