David Currie

On Tuesday I’d cycled home in the rain. It wasn’t all that heavy and, it being a fairly short ride, I didn’t get too wet. Then I went running in the New Forest and got absolutely soaked. It was tipping it down as I drove to Rufus Stone with traffic crawling along the motorway. The GPX track below doesn’t start at the Stone because, having only just arrived on time, the group of runners huddling under a tree for cover weren’t about to wait for my watch to find a satellite before starting off! The only saving grace was that Christine had lent me her relatively new waterproof jacket to take for a test run in case I decided mine wasn’t up to an OMM in Wales so at least part of me stayed relatively dry.
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A belated post about last week’s Tuesday night run. It was probably most notable for the presence of the legend that is Mike Yeo. Having proved that he is still alive though I’m not sure if he ceases to be a legend at that point? Perhaps he can remain a legendary runner as he disappeared in the car as we set off running! The run itself was the two underpasses.
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For September the Tuesday runs have moved to Rufus Stone. We ran round the three cricket pitches with Ian finding them all with impressive accuracy. We did less well on getting back to the underpass, as evidenced by the rather wiggly line below. Thankfully we missed the downpour about an hour earlier and got away with just a little very light drizzle towards the end of the run.
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It was the last Tuesday night run of the month yesterday and hence the last from Wilverley for the year. You couldn’t quite sail on the plain but there was certainly plenty of water about although thankfully none from above. Quite a nice anti-clockwise circular route although a bit of a long drag back to the car (I passed on Neil’s additional foray in to the undergrowth this week).
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The plan was that I’d miss out on this week’s Tuesday night run in the forest so that I could have a good crack at the last RR10, due to be held in my own back yard in the IBM grounds at Hursley. It’s true that I had a little more bounce in my legs that on some previous occassions but still not enough pace to keep going flat out for the three lap course. I even lost a place on the sprint finish, falling back in to 22nd place. It was enough though to ensure that I scraped in to the top 20 for this year’s series. My only encouragement is the significant number of veterans ahead of me – there’s still time yet!
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It was a lovely sunny evening out at Wilverley yesterday and this week I managed to arrive before everyone had set off. We completed a nice loop with much of the time spent in the shade of the trees. We weren’t the only ones out in the sunshine though: just before returning the car park we stumbled across a couple who were – how shall I put it? – enjoying each other’s company without the need for much in the way of clothing. Tip: if you don’t want the moment to be disturbed by a group of passing runners, I’d suggest avoiding the vicinity of a New Forest car park on a Tuesday night!

PS Nice new feature of the XML Google Maps Plugin: if you click on the red icon with the magnifying glass on the left edge of the map then it will open a copy of the map that fills the browser frame.
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We all headed over to a sunny Flemming Park this evening for a new RR10 venue. The municipal golf course was decommisioned earlier in the year and the fairways were to provide the setting for the race. I felt pretty sluggish the whole way round and seemed to be forever being overtaken as we did two very convoluted laps to squeeze in 4.2 miles (the race didn’t venture north of the motorway). I finished 21st which isn’t too bad but I suspect that reflects the fact that it is now the school holidays rather than my running. It was obviously faster than my two supporters were expecting as they didn’t make it back from the sandpit in time to see me finish! The area would make a good location for a permanent orienteering course as has been suggested.

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