Owls Count

In April I went orienteering six times. The map images link to a copy of the course with my route taken from my GPS.

JK Relays

I was running first leg on a Men’s Short team. I had a decent run, managing to keep a decent pace round even though I was suffering from a cold.

Training at Mexico Towans

A short training run around the sand dunes.

St Ives Urban

I made a mess of the first control – struggling to work the map out. For the rest of course I paid too little attention to the contours and went up and down too many hills.

Southern Championships at Penhale

Oh dear. My navigation was all over the place on the dunes. Then I tweaked my hamstring part way round. Not a good day.

British Sprint Championships Qualifier

The format of this race, along with the number of entrants, meant that the top 6 qualified for the A final; the next 12 for the B final; and rest (potentially 20+) going to the C. With my hamstring still giving me problems there was no way I would qualify for anything other than the C final. It would have been a stretch for me to make the B final fully fit. So, I jogged round the qualifier, with no real problems.

British Sprint Championships Final

I struggled to read the map at the beginning of the course and lost time early on. From there on I ran at a steady, non-flat out, pace for the rest.

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 to go for all the controls even if this meant I would be back late. I lost a couple of minutes trying to find 127 in the thicker vegetation in the park. After this I had a decent run around the area.

South West Middle Championships

My legs felt really heavy for this. Running two races so close together was tough. I had a decent race, with the exception of one control (#17) where I threw away far too much time.

JK Middle

This was an action replay of the previous race. A decent run spoiled by losing lots of time on one bad control (this time #16).

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 time on several of the early controls. After six I got into some head-to-head racing and focused on the orienteering, which meant it all went a lot better.

Chirstmas Common

This race took place in really foul conditions. It was rainy, windy, and cold. I ran and navigated well, but ran out of energy at eighty minutes.

Burnham Beeches

Oh dear. I do not know what was wrong, but my navigation was rubbish. I could have had a really good result here, but threw away lots of time. At least thirteen minutes of mistakes in just under ninety minutes of orienteering.