In March I went orienteering three times. The map images link to a copy of the course with my route taken from my GPS. Broadstone and Hillbourne The final race of the Wessex Night League. I was never in contention in the league, as this was only my second race, so I decided early on [...]
In February I went orienteering three times. The map images link to a copy of the course with my route taken from my GPS. Ibsley This race was organised by my club. I spent a couple of hours helping at the start before running. I really struggled for focus in the first part and lost [...]
Two recent orienteering events. Lower Earley The local orienteering club were putting on an event near to where I live and I decided it would be silly to miss out on the opportunity to orienteer around an area I run regularly. The 1:10000 forest spec map, for an urban area, was disappointing and difficult to [...]
I have finally found some time to catch up on the orienteering race reports from the events I went to just after Easter. Staying in Northern Ireland allowed time for a couple of post JK events in the Mourne Mountains and then it was down to the Wicklow Mountains for the Irish Championships. Post JK: [...]
Over Easter I went across to Northern Ireland, to compete in the JK – the annual UK orienteering event. Four days of competition. There are another three posts to come, covering the rest of the holiday and the other orienteering competitions I took part in while away. Sprint – Stranmillis This was a rather frustrating [...]
Sadly I was ill in the run up to this race and had not fully recovered in time to race. I attempted the qualifier, but my pace and HR information show that I was putting in too much effort for the speed I was managing – meaning that I should not have run. My route [...]
Having run the inaugural Poole parkrun, it was then off to Stockhill for the South West Middle Orienteering Championships. Generally, as my route shows, I had a good run. A number of other competitors had bad days, which meant that I finished a lot higher in the results than I had been expecting – particularly [...]
The Southern Championships took place the day after the JOK Chasing Sprint, at Hambledon, which is just north of Henley. This is a very runnable area of beech woodland and the estate catering were on hand with some tasty post-race food options – I went with the venison burger! My route shows both the good [...]
My first orienteering of the year was at the JOK Chasing Sprint. Having not orienteered for four months my technique was a bit rusty. My running was OK, but I never seemed to be moving that smoothly. Overall I finished in 58/71 and looking at the results suggests that even a perfect run would only [...]
I’ve finished running for this year, which was something I could have said ten days ago as well. I decided to take most of December off and start building up my running again next month. I managed 966 miles this year. I have not run enough this year and that is reflected in a disappointing [...]
Last Friday I travelled down for the 5k race organised by Poole Runners. This was the third in the series of six events, which take place once a month from October to March. I ran two of the races in the series last year, with my 5k PB coming in the equivalent race last December. [...]
Another Wednesday and another opportunity to go out orienteering. This time it was to Greenham Common. The weather was reasonable – particularly after the thick fog that had been around for much of Monday and Tuesday – and I managed to finish before the rain came in. The area and courses lent themselves to fast [...]
A couple of weeks ago I took Wednesday off work to go out orienteering. On getting to the train station I said hello to a friend who was waiting, with some of his family, for a steam train to go past. I nearly walked straight past them in my rush to catch my train. With [...]
In the middle of October I travelled up north. The main reason for the trip was to attend the Compass Sport Cup and Trophy final, with my orienteering club being in the trophy competition, which is for ‘small’ orienteering clubs in the UK. While in the area I decided to also run the Woodbank parkrun [...]
At the beginning of October I went to the Midlands for a weekend. Octavian Droobers, the orienteering club for the Coventry and Warwickshire area, were hosting a park race on the Saturday and an urban race on Sunday around Warwick. I had suffered food poisoning on the Thursday before going away and this meant I [...]
I seem to have got behind in posting to my blog! A while back, in mid-September, I went to London for the Third City of London Orienteering Race. This year the race started near the Tower of London and finished on the south side of the river. My route shows where I went. Generally I [...]
A couple of weekends ago I travelled up to Scotland to watch and compete in the Park World Tour and to watch the Junior Home International (JHI). I flew out of Southampton Airport and this reminded me that flying from the smaller regional airports is a nicer experience than going through a big place like [...]
Having travelled back from the Lake District it was on to the Didcot Urban Race. By the time I got to this event the illness that was threatening on the last day of the Lakes had materialised. There was no way I was going to be able to run, so I decided that I would [...]
I woke up on the morning of this event feeling tired. On reflection I should not have run, as what I took for tiredness was really illness. I struggled to run at a decent speed and this area was very much suited to running quickly. I messed up starting my Garmin properly, so I do [...]
The fourth day saw us going to Caw. The car park was a long way from the comeptition area, so it was again a case of packing a bag and taking it slowly to get there reasonably fresh. I stopped at the finish, which was on the way to the start, and had a banana [...]
At the event on Monday there were signs saying that the third day was definitely on. However, a little while later the third day got postponed to the ‘rest’ day and at some point on Tuesday it then got cancelled. This meant that there were lots of people raring to go on the ‘rest’ day [...]
The conditions for the second day of the Lakes 5 days were much different to the first day. At around the time of the first people starting the rain came. It stopped, briefly, a couple of times, but this day was wet. It was a distinct advantage to start fairly early – just far enough [...]
I visited a friend yesterday and he commented that I had not yet made a post about visiting the lake district and orienteering at the end of August. So, here is the first, in a series of posts, about the trip – with the main reason for the trip being to compete in the Lakes [...]
I decided to take a day off work this week and used it to go to the BAOC summer series event at Sandhurst. At the event there were four courses to choose from – a long and a short in the forest and a long and a short urban race in the military academy grounds. [...]
For the mid summer weekend I travelled to south Wales for a further opportunity to orienteer on sand dunes. This time I got an opportunity to go to Merthyr Mawr, which has the highest individual sand dune in Europe – often referred to as the big dipper. Saturday – Individual Oh dear, this did not [...]
Following on from Winchester was the British Age Class Sprint Orienteering Championships, which took place at HMS Sultan. The elite championships took place early in the year so, while there was a race for the open men category, it was not surprising that the turn out in my category was low. Due to reasons I [...]
I have ended up with a backlog of orienteering events to post about. Since the Tamar Triple I have orienteered six times and I am only now finding time to mention the events. Of course, I will definitely be saying that this backlog has been caused by being busy working and training, and that it [...]
Last weekend I travelled to Cornwall to compete in the Tamar Triple weekend of orienteering events, which took place on Penhale – an area of sand dunes situated to the south of Newquay.
The UK is currently enjoying a heatwave. Over the weekend temperatures climbed to 10C warmer than average for this time of year. It was hot when I set off from home, on Saturday morning, to run up to an orienteering event taking place at the University of Reading – i.e at the place where I [...]
Sunday saw a trip to Hawley for some orienteering. I had been to a wedding the day before, which involved a rather good ‘wedding cake’ made of rounds of cheese and also a rather late bedtime. Consequently, I was not at my best on Sunday and decided to do a shorter course than normal. I [...]
This year the Jan Kjellström (JK) Festival of Orienteering took place, over the Easter Weekend, in Devon and was hosted by the South West Orienteering Association, of which my orienteering club is a member. I was attached to the junior squad and, so, spent part of each day parking cars.
Last Saturday I went on a Performance Coaching Day, organised by the British Army Orienteering Club. Over twenty members of Wimborne Orienteers, my club, spent the day in a series of orienteering activities. I have had little formal orienteering coaching before and it was good to spend some time concentrating on specific tasks, which should [...]
Last weekend I travelled to the New Forest, to compete for my club in the south central and south west Compass Sport Trophy round at Hampton Ridge – the inter-club competition for small, UK orienteering clubs. (There is a Compass Sport Cup for the larger clubs.) In addition to the orienteering I wanted to extend [...]
I will not run again this year! The 4.8 miles this morning brought me up to 1232 for the year. There is a temptation to go out and run the extra couple of miles needed to make that 1234 miles for the year, but I will resist. Positives for the year I completed my first [...]
Boxing Day saw my orienteering club’s annual Boxing Day Canter. I had not attended last year, due to illness, but was healthy for it this year. The format is an hour long score event – collect as many control sites as you can in the time. This is a very good way to run off [...]
The courses used a section of Oxford that I know well. The map could be used to detail where I spent a good portion of my time while a student at the university. I’ve not bothered to draw my route in, but there is a Garmin track showing where I went. Or showing where the [...]
The event last year was good , this year was better. The courses started just north of St Paul’s and covered a nice section of central London, as can be seen from my route. I started well – running fast and navigating well, which may explain the three minutes I wasted going to the fifth [...]
This year I went to Switzerland for my holiday and took part in the Swiss Orienteering Week.
Last weekend I went to Wales for a weekend of orienteering. A middle distance race on Clydach Terrace and the Harvester Relays on Merthyr Common. Both area had been used for Creoso 2008, but I did not attend as I was in Chicago at the time. Clydach Terrace As we were staying reasonably close to [...]
Part two of my weekend saw a trip to The National Forest. I really did not help myself for this race, as I forgot to take any hay fever medication and was struggling due to this the whole time I was out running. That does not explain my poor route choice in place though. That [...]
This past weekend saw one of my favourite events for the year – the British Elite Sprint Orienteering Championships. This year the event was held at The University of Nottingham – somewhere I had not been before. As I have family in that part of the world I combined visiting them with the orienteering and [...]
This past weekend I travelled to Basingstoke to run the parkrun 5k and then onto the New Forest for the British Relay Orienteering Championships. Basingstoke parkrun I had a reasonable run and finished in 20:52. This adds to the bulk of my 5k results, where I have now five times between 20:47 and 20:55. This [...]
On Sunday I ran the Southern Championships at Burnham Beeches and Egypt Woods. Since I am racing on four consecutive weekends I planned to treat this as a training run and not go full out. This would then allow me to run in a new pair of shoes – Inov-8 X-Talon 212. However, on starting [...]
On Saturday I raced the JOK Chasing Sprint at Whippendell Wood. Prologue I could tell that I have not done much orienteering recently and my route shows the silly mistakes I made. On the first control I managed to lose two minutes and end up in the wrong block of forest. I am still unsure [...]
This past weekend I travelled to Edinburgh for the Edinburgh University Orienteering Club’s Big Weekend – a weekend of orienteering and a Burn’s night celebration.
The year is nearly finished, so time for a review or my running and orienteering! Miles run: 1433 Days run: 182 Races: 14 Orienteering: 26 Best Race Windsor Half Marathon – paced this really well and ran strongly for much of the time, lowering my PB to 1:42:10. Best Orienteering British Sprint Championships at Warwick [...]
Saturday evening involved some of the group heading off to night orienteer around another part of Leeds. While they were doing that the rest of us found a place to get curry and watched TV. Sunday saw the final part of the weekend – an urban orienteering race around Skipton. On arriving at the race [...]
Having finished at Hyde park we then moved over to Leeds University. As we were fairly early we started by going into the student union and having a mid-morning coffee and cake. A chasing sprint orienteering event comprises of two races. In the first race, often called the prologue, you visit all the control points [...]
Yesterday saw the Compass Sport Cup and Trophy final in Sutton Park. The two competitions are the UK inter-club orienteering competitions, with the cup being for the ‘big’ clubs and the trophy being for the ‘small’ clubs. Last year my club, Wimborne Orienteers, finished a disappointing seventh in the trophy. My own run was fairly [...]
Over the past few years urban orienteering has been going from strength to strength in the UK – whether it be navigating the complexities of a city centre or a university campus. In the past twelve months I have orienteered around Warwick, Oxford, York, and Stockport; and also Surrey, Warwick, and Sussex universities. Yesterday saw [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Even though I arrived in plenty of time I failed to warm up properly. The mass start ensured a fast early pace, even if I took most the way to the first control to get my map under control in the strong winds. The first few controls were about maintaining a good pace in the [...]
I have been meaning to go up to York for the city race for a few years now, but there has always been something else happening on the bank holiday weekend. This year was different and so I put the race in my calendar. We stayed at a camp site just outside York and while [...]
This past weekend saw the JOK Chasing Sprint and Harvester events, with both taking place a short journey from where I live. I ran in the first, but my club had filled a team in the Harvester without me – meaning that I went along to support them and act as reserve. Prologue I had [...]
Having had a good run in the individual it was on to the relay competition, which was using the part of Culbin I had run on last year. For the relays I was running the middle leg in Mens Short. The first runner back helpfully warned all the waiting second leg runners that we would [...]
Last year I ran at Culbin and made a reasonable job of it, so it was with some confidence that I returned this year. For the individual we were running on a bit to the east of the one used last summer. I did not start too well. I allowed myself to be distracted by [...]
In between all the recent orienteering I have also helped at an event. Just after Easter my parents had agreed to plan and organise the BAOC event, which was held at Blandford Camp – on the training area. While I’ve run around the camp before, the bit we were using for this event is new [...]
Qualifier Photos: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 My Route I had a slightly slow first control, while I struggled to locate exactly where I was and where I was going. After that I kept a good pace through the first half of the course, with only a small wobble [...]
Photos: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 My Route From waking up on Saturday morning I was never feeling too great and this was reflected in my run. While my navigation and route choice was ok, I never managed to get a decent pace going. For the first couple of controls my [...]
Photos 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 My Run I was running Mens Short this year. Due to child care arrangements I was going off in the mass start on first leg. I often struggle to get my pacing right in such situations and also struggle to get in contact [...]
Photos 1 – 2 My run My run here can be summed up quite easily. I was not in the right frame of mind and did not push myself. I should have run a lot faster, but never really got going. My route shows that my navigation was reasonably fine. I had two poor controls. [...]
Photos String Course My Run Like the sprint area, Leith Hill had also been used for the World Cup 2005 spectator races. I started at a good pace before missing control 4 and losing two minutes. For the next few controls I did not push myself and lost some time. I then made a mistake [...]
Photos Sprint: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 String Course and Tempo Sprint Prizegiving: 1 – 2 – 3 My Run At the World Cup spectator races, in 2005, I had a really good run around the University of Surrey [...]
While I had run on many of the nearby hills before, this was my first trip to Holmbury Hill. The weather was sunny, but not too hot – rather good running weather. Sadly, I forgot to tape the back of my heels before running. I started well. I ran strongly for the first seven controls [...]
Today was a Military League (S) event at Ocknell. As with a large portion of the New Forest the area was rather wet in places. As I was helping with event setup and at the start I spent some of the time taking some photos and so, also, did my father. Photos page: 1 – [...]
The weather yesterday was sunny, but windy and we were far enough east that the rain did not arrive until after we had got home. Last time running on this area I slipped and injured myself. On looking at the control descriptions before going off it was clear that many of the courses shared several [...]
This week the event was close to home – about eight miles to travel. This meant that we were able to get up later than usual and did not have to rush. Rather pleasant, which is also a good description of the weather. The area was a forest with many minor roads cutting through, leading [...]
The first orienteering event for me this year and it was the club based competition – the Compass Sport Cup. Or rather Compass Sport Trophy, since Wimborne Orienteers are a ‘small’ club. Having been ill in the run up to this event I was not expecting to run too well, meaning that I expected to [...]
As the year draws to an end I looked through the lists of books read and orienteering event attended this year. While looking through the lists thoughts turned to favourites. Books Mad Dogs by Robert Muchamore – the latest book from a very good teenage spy series. The Financial Times Guide to Investing by Glen [...]
Yesterday was my last orienteering event for the year – the traditional Boxing Day event that my orienteering club organises, which is a score event with a novelty twist. The weather was good, which meant a good turnout – including the newest member of my club. I went out of the start well – possibly [...]
About a month or so ago I was feeling rather keen and decided to enter this event. In the end I ran the medium bike course, which was a course of about 16km. Though I managed to add quite a bit of distance to that. The event used Longmoor, Woolmer, and Bordon, with the maps [...]
I have been using Flickr to host my orienteering photos for a couple of years. Every now and then the Flickr team rolls out a new feature – collections and maps being two past examples. This month they have added two great features: stats and photo editing. You need to be a pro member to [...]
Such a contrast from last week. While it was cold, the sun was out and it was a good day to be out running. The pre-race information suggested that a lot of hill running was forthcoming and so it proved – 390m in 7.3km. I started running well, but was a little hesitant for the [...]
For the past two weeks I have been involved in the organisation for the British Schools Orienteering Championships. Last week it was preparing the equipment for use and this week it was drying it all and returning it. Today, finally, the house is looking like a home again, instead of a drying room. On Saturday [...]
I was able to make another of the fine BAOC events today. This time it was into the New Forest – to Red Shoot, which I do not think I had run at before. I chose to run the A course – 8.1km. I started fast, too fast – the good open area inviting fast [...]
On Sunday it was the Southern Orienteering Championships, at West Wood near Marlborough. I had not originally intended to go, which meant I ended up entering on the day. I was running in a new pair of O-shoes and went out on the 5.8km M21V course. The first two controls, of ten, contributed about half [...]
This past weekend was the Second Oxford City Race. Whereas last year we were in the town centre, this year we were in the north of Oxford and starting from the Parks again. I have plotted my route. The overall comment would be that it was a little less tricky than last year, but still [...]
This past weekend saw the final of the Compass Sport Cup and Trophy competitions. The final took place in the East Midlands forest of Blidworth. In the final details for the event was the information: Significant areas of forest mapped as runnable have bramble and bracken growth at this time of year making the runnability [...]
I have been helping to finalise a map, for an upcoming orienteering event, and this morning I fired up OCAD (for the first time in quite a while, to add some logos to the map. It took me a couple of hours to add a handful of logos to the map. For reasons I do [...]
Wow. A fantastic event yesterday. The City Race took place in Warwick and included a trip round the castle. Simon E. has posted the GPS from his run, which gives a good indication of the course. There were a 43 controls in the 7.1km, which meant you really had to concentrate the whole way round [...]
Earlier this week saw the launch of a new website for British Orienteering. For reasons concerned with membership renewal the site has gone live before it is finished, which means that some features are missing or not fully working. First comment is that this is a big improvement on the old site – it looks [...]
I have had a while now and have decided to post a reflection on my two summer orienteering weeks – the O-Ringen and Spey2007. Before commenting on the two events I link to photo 1 and photo 2 of me on the run in on the fourth day of the O-Ringen and photo 1 and [...]
Today the army were offering, in conjunction with the local orienteering club, an one hour score event in Swinley forest. As this is fairly close to where I live, I caught a train, and went along – partly to meet with my parents, as they travelled through and collect some post from them. As my [...]
I had not planned to do any orienteering for a while, but an opportunity came up to go to the BAOC event at Barossa today. They were running a one person relay event. The A course was four loops of just over 2km each. The B, C, and D courses were 3, 2, and 1 [...]
For several years now I have been keeping an orienteering/training log. This is something I programmed myself, as a project to learn php/mysql. I keep thinking about moving to a different system – Attackpoint or Nopesport for instance – but then remember how much info I have already and decide not to. Over the last [...]
When north is not north! Over the last few months I had been noticing that every time I ran on a compass bearing I seemed to be ending up off to one side of where I had expected to be. I had been thinking that I was not running particularly accurately on the bearing, but [...]
In the best traditions of the ‘rest’ day I kept fairly busy. I did not, however, take part in mountain bike orienteering – which sounds to have been fairly epic! Tomintoul My day started with a trip over to Tomintoul to visit the Whisky Castle. There I tasted a few, before picking up a bottle [...]
Day 4 – Culbin My Route Reasonable day, but could have been much better. On any of the longer legs I seemed to be zig-zagging rather than running directly in the direction I was planning on going – losing a few minutes in total. On the penultimate course I ran in the right general direction, [...]
Day 1 – Alvie My Route A fairly good start to the week. I felt my running and navigation were reasonable, but I needed to push harder on the long legs – something that was a theme of the week. Day 2 – Balavil My Route A good first day followed by a poor second. [...]
It seems that my laptop is 15 years old. Or rather the family of laptops it is from. I am fairly impressed with the IBM Thinkpad range. Caught on camera – and found on Facebook: It seems that the University of Oxford is using Facebook photos to catch people breaking the exam celebration rules. That [...]
Days 4 and 5, of the O-Ringen, were to the north and west of Mjölby, respectively. Both days finished through the edge of the town into the same assembly area. Day five included a bridge in the assembly area, after a run across the muddy last control. All of my routes from the week are [...]
Days 1, 2, and 3, of the O-Ringen, were to the east of Mjölby. The courses were on different parts of one big area, finishing in the same assembly field. All of my routes from the week are on RunOway. The walk to the assembly area crossed a river, which was rather high after the [...]
My father has uploaded his photos from the O-Ringen. Somehow I never got round to taking any photos myself!
… for a few days. Sweden was good and I will write about it at some stage. Also found time to read the new Harry Potter, along with many others at the campsite!
Ollie mentioned that the current weather forecast for the OO.cup, in Slovenia, was hot. This prompted me to check out the forecast for those of us travelling to Sweden for the O-Ringen. Weather.co.uk has a ten day forecast, which predicts rain next week. This forecast is combined to news that: The last days heavy rainfall [...]
This past weekend I was in Wales for the 2007 British Orienteering Championships and British Relay Championships. However, the early May Bank Holiday weekend also means the Reading Beer Festival.
I woke up to a nice, sunny day and the promise of a good run round a reasonable area. Well I got most of that – missing out on the good run. My route shows the silliness of my first leg. A rather good run around the area and eventually finding the control. From then [...]
Over Easter was the 2007 JK International Festival of Orienteering. The weather was rather good all weekend, which provided a good backdrop to the event.
Too sleepy to comment on the JK now, but have just finished uploading photos – so some links to those. Sprint Trail-O Day 1 Prizegiving Relays
I really struggled to get moving today. The calf muscles were sore and running was difficult. I went round the first seven controls, including the long leg across the map, then retired. Which is rather a shame, as the course and area seemed to be good. From here it will be a couple of weeks [...]
On Saturday I attended a first aid course – to complete the final part of my Level Two British Orienteering qualification. I have been trying to attend such a course for a while, but the potential courses have, before this one, clashed with other commitments. On Sunday it was off to Harewood for the first [...]
Glorious weather to be running in today. Nice and sunny, but a reasonable temperature. Running at this time of year is good. The course was really quick today. I ran 7:42mins/km, which is quick by my usual standards – back in January, for a slightly shorter course, I was over 9mins/km. I navigated cleanly and [...]
I did not go to the BAOC event last week, as my heel was still sore. This week, with the event being fairly close I decided to go along. The heel has not fully recovered, but was good enough to run on. I ran fairly well today. Managed to keep a consistent pace for most [...]
Saturday night was spent in Leatherhead. I watched a fair amount of the Six Nations and had dinner at a local Italian restaurant. From the Travelodge it was a short journey on Sunday morning to the event. When I put on my o-shoes I noticed that my heel was sore. I decided to go up [...]
This weekend was the JOK Chasing Sprint, held on Banstead Heath. The whole of this weekend was made more difficult by me forgetting to take any contact lenses with me and, so, having to run in my glasses – not the best way to start. Prologue In the morning was the prologue. A 5.9km course, [...]
Reasonable course and a fairly good area to run on. I made a silly five (plus) minute mistake at number six, when I stopped concentrating and ran one spur further than I should have. The navigation was not that difficult and generally it was a case of running as fast as possible on a fairly [...]
On Saturday I went up to Malvern to meet up with a group of friends from my undergraduate days. Due to complicated scheduling this was our 2006 Christmas meetup! A rather good day On Sunday I was at Inside Park for an a local orienteering event. The photos from the event are here. I had [...]
Having been to the theatre last night I got in rather late. This meant that getting out of bed this morning was a bit of a challenge, but getting out of bed was well worth it. Really enjoyed the event today and liked the area. I started well and managed to keep a good consistent [...]
After some recent poor weather it was good to wake up to a sunny morning. I really enjoy running on winter mornings like these. The poor navigation today was displayed to and from the event with a couple of trips round Farnham, as we struggled with the one way system and poor signs. For the [...]
An event in the New Forest, in January, after some recent heavy rain, suggested lots of mud and marsh, but this was not really the case. While the paths were often deep in mud and the marshes wet, if you could avoid both then it was fairly dry and runnable. I decided to do the [...]
Today was my club’s annual Boxing Day mass start score event. The format is one hour score with a few bonus controls (Father Christmas, a fairy, and a Christmas Tree). A few photos from the event are here. Entry was slightly up on last year, as it has been for the last few years. I [...]
On the way to this event we drove through heavy rain and several stretches of flooded road. On arrival in the car park we learnt that those coming from the west had had hail and thunderstorms on the way. So it was with some relief to that when I went out to compete it was [...]
After running the day before and recent long hours in work this was probably not an event for me. Which was a shame, as it was glorious out in the New Forest – good weather and a good forest. I ended up abandoning my course, having a refreshing run around, and punching some of the [...]
Some photos from the event are here. A very enjoyable run through the old city. Generally my navigation was fine. Knowing large chunks of Oxford well meant I could pick out some of the passageways and better route choices from a quick glance at the map. I had a few problems getting into Wadham – [...]
A struggle.
The Compass Sport Cup/Trophy Final was yesterday at Greenham Common. In a change to usual even those of us belonging to clubs who had failed to qualify were allowed to run – though either before or after the main competition. With it being the CSC/T there were a large number of people competing (around 1000 [...]
The past weekend was the annual south west event – the Caddihoe Chase. Two days of racing, with the second one using a chasing start based on the results from the first day. This year it was a joint WIM/WSX event on Bovington. The north part on day one and the south on day two. [...]
My research group usually holds seminars and meetings on Wednesdays meaning that I cannot get out to the midweek BAOC events that often. However, we are still on a summer semi-break, so I was able to get out and run this week. Might have to see if I can get out more often – these [...]
Back in my previous entry I mentioned that I would write about the World Orienteering Championships and the Tour races. Since then I have been a bit busy and so it has taken a few weeks to write anything. This was my first experience of orienteering abroad and overall it was fairly good. As terrain [...]
Finally back to my place, so that I can update about the World Orienteering Championships 2006. This first update is just a link to all the photos Barny and I took of the various events. I will blog more about the event and spectator races at some stage soon. Long Qualifiers Opening Ceremony Sprint Final [...]
Harris format relay – starting from near the water. Not sure my team got the split of controls correct. I was back before the other two people. Though all three of us had had problems with a couple of controls. I had a reasonable run. Seemed to move quite well, just not moving that fast. [...]
Oh dear. My concentration was not good at this event. I kept switching off and running off in the wrong direction. The first control was a mess. I went all over the place before eventually finding a control from later on my course and navigating in off it. At least three minutes lost, but it [...]
I had a couple of objectives for this event. The first was to finish in front of my father and the second was the qualify for the C final. I achieved the former (though by only one second in the heat), but failed on the latter. In between the heats and finals I took some [...]
Three events in Wiltshire. Nice and close to my parents place, so only a little travelling for me over the weekend BEOC Middle – Fonthill (29th April) Running a classic length elite course is simply far too far for me. This means that when a middle, or sprint, event comes around I take the option [...]
This area allows for fairly fast running – there is little climb and the forest had little vegetation. I probably needed to be more relaxed out of the start. A stupid mistake meant I ended up looking for the first control in the wrong block of forest, and so lost about four minutes on what [...]
This was a score event, organised as part of the Wednesday military league. Due to other commitments I rarely get to go out to these events, which is a shame – they are usually fairly good. After a quick look at the map I decidedly that I would head out towards a group of controls [...]
British Orienteering Championships (1st April – aka April Fools Day) Very, very muddy. Slipped early on in the course, between controls one and two, and landed on a lump of rock. That left me struggling to run and so I decided to take it easy – walking much of the rest of the course. Cannot [...]
