SLOWprint 146
January 2004
Team Success at the Yvette Baker Trophy
http://www.sloweb.org.uk/
Club Officers 2003–2004
|
Chair: Chris Robinson, : |
Secretary: Don McKerrow, : |
Ladies’ Captain: Karen Jones, : |
|
Treasurer: Liz Armitage, : |
Mapping Officer, SEOA Rep.
and Fixtures Secretary: Andy Robinson, : |
Club Kit: Teresa Turner, |
|
Men’s Captain: Peter Huzan, : |
Publicity Officer: Paul Canham, : |
Social Secretary; VACANT |
|
Membership Secretary: Ginny
Catmur, : |
Beginners’ Rep. and Training
Officer:
Heather Walton, :Heather. |
Equipment Officer: Chris Fry, : |
|
Archivist: Sue Lumas, |
SLOWprint Editor: Sarah Brown, : |
Webmaster: Andrew Trimble, : |
Copy date for Issue 147 will be March
04. Letters, event reports, articles, cartoons, gossip, scandal, notices, small
ads, court circulars, births, deaths and marriages should be posted to Sarah
Brown (address above); electronic copies via e-mail are particularly welcome.
New Members: If you are new to SLOW, you
might not know about ... Training:
PLEASE READ about our winter season page 9,
and also Hot Picks page 10 - a chance to meet other members
…
and Transport: we can organise lifts to events: ring any of the
club’s officers, as listed above, and one of us will sort this out for you.
|
MIDGE'S MUTTERINGS |
Well done to our Junior Squad who rounded off a very successful year by
taking 5th place in the Yvette Baker Trophy National Final in early
December. The club decided to splash out
by heavily subsidising a coach to take (most of) the team plus supporters to
Norfolk. Everybody seems to agree this
was a good use of the club's money.
The following weekend SLOW staged the Southern Night Championships on Hankley
Common with the
OK Nuts Trophy the next day. For
the OK Nuts, we had to 'borrow' Puttenham Common from Guildford Orienteers, for
which we are very grateful. This was due
to Hankley not being available for the Sunday.
For the first time, the OK Nuts featured loop races (a one-person relay
is the simplest explanation). We asked
for feedback on this format and I have heard many positive remarks (exciting,
different, fun, head-to-head racing), so it's a format we are likely to
repeat. Any further comments would be
welcome. We have applied for Ranking
Status for this event, and it could be adopted into the South East League with
a bit of tweaking.
We held our monthly club nights/street Os in December and January. Please do come along to these evenings. Now we are not running or going to the pub
every Tuesday, they are our only chance to meet and discuss club matters, aside
from committee meetings. So do make the
effort to come, even if, possibly especially if, you don't run.
We're in the throes of organising the Box Hill Race, which should have
happened by the time you read this. Then
it's our coaching weekend in the Lake District: time to start thinking about
the big competitions coming up.
Happy New Year!
Chris Robinson
Chair
Selected Highlights!!!
page 6: Volunteers needed at the Outdoor Show, NEC,
page 8: Team Events
page 9: Training Events
page 10: Hot Picks
|
SLOW members’ news, June – October 2003
from Ginny Catmur, Membership
Secretary |
With this issue ‘local’ members will find their
membership renewal form. BOF members have been sent their renewal reminders
directly by BOF.
Liz, our Treasurer, provides the following
explanation of the slight increase in fees to ‘local’ members:
Membership
/ Subscriptions update for ‘local’ members
BOF
/ SEOA have recently decided that SEOA is to be funded based on the number of
members in each club.
This
doesn’t affect existing BOF members, but will mean that local (ie non- BOF)
members will pay more in subscriptions in 2004.
You
can carry on paying the existing SLOW membership rate (Ł10 individual, family
& groups, Ł1 junior / students) if you qualify as an ‘associate’ member ie
if you are in another club as a BOF member, or if you live overseas and are
non-BOF.
Local
members not in the ‘associate’ category will unfortunately have to be charged
extra for SEOA: family Ł6, individuals Ł3, juniors / students Ł1.50 and this
will be passed on to SEOA; SLOW fees remain unchanged.
The
full list of fees is on the website.
E
Armitage (Treasurer)
I will send out the Address List for 2004 with
the next issue of SLOWprint.
Ginny Catmur
SLOW members’ news, October 2003 – January 2004
Welcome to the following new members
Sarah Covey-Crump (W21), , Mitcham,
Chris Cox (M35), Julia (W21), Martin
(M14) and Danny (M14) Bage
Julia (W45), Marcus (M16) and Jessica (W12) King,
David (M40), June (W35), Laura (W12) and Stuart
(M8) Ashforth
Karen (W35), Nicola (W10) and Robert (M8) Hanson,
Rachel Oxburgh (W35) and Matt Rowe
(M21)
Jenny Costigan (W21), Putney,
Rachael Holmes (W21), , Clapham,
Oliver O’Brien (M21),
Births: Kinnon: Heather Louise, born on 7th April
2003, weighing 7lb 6oz, followed 3 mins later by her twin brother David Robert
weighing 6lb 14oz. Congratulations to Alison and Richard.
|
From the Editor: Apologies to David May whom I omitted to mention when reviewing Slow members who were running for their national teams. David ran for Wales at the Veterans’ Home International last September and had the distinction of winning his class. Congratulations to Ralph Street and Mike Murray for being picked to run for England at the Interland Competition between Holland, Belgium and England which is to be held at the Guildford event on February 1st. |
|
COACHING CORNER
from Heather Walton |
Many congratulations to our junior team for
coming 5th in the Yvette Baker Trophy final on page 7. Well done for all your efforts. Many thanks to Sarah Brown for organising the
coach up there and to Pete Huzan and Chris Fry for team management and the team
pep talk – it obviously worked!
Next up is a coaching weekend in the Lake
District, hot on the heels of this SLOWPRINT.
News of how people conquered Lake District terrain in the next
SLOWPRINT.
No date has been fixed for the next
beginners/junior coaching day but there will probably be one in late
March/April. But there will be many club
members around at the Hot Pick events (see page ??) if you want some advice.
Well done to Ralph Street, 3rd on
M14A at the November Classic and to James McMillan and Michael May adventuring
round a tough M16A course in preparation for this year. A symmetrical result for the Haynes family at
Epping – Matthew was 2nd on JM1 and James 2nd on
JM2. Michael May won JM5S and Ali
McKerrow won JW5S by 10 minutes.
Congratulations to Ralph Street who won the junior OO trophy with a win
on Light Green at Ambersham and to Greg Street 3rd on Yellow at the
same event. It was the McMillan’s turn
for a symmetrical result at Headley Heath James 5th on Green and
Charles 5th on Light Green and well done to Robert Jones 2nd
on Orange and Matthew Jones 3rd on Yellow.
Finally, good luck to all at the Compass Sport
cup.
Heather.
|
The Outdoors Show 2004 2-4 April NEC Birmingham Volunteers needed HELP PROMOTE ORIENTEERING The stand requires a maximum of 5-6 volunteers per day. To enable us to reach all target markets the stand will need a GB squad member and a junior each day or ˝ day. WE CAN OFFER VOLUNTEERS IN RETURN: EXPENSES PAID (travel expenses & accommodation if necessary) FREE PARKING FREE GOODY BAG - LAST YEAR VOLUNTEERS RECEIVED A HAGLOFS POWERSTRETCH TOP – TBC what it will be for 2004 FREE ENTRY TO OUTDOOR SHOW – ON THE OTHER DAYS If you would like further information please contact Sophie Furness, Marketing and Communications Manager |
|
Calling all Juniors |
SLOW Juniors Excel at the Yvette Baker Trophy Final
Congratulations to our junior team who came 5th (!!) in the National
Final of the Yvette Baker Trophy on December 7th in Norfolk. This is the most
important junior team competition of the year, and the standard is very high.
We had one of our strongest teams out, and everyone ran really well. Relative
to the big guns of the competition, we have a much smaller squad so everyone's
run was important to the team.
The result:
1 - AIRE [Leeds] (881). 2 - WCH
[Birmingham] (880). 3 - NOC [Nottingham] (879). 4 - SARUM [Salisbury] (860). 5
- SLOW (846). 6 - DEE [Chester] (840). 7 - SOS [Essex] (830). 8 - EBOR [York]
(822). 9 - SROC [Lancashire] (783). 10 - CLOK [Cleveland] (775). Look how close
the top three teams were - these are clubs with a large number of juniors.
The best results were from Katherine Skingsley (2nd on yellow) &
Ralph Street (4th on light green). However these performances were backed up so
well by the others - I'm proud of you all. The rest of the team was James
McMillan, Michael May, Chris Wroe, Charles McMillan, Ali McKerrow, Alex
Robinson, Greg Street, James Haynes, Matthew Haynes, Anna Steinitz & Jenny
Steinitz. Unfortunately the Jones family was ill, but still supporting from
long distance.
Congratulations to Chris Fry & Heather Walton for their work in
coaching the juniors during the year. I also thought it was great to travel
together in a team coach (thanks Sarah for helping to organise) - maybe
something to consider for other events like the Scandinavians do! And thanks to
Ursula & the rest of WAOC for putting on the event.
Looking forward to next year, there are several events where juniors are
especially welcome. The major competitions in the spring (JK, British Champs)
will have junior relay teams. In the autumn will be the Peter Palmer Relays
& the Yvette Baker Trophy again.
There are also junior courses at the Compass Sport Cup. The best things
to attend are our junior coaching days at weekends - look out for these next
year.
Best wishes
Pete Huzan
(SLOW Team Captain)
|
TEAM EVENTS Peter
Huzan Here is some information on the forthcoming team events. |
Compass Sport Cup (March 14 Esher, & hopefully May 9 East
The age group scoring is now based more on the current age profile of
orienteering, rather than for example our desired age profile! Whatever the
scoring, it is so often important to have good backup. And this should be one
of those enjoyable events, especially given SLOW are putting it on. Therefore I
hope that as many of you come along, & especially our better
orienteers - your run may make the difference between winning & losing.
The scoring profile (subject to running people up an age class) is:
1. Brown - M21 (2 counters), M35/40 (1)
2. Blue - W21 (1), W35/40 (1)
3. Blue - M20/45 (2), M50 (2)
4. Green - W20/45 (1), W50+ (2)
5. Green - M60+ (2)
6. Light Green - M16/18 (1), W16/18 (1)
7.
Major Relays (April 12 JK Lake District, May 3
These two relays are part of Bank Holiday weekends. They should be great
mini-breaks. The JK Relays use the now traditional format of combining age
groups (eg W120 means 3 women whose combined age groups add up to <= 120).
The Forest of Dean event has a novel format - a Harris format for the first leg
where 3 people start at the same time, with some controls that must be visited
by each person separately & some by just one person, followed, when all 3
are back, by 2 standard legs with gaffling (ie variation). There will be
courses suitable for everyone, so if you are going to the individual
events then please stay on for the relays - they are also great sociable
occasions for meeting other team members. Unfortunately the British Relay
Champs have been postponed. Watch out for further information later in the
year.
May Relays (15/16 Harvester Sussex, 23 South-East Relays Croydon, 30 Scottish)
Quite a variety here. I hope that the Harvester Night/Day relays will be well
attended by club members. It is not too late to practice your night-O skills.
Look out for the low-key south-east night league this winter - about 50% of
people will need to run at night. The South-East Relays will appeal to those who
do not want to make the trip up to Holme Fell in the
Lake District that weekend. The Scottish Champs weekend is at Blair Atholl
& will likely involve a train or plane journey for those keen enough.
Other Competitions
The North Downs Way Footpath Relay will be in June again. For juniors, the
Peter Palmer Night/Day Relays will be in September, & the Yvette Baker
Trophy will be in October.
|
SLOW Winter club nights 2004 |
Editor’s note: As this is a new training scheme, I have republished
these notes in a shortened form from the last issue.
SLOW is putting on a club night once a month during the winter. Each
evening will be a mix of social where you can meet up with club members and
also a night street orienteering event.
What is a street event?
: Usually a one hour street O score event where you run round looking for clues
that are visible under street lights – eg “Control 1 – name of the pub. There
may be two courses – short and a long – short could be 45 mins and long 60
minutes.
What does the map look like? : A black and white photocopy on A4 paper. The map has a question for
each control on the map, usually about 20.
When and where are the events? : Starts from 7pm onwards on the following Tuesday’s
Date Location Organiser
1: February 2nd
2: March 2nd
3: April 6th 2004 Christopher
Squash Club, Plough Lane, Wimbledon
Go on to the Slow web site and then you can click on the location to see
a map and on the organiser name to send an email, otherwise please check the
SLOW membership list for phone numbers.
What kit do you need? :
Running kit and a pen, you don’t need a headlamp.
Will I be safe? : Most
people prefer to run in pairs although you can choose to run alone. Clues are
on well lit paths and avoid dark alleyways.
What about the social?
: The social side starts from about 8pm, you DON’T have to run, just come and
have a chat, pick up coaching tips, analyse your last O race or join us for a
drink.
What is the cost? :
Event is usually free, small charge if someone is providing food and drink Who
can take part? : Any SLOW member can come, (juniors as well but suits 14+
best ) .
Are you interested?
If you would like to take part in these fun training / social events
please contact the relevant organiser about a week before the event. This helps
to plan numbers for the number of maps needed and if food/drink are planned for
the social.
Series Coordinator:
Andrew Trimble
|
HOT PICKS (and more!) |
At
each of these fixtures, SLOW will organise:
I.Transport from south west London
II.Suggested block of start times so we can meet up
(11.00-12.00)
III.Club tent for changing, coaching – or whatever
1st
February National Event 1,
Blackheath, near Guilford
Sandy Surrey heathland and runnable forest. CD: 20/01/04 or online until 24/01/04. EOD for colour courses only,
limited to W, Y, O, R, LG. www.go-pages.fsnet.co.uk
22nd
February Regional Event, Hindleap
Warren, Tunbridge Wells
Runnable mixed forest. CD: 09/02/04. EOD for colour courses.
14th
March Compass Sport
Cup–Regional Qualifier, Esher Common
Our ticket to the National Final will be assured with
victory here! 3 line whips all round! www.sloweb.org.uk
20th
March British Orienteering Champs,
Simonside, Northumberland
Simonside is one of the best orienteering
areas in Northumberland combining a mixed rugged and detailed forest with open
moorland. CD: 20/02/04. www.muddy.org/boc2004
10th-12th
April JK, Ulverston, Lake District
10th & 11th - Individual
days - Graythwaite
12th – Relays - Graythwaite
CD: 07/03/04 or internet late entry by 20/03/04 for
higher fee.
25th
April District Event, Frith
Hill, Camberley
Frith Hill is nice pine forest and just a quick dash down the M3. www.geocities.com/southern_navAll EOD
1st – 3rd May Triple O Severn, Forest of Dean.
1st – Short Race
– Russell’s Enclosure
2nd –
Classic Race – Lydney Park
3rd –
Relay – Moseley Green
www.ngoc.org.uk
for further details and special entry form.
CD: unknown
16th May Harvester
Night/Day Relays, Pipingford Park, Crowborough.
CD: unknown. www.mvoc.org.uk
To arrange transport, contact Ginny Catmur
CD = closing date, often possible to get late
entry. EOD = entry on the day available
North
Downs Way Relay
|
This an early notification
for all the probables and possibles for the 2004 fixture which is almost
certain to be 19th June this year.
SLOW have an excellent record
in the event, winning it on many occasions and also holding the all-time
record. The regulars won’t need telling that it is a good “runner’s day out”
and anyone who enjoys a cross-country run of around 8 miles on a summer’s day
should definitely be considering running a leg. We also congregate for food and
other refreshments at the end of the day. I expect this to be The Good Intent
at Puttenham again, which was pretty good last year.
Starts are available from
05:00 in Dover through to late afternoon from Puttenham. Early starters are
particularly appreciated, as getting up first thing and running isn’t
everyone’s choice.
Teams are mixed and usually
contain a mix of “hot shots”, regular runners and those who enjoy something slightly
faster than a jog.
Start
|
GR |
Start |
Km |
Record |
|
Dover |
308400 |
05:00 |
11.2 |
49:23 |
|
Castle Hill |
213382 |
05:55 |
13.3 |
53:49 |
|
Stowting |
120414 |
06:55 |
10.5 |
46:51 |
|
Wye |
047469 |
07:45 |
11.0 |
40:49 |
|
Charing |
957499 |
08:30 |
12.3 |
50:56 |
|
Hollingbourne |
845554 |
09:25 |
16.7 |
79:29 |
|
Bluebell Hill |
745621 |
10:50 |
8.0 |
29:06 |
|
Medway Bridge (W) |
717673 |
11:25 |
13.2 |
54:44 |
|
Vigo Inn |
631610 |
12:25 |
14.7 |
64:35 |
|
Dunton Green |
507579 |
13:30 |
9.8 |
44:14 |
|
Betsom Hill Farm |
441559 |
14:20 |
11.0 |
49:47 |
|
A22 Bridge (E) |
349537 |
15:10 |
11.5 |
46:33 |
|
Reigate Hill |
262523 |
16:00 |
11.8 |
46:41 |
|
Stepping Stones |
172512 |
16:50 |
15.0 |
61:22 |
|
Newlands Corner |
044923 |
17:55 |
12.4 |
47:54 |
|
Puttenham |
934478 |
18:45 |
10.6 |
44:25 |
|
Farnham |
|
19:30 |
|
|
Every runner is expected to
recce their route prior to the serious bit on the day. In past years our
preparedness not to get lost has made the difference between winning and not
so. We expect to stick with fixed start times again this year, which will
simplify planning for individuals on the day.
So aspiring competitors
please put the date in your diary. Regulars please contact me to advise of your
availability if known. New members who are interested just make contact with me
electronically, verbally or in person and I’ll put you more in the picture.
Dick Clark
|
THE FIXTURES BIT
ANDY ROBINSON (this is a re-print of the AGM report from 2
months ago with some updating) |
The purpose of this report is to
give credit where credit is due. As we all know orienteering is staffed and
staged almost exclusively by volunteers. Whatever event you go to, every
official you see is a volunteer. As such
there is an unwritten obligation for everyone who goes orienteering to put some
time back in by volunteering. Most of us are very good at responding to one-off
requests to help on the day. Rarer and more valued are those who take on jobs
that involve putting in the preparation time prior to an event. This is the
place to recognize and say thank you to these people.
The following fixtures were held in the last 12 months
15 December 2002. Hankley Common. OK Nuts Trophy. Organiser: Charlie
Turner. Planner: Chris Fry. SportId:
Gavin Andrews. Controller: Tim Pugh (GO).
Entries: Peter Huzan
8 February 2003.
1 March. Box Hill Fell Race. Organiser: Andy Robinson. Entries: Dick
Clark.
2 March. Holmwood Common. "District" event with two
"trail challenge" courses. Organiser/SportIdent: Andrew Trimble. Planner: John Dowty. Controller: Jon Coles
(MV)
12 April. The Nower. Southern Express. Organiser: Diane Leakey. Planner: Mike
Murray. Controller: Charlie Turner. SportIdent: Andrew Trimble
31 May (Saturday). Surrey Hills Races. Co-ordinated by Jeremy Denny. Colour-coded:
Organiser: Kate Thomas, Planner: Nicky King, Controller: Mike Murray.
SportIdent: Gordon Parker.
Summer evenings.
3 Trail Challenge races and other activities, with the following taking
a major role in at least one of them – Alan Leakey (who also co-ordinated the
programme), Peter Huzan, Gavin Andrews, Liz and Jeff Armitage, Andrew Trimble,
Chris and Andy Robinson
20 July. Ham
5 October.
I was particularly pleased with the user-friendliness of the event
centres in all of these.
So… finding volunteers. This is very much the central and hardest part
of the Fixtures Secretary's job. I would welcome (in addition to some
volunteers now) a discussion on methods and problems involved in making these
appointments. Ideas may include:
-
getting
new and young blood involved (most 21s asked are either working all hours
and/or are unable to commit to a date months in advance).
-
staging
training courses to prevent people being daunted by task.
-
updating
the organiser's manual (again to make it easier)
-
are we
staging the right sort or quantity of events?
We can guarantee
that all volunteers will be given as much support as possible, and I believe all those who have already put their
head above the parapet will agree with this.
Anyway this is what's pencilled in until the end of 2004, and most of
them need staffing.
21 February. Holmwood Common. Senile.
SportId/ Pre-event enquiries: Andrew Trimble. Mark Vyvyan-Robinson is
helping me with planning, Mike Murray is checking the courses
14 March. Esher Commons. CompassSport Cup regional round. Organiser: Gordon Parker.
Planner: Alan Leakey. Controller: Roger Baker (TVOC) SportIdent - Gavin
Andrews. Entries: Dick Clark.
3 April.
6 June. Surrey Hill Races. Jeremy Denny co-ordinating and it’s our turn
for the Hill Races.
Summer evenings. Something very similar to this
year.
11 July. Sheen Common (and
3 October. Ham
12 December. Hankley Common. OK Nuts Trophy. Format to be decided.
Unless there is a name against it the positions of organiser and planner
are vacant and volunteers are required. A few of the lines above were filled at
the AGM and since then - so the rousing response needs to come now. I look
forward to your call or I'll send the heavy mob round
MAPPING
REPORT Andy
Robinson
With use of professionals and laser-printing we have had a very active
year on the “new map” front. We had new maps of Hankley Common and Holmwood
Common produced, both by the same professional, Nick Nourse. Hankley was an
update of an earlier OCAD file, but Holmwood was entirely new, the previous map
being ancient and poor. This completed the set of all SLOW’s active areas being
on OCAD. The cost impact of each is important. Hankley, being the update, was
cheaper, and being the better area, could stage more popular events and cover
its costs easily. Holmwood can be seen in the accounts as quite an investment,
and means we must plan carefully our use of professional mappers.
Entirely through amateur efforts, we also brought on-stream Ham
Riverside, a completely new area. Alan
Leakey did a great deal of work to set up a very detailed base using aerial
photos. Thanks to Don McKerrow and Frank Lyness for assisting me in the ground
survey.
Work is also about to start on revisions to the Esher map, and again we
have engaged Nick Nourse. He was much cheaper than the other quote, and given
the above point on Holmwood I had to make financial considerations paramount.
A major development in the year has been the offer by David May and
Chris Fry to do the laser-printing of maps at St Paul’s School. This has had
great benefits in terms of quality, cost and time-scale. Long may it continue.
These benefits were seen at Richmond Park last month, when we were able to
offer a map tailor-made to the event. John Dowty, Don McKerrow and myself
surveyed the changes in the Park, and then the map was expanded to 1:10000 and
cut to A4 size to cover just the part used.
Most of our planners this year have been using the software in OCAD8,
although I’m currently trying to get to grips the relative merits of OCAD and
Picover for the planner. I gather OCAD is a lot more convenient but Picover
still has a few extra useful features.
THE LOOFA
COLUMN IS BACK - With a report of
what’s been going on at the lunatic** fringe** over the summer, or to be more
precise what activities** I’ve managed to find to keep me amused. (**lunatic fringe activities
- acronym LOOFA - got it??)
As I'd been dabbling in the occasional triathlon recently, I'd bought
myself a flash new racing bike in 2002. Having achieved the immediate aim of
doing the orienteering and the triathlon on consecutive days at the World
Masters Games in Melbourne last October, thoughts then turned to how to best
capitalise on my investment in 2003.
Two headline-grabbing items caught my eye:
I.L'etape du Tour (literally a stage of the Tour
de France)
II.Half Ironman UK - that's a triathlon for those
not up with these things.
For both of these the first tricky part was getting an entry as they are
highly popular. Determined checking of the internet ensured that all entry
hurdles were cleared in the headlong rush and I'd booked myself two important
dates for the summer. The main O season was then incidental and all that guff
you read in the last mag about the M45 British Relays merely the warm-up act.
Wednesday 16 July. L'etape du Tour. 202km in the saddle with about 3000m
of height gain. The route was in the western part of the Pyrenees away from the
famous climbs (Tourmalet etc), but included two lower but steeper climbs, which
even had the big boys of the Tour itself fitting lower gears when they tackled
that stage. Training consisted of finding every hill I could think of for the
previous 3 months and trying to spend enough hours in the saddle to make my bum
tough enough to last the course.
With 8000 cyclists starting at once there was a London Marathon feel
about the whole day, from the starting gun meaning a 20 minute wait to actually
move, through having a gendarme at every corner (for 202km!!) to keep the road
clear to having so many spectators all the way along. The sensible ones of
these had settled down to spend all day in a bar, and most of them were
clapping every cyclist - you felt obliged to raise a "merci" to each
one.
Experienced sensible cyclists get into groups and shelter to get over
the ground most efficiently. I hadn't done enough of that sort of training, and
combined with being faster than those around me on the climbs and slower on the
descents (again inexperience - I was terrified) meant I did it the hard way
only getting into groups for two sections of about 10km.
The statistics of each climb were remarkable:
I.14km with 1080m of climb in 92 minutes
II.then 9km with 830m of climb in 77 minutes.
I could have run
faster than that. Especially the second climb where I had to walk for 2km.
Having just escaped
the elimination point after the second climb (sense of justice saying
"what about my 20 minute wait at the start") I made it to the finish
in 10 hours 45, which placed me somewhere near the back of the finishers. The
main consolation was that very few of the others had done as little training as
me - 58 hours in the saddle in the previous 12 weeks is well short of what's
required - just in case you were thinking of having a go.
With over 5 weeks
until the second epic of the summer I had time to fit in another goodie in the
gap. Tour of the Surrey Hills. 110km of cycling with 2100m of climb. A circular
route from Shere. I counted I went through or alongside 12 orienteering areas.
This little jolly produced much my best competitive result (just over 5 hours),
something that I attribute to being very familiar with the surroundings.
Definitely one to re-visit.
Sunday 31 August.
Half Ironman
There were 1400 of
us starting together, and I’m told that is quite a spectacular sight if you are
on the lakeside. However if you are in the lake the view is rather limited, and
it was as much as I could do to keep myself in roughly the right direction. My
usual approach of swimming in the same direction as those around resulted in
several of us going into a little bay and doing 100m extra. But despite that I
was quite happy to be out of the water in 42 minutes and about 100 places off
the back. You may sit in the bath and think that loofas float easily; however
this one doesn’t and that’s why I was quite happy.
90k on the bike.
Piece of cake after those exploits earlier in the summer. Which probably
explains why I went storming up the first hill overtaking loads of people.
However that did prompt the thought “I wonder if this is wise”. By about
halfway round the bike course I’d reached the conclusion that it wasn’t, as I
then found the second half to be quite a struggle. The bike loop took me 3
hours 16, and although I’d gained about 90 places I was sufficiently knackered
in the later stages to have serious concerns about how the run was going to go.
A quick sum told me
I needed 8.30 miling to break my 6 hour target time, and that seemed a sensible
pace to start off at. [any anoraks out there wanting to confirm that
calculation would need to know I’d spent about 10 minutes over the 2
transitions]. The early miles were just inside this pace. I was overtaking
people and regaining confidence. Then approaching halfway I suddenly put in a 5
minute mile, (!!??) but was realistic enough to work out that this meant the 2
lap course was going to be on the short side.
I reckon the run
was under 12 miles and it took me 96 and a bit minutes. I’d really got stuck in
over the last 3 miles, and had overtaken 180 people on the run with no-one
overtaking me. Final result was 933rd place in 5 hour 44 and quite
happy with it.
Now this article
was originally intended to stop at that point, but the story had an unfortunate
sequel. After so much cycling in the summer I was looking forward to getting
back on the hills with my favourite event the Karrimor in mind. I was really
keen to find out if I had gained any training benefit from the biking. In the
Karrimor build-up I would need 2 or 3 long fell runs to get used to being on
the mountains again, and the first of these was the Lake District Mountain Trial,
just 2 weeks after the Half Ironman. This was a long distance mountain O race
on some of the roughest bits of the Lakes. I expected to be out for 6 hours
plus and after one hour things were going fine. I'd taken a couple of smarter
lines which had gained and was also taking the running safely in order to get
back in practice.
All of a sudden my head was hurting and blood
was pouring out. I don't remember what happened but the bottom line was 16
stitches in my head, a broken collar-bone and no start at the Karrimor. Now I'm
still really keen to see if all that cycling leads to a good Karrimor. But
we'll just have to wait for next year for that one.
A Loofa
EVENT
INFORMATION You are strongly urged to confirm these
events using the following answerphone services. The SEOA website has links to
SE clubs and other regions.
SEOA (020-8948-6056): http://homepage.ntlworld.com/simon.errington/seoa/seoa.htm
(SCOA (0118-946-4354) (Army (01256-883265) (SO
(01903-239186)
(SAX (01303-813344) (MV (01372-279295)
NB –Webmaster – Please note that all the dates
below have slipped up one line, eg the National event at Blackheath is on 1st
Feb. Please check http://www.post2me.freeserve.co.uk/orienteering/
for more up to date details.
|
25/11/03: The Outdoors Show 2004 2-4 April, NEC, Birmingham Orienteering is going to be at the Outdoor Show in
2004 after a huge success this year with approximately 3000 visitors to the
Orienteering stand. In 2004 we have 3 orienteering challenges lined up including
an indoor and outdoor course and a computer challenge which is from the new
Y.O! cd-rom for new orienteers!! Sir Chris Bonington, Mike Harding and others will be
speaking in the Berghaus Super Theatre and there are 6 workshops around the
show. There’s live action in the Renault Kangoo Indoor Adventure Racing, and
World Cup Bouldering action. You can see Trail Kit Testing, Ray Mears
Survival Challenge with the Scouts, the Canoe and Go Diving pools, and the
Outdoor Pavilion. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award are running a ‘have-a-go’
challenge. There are climbing walls to try, and competitions to watch during
this great day out! If you are a BOF Member check out the latest Focus
for the special offer on Outdoor Show Tickets valid until 1 April 2004. For
more information visit
www.theoutdoorsshow.co.uk |