Owls Count

This past weekend I travelled down to near Brighton for the SE Sprint and Relay Championships. We stayed at Blacklands Farm Campsite, which had basic toilet and shower facilities and a large camping field. The weather over the weekend was reasonable, except on Sunday morning there was a thunderstorm that started just after we had finished packing the tents up!

The orienteering was based on the University of Sussex. A big benefit to this was that we had access to the university sports centre. This meant I could have a shower before travelling home - much nicer for me and the other train passengers.

Following on from the SE Sprint Championships was the South East Relay Championships, taking place in Stanmer Park and the University of Sussex. I was running in a non-competitive, due to being out of region, handicap team with my parents.

Dad had first leg and set out well on the middle length course. His course had a ’round the hill’ first control rather than the ’straight up the hill’ that everyone else had. He was a fair way up before he noticed and veered off. There were a couple of quick runners on the same course and I expected him back after these two in about thirty-five minutes. After about thirty minutes there had been a couple of people back, who had had the short course first, but no sign of anyone on this course. Then suddenly dad appears leading one other. It turns out that he had got he navigation right and slowly burnt almost all of the others away. Mum was off next, on the short leg. I expected about a thirty minute run, which gave me time for a trip to the toilet and time to warm up. As is happened, mum took just under 29 minutes.

I set off well, closing in on the person who had started just before of me. We wasted a bit at the first control - getting confused by the vegetation and then lost about four minutes at control four as the unmapped indistinct paths caused much confusion. After this I ran well, losing the person I had been with as he made a small mistake. The last part of the course crossed into the university and through this section I ran quickly and navigated accurately.

Overall we finished in 109:03, which was good enough for fourth place. An impressive result I feel.

At the weekend I travelled down to Sussex for the South East Sprint and Relay Championships. For the past two weeks I have been training heavily and I was not sure how my legs would feel trying to run fast.

SE Sprint - Race 1
I started well. For the first four controls my navigation and running was good. Then I lost 20 seconds at 5, 35 seconds at 7, and some more time towards the end of the course. My route shows the mistakes I made in the second half of the course. My time was 17:58, but I should have taken around 16:30.

SE Sprint - Race 2
The second race went better. I again started well, but managed to keep my concentration and navigation good. I also managed to spot fairly good route choice quite quickly. My time was 21:17 - I could have been sub 21 minutes, but not any better than that.

Overall
My combined time was 39:15, which put me in 20/33 - or 24/73 if you combine in the other classes who ran the same course. I was just over 10 minutes behind the winner, which is reasonable. My legs felt good, even with all the recent running.

A couple of weeks ago I travelled to Chicago for Terminus. The Narrate Conferences team put on a terrific event - combining an extensive academic program with wizard rock, Quidditch, and fan exploration.

I was out to meet with friends and also was one of the volunteers - registration and information were my main areas, but I also spent my usual Saturday out on the Quidditch pitch. This year we drew amazingly straight pitches, which impressed those who could see them from the higher floors of the hotel. While out in Grant Park we also watched the people setting up for the Chicago Distance Classic Half Marathon. I did not present this year and, due to a combination of factors, got to see very little of the academic programming.

WordPress 2.6.1 has been released. Upgrade went smoothly and everything seems fine - if you do notice a problem with the site then let me know.

I got back from nine days in Chicago on Wednesday. While there there was an impressive thunderstorm. I’ll post more about my Chicago trip at some stage.