Having not got much exercise last week I attempted to sneak out for a run this morning. I set off south from Kidlington down the canal towards Oxford. At Dukes Lock I noted the branch off to the right for the Thames and concluded that I might be able to make a loop. I therefore continued along the canal to Port Meadow and then turned right through Wolvercote. I then turned north again up the Isis (Thames). Unfortunately, unlike canals, rivers have a nasty habit of branching and it wasn’t long before I found myself paddling across some flooded field not entirely sure where I was going. Eventually I ended up at the ring road but mistakenly turned right again, ending up back at Wolvercote. Looking at the map this evening I realise that the footpath that I had seen turn off never crosses the river and therefore my cunning route was always doomed to failure. Still, my 45 minute run ended up being twice that!
Archive for the ‘Running’ Category
Watery end
Sunday, March 11th, 2007Valley Park victory
Thursday, February 22nd, 2007My luck improved this evening with Christine’s street event around Valley Park. I had two advantages: local knowledge and some inside information that it was going to be border-line as to whether you could get all the controls. Putting these two together it was just a question of picking a vaguely sensible order for all of the controls and then running as hard as I could. The warren of branching streets and small footpaths joining them meant even then some thought was required for the best route between any two points. I made it back in just over 55 minutes and this time, not only had I visited all of the controls, I had only visited them once! There was a good turnout so it was a shame that I then had to rush off rather than enjoying the traditional post-run beverage. I haven’t had a chance to put all of the controls on my route this time but you can probably guess where most of them are from my convoluted route!
Meon Valley Plod
Monday, February 12th, 2007Dibden Street-O
Thursday, February 1st, 2007Always a glutton for punishment, I followed up my lunchtime orienteering yesterday with the SOC street event in the evening. This time it was down in Dibden courtesy of Jon Forster. Jon’s innovation (as a maths professor) was that the difference between each lamppost number and the control number on the map was always a multiple of five. This meant you knew when you were in the right (or even the wrong) place.
Cross-Country spectating
Sunday, January 21st, 2007Privacy over price
Monday, January 15th, 2007To complete my new set of shoes I was looking to buy a pair of Adidas Swoop II fell shoes. The cheapest I could find them online by a long margin was at “the official UK adidas shop“. Unfortunately, reading the smallprint, they appear to be part of Littlewoods Shop Direct Home Shopping Limited whom I would have had to write to (yes, with pen and paper) in order not to receive mailings and telephone calls. In the end I paid the extra £10 to get them elsewhere.
Tired legs
Saturday, January 13th, 2007Memorial Mud
Saturday, January 6th, 2007It was the Hampshire Cross Country Champs at Memorial Park in Basingstoke today. As usual, my pre-race preparation was pretty dire. Spent the morning trying to buy some new shoes having written off my last pair of fell shoes at the OMM. Failed miserably (couldn’t justify a pair of XC spikes to myself) and ended up running in my orienteering shoes. Christine had declined to spectate in the pouring rain so I had to navigate my own way to the race. Finding the park was simple enough but finding somewhere to park was somewhat harder. One lap of Basingstoke later I eventually located the official car park only to be told that, even if I did get in, I probably wouldn’t get out again due to the mud! Consequently I ended up in a city centre multi-storey and ran back to the park.
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