Had great fun at the Wimborne Orienteers Night Owl event this evening. Moors Valley Country Park has a dense path network so controls were never far from a track. This meant you could sprint most of the time and the only problem with navigation was trying not to overshoot some of the smaller path junctions. Unfortunately I didn’t twig straight away that I should be able to get all of the controls and had to go back for one at the end but still managed all 26 in 53:54.
Archive for the ‘Sport’ Category
WIM Night Owl
Saturday, November 12th, 2005Wet November Classic
Sunday, November 6th, 2005Setting up the start in the pouring rain wasn’t ideal preparation for my run at this year’s SOC November Classic. The map was named “The Reptile Centre” after the tourist attraction at the northern end. As I set out of the start I new it was going to be a slow run – I could still feel last week’s KIMM in my legs. This was made worse by the brashings littering the forest floor and the mudbaths that passed for paths. I felt the course could have been better as too often I found myself following some obvious line feature in to the control. Consequently, the couple of navigational errors I made were mainly due to tiredness. Still managed 83 minutes for 12.7km which isn’t too sluggish. Unfortunately a trio of touring Scandinavian buses meant that I was well down the results with Mats Troeng clocking in at a mere 63 minutes and his brother not far behind!
At least we had a chance to dry of afterwards with a nice meal at The Oak Inn, Bank with friends. I can recommend the Thai fish cakes!
Lyndhurst Street-O
Thursday, October 20th, 2005It was the first SOC street event of the winter tonight. As usual, Richard Jeans had drawn up a map of Lyndhurst with fire hydrants, street lamps and post boxes as controls. I set off North out of the town centre and made the mistake of spending too long picking off the low scoring controls on the way out. My LED Petzl was fading and it was proving difficult to find some of the hydrants in the dark.
I passed Mike Yeo running in the opposite direction after about half an hour. I knew Mike had only been to the controls far out at Bank so decided that I wouldn’t go out there. Instead, I tried to get as many of the medium scoring controls on the outskirts of Lyndhurst. This strategy seemed to pay off and, returning with about a minute to go, I had managed all but six of the controls.
Farley Mount X-Country
Saturday, October 8th, 2005The first race of the Hampshire Cross-Country series took place today at nearby Farley Mount. There was a good turnout from Southampton Running Club with both mens and womens teams. The 3km loop has a couple of steep climbs and descents and, although dry underfoot, is bumpy in places. The senior men complete three laps and the women two.
Christine was feeling unwell but struggled round to fill the last place in the womens team. My legs were, not unsurprisingly, still a bit tired from last weekend so I deliberately didn’t race off at the start. I didn’t feel too bad after the first lap so picked up the pace a little and jockeyed for position with Eric Parker, also from Southampton. As we climbed the ascent at the start of the third and final lap I was able to pull away. Couldn’t quite catch Matt West despite the hamstring injury that was obviously giving him grief at the end. Finished in 68th place in a time of 33:14.
Clarendon Way Marathon
Sunday, October 2nd, 2005Took part in my second Clarendon Way Marathon today from Winchester to Salisbury (having done the half a number of times before that). Set off far too fast but then I was also running the first leg for an IBM Hursley Runners relay team. There were two other relay teams out in front and then three of us marathon runners together. After the first changeover one of the three made a break and I went after him.
We made it through the halfway point at Broughton before the half marathon competitors started (an hour and a half after we set off). I was out in front at this point after the Pewsey Vale runner had slowed to take on fuel. The first half marathon runner went past at about eighteen miles (he later took the course record in a time of 72 minutes).
By this point I was starting to slow on the hills and, at around twenty miles, I was finally overtaken. There was no way I could keep up and, as the miles dragged on, I was starting to worry I wouldn’t make it back in under three hours as I had hoped. I eventually staggered over the finish line in 2:58:57, five minutes down on the winner but still in second place.
Mourne Mountain Marathon
Monday, September 19th, 2005
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World Moutain Running Championships
Sunday, September 11th, 2005Congratulations to Christine’s Mum (Sue Ashton) was came ninth in W50 at the World Masters Mountain Running Championships held in Keswick yesterday.
Test Way relay success
Saturday, September 10th, 2005
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