David Currie

670Christine having run it last year (whilst I was recovering from my appendectomy) it was my turn to run at the second Hursley 10K. The second half of the course is part of one of my standard lunchtime runs in Ampfield Woods but the first part was a chance to take a look at some of the paths through the private Hursley Estate.
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In a break with tradition, tonight’s run will be the last from Rufus Stone this year as the venue can’t really support five different runs. With a bumper attendance, Neil ably led us round a triangle(ish) containing Ocknell Inclosure. On this occasion we managed to stay out of the re-enterants on the North edge of the Inclosure and remarkably we were back at Rufus Stone with time (and daylight) to spare. In case Mike’s memory fails him (!) I should probably say that we ran round clockwise.

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We were missing all of usual navigators on last night’s run (after 10 years I’m still learning the ropes!) and the route suffered a bit as a result. Things started off okay as Neil found the golf course without too much trouble and from there it’s an easy route to Janesmoor Pond. We struggled a bit finding a good line to Cadnams Pond and popped out on the road far too early (although I was sufficiently confused by this point to think we might have overshot). There was then yet more confusion about the location of Ocknell Pond and the route we should take to the campsite (we ended up half way between the path route and the high and dry route i.e. undulating through numerous marshy re-entrants). We eventually found our way back to Rufus Stone though in around 75 minutes and semi-darkness.
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Having discovered the excellent XML Google Maps for displaying maps on a WordPress blog I’ve decided to add a few more GPX routes to this blog. So here’s the route from Tuesday night’s run from the Rufus Stone around two underpasses. It was a bit wet underfoot but not as bad as anticipated (perhaps because Neil’s absence meant we took less direct routes!).
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Fortunately my current desk location in Hursley is away from the windows otherwise the sight of the rain hammering down might have deterred me from turning out for tonight’s RR10 – my first for the year and also the last of the season. The race was, however, actually at Hursley and, with the disbanding of IBM Hursley Runners earlier this year, it was my first chance to actually compete in this race.

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Having driven through the pouring rain (and crawled through the roadworks on the M27) it was a pleasure to arrive at a sunlit Wilverley Plain for my first Tuesday night run of the year. It made a nice change for an hour long run not to involve half an hour running up hill followed by half an hour running downhill and also to have something other than solid rock (or bilberry) underfoot! Even better was the fact that I could buy six pints (admittedly three of which were shandies) and a corresponding number of packets of crisps and still get change from a twenty pound note!

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601My cunning plan to gain a personal best at this week’s Sognsvann Rundt Medsols was to run three laps for the first time. This nearly backfired when, at around five o’clock, the heavens opened. The rain was short-lived though and by the time we were running from the car (parked as close as we can get without going through the toll) to the start there was a wide expanse of blue sky.

As everyone lined up at the start it was clear that numbers were well down – no great surprise as we are now well in to the holiday season here. My legs felt fairly fresh on the first lap as they should have done having not run since the same time last week and having had a reasonable warm-up for a change. I resisted the temptation to race the first woman to the line only to find, as usual, that she carried on for the next lap. Given that she continued to pull away from me it was fortunate (for my male pride) that she then proceeded to stop at the end of the second lap. Indeed, everyone in front of me stopped at this point so I set out on the third lap in the lead.

Needless to say a stitch kicked in at this point – probably something to do with working at home in close proximity to Christine’s baking! Fortunately it eased after a few hundred metres and by half way round the last lap I was able to stretch out my legs a bit again. Perhaps just as well as the second and third placed runners were only about 20 seconds behind. So – a personal best both in time and position. Perhaps I should stop there!