Headless Hill 2009

Sunday was wet.
The walk from home was an hour in the rain.
The orienteering was good – challenging, slippy but the Green course about right for Sue and me.
It was a bit wet.
The walk home was very wet.
Worthwhile? – In retrospect very much so.

Blorenge 2009

A good race – how come I used to hate the idea of this race? It is a pure and simple race, up the steepest part of the Blorenge, and down following a line that minimises hospitalisation. Can’t fault it!
I started with a worry – my calves got really knackered last week on the Elan Valley 10, so I strapped up the worst offender and started with some trepidation. I shouldn’t have worried. Perhaps the lack of steady running – there is perhaps 500m of this on the route, or perhaps that it was only 3.8 Garmin kilometres.
I did OK. The climb was tough – no surprises there. The descent was taken too carefully losing me some minutes. i was beaten by most of the Chepstow brigade, with Lou following me with a sprint finish. Not her kind of race.
Good to see lots of mugs won by Chepstow in the various 2009 Welsh championships. Better to see all the smiling faces and enjoy the atmosphere. Fell racing is still special.

Elan Valley 10 (2009)

Was this a race or a swim? On reflection – a swim is usually warmer!
I was tempted to do this route with tales of great scenery and a fast course (the finish lower than the start means on average down hill all the way?? The reality of the day was a spectacular overflowing dam, lots of rain, puddles, streams, hills headwinds and just not enough temperature.
How did I do? (as usual me! me! me!) To use a car metaphor the engine was better than the transmission. I started off at what I considered to be a reckless pace and kept up with Gareth and Ian; even ahead of Niki for a few miles. From halfway my calves started to stiffen and pain increased. The hills were OK but the flat bits (yes, there were a few in the second half) were painful. The last mile took me nearly 10 minutes of hobbling. Still, mustn’t grumble. There was lots of me that was working well!
Roll on next year where I hope for a better run.
Good event, well-run, challenging course, nice number of entrants, good tea and coffee and cakes at reasonable prices.

Orienteering, Hayle

Should I give up? A smallish sand dune area and an informal Blue course and no brain. What could go wrong? – What could go right??
I found number 1 without too much trouble though I felt a bit at odds with the map. Control 2 was OK (though Sue didn’t think so). It was the longer leg to number 3 where I realised that I could no longer read maps! I need to check with Sue’s as to whether by mistake they gave me the map of a different area. Nothing matched. I went up hills without contours, followed nice easy ways without dashed lines, got stuck in brambles without any green and somehow managed to find controls up to number 8.
For this leg I decided a straight line compass bearing but then found more hills, vegetation and path like things that weren’t on my piece of paper. (Map? What exactly is a map? What are all those squiggles?) Once I realised that I had precisely no idea where I was I guessed the best way home and trudged back towards the finish.
Ian found it easy.
Sue thought it was great.
Perhaps next time??