I’m currently ill (since last Thursday) so not doing any orienteering at the moment. At this point I’m hoping to still be at the JK in two weeks, if only as a spectator. One thing’s inevitable though – once I’m back in health, all my form this season will be long gone. Oh well, bring on 2006-7.
Update: Finally felt at 100% strength four weeks later – so made it (just!) to the JK.
(Cross posted from Attackpoint. See also my leg by leg analysis and mistake and speed analysis.)
Personal Best speed at this course level, I think – 57:44 for 9km, or 6.4 min/km. In fact, I can’t remember when I last (if ever) ran below 7 min/km in a non-sprint race, let alone below 6.5min/km. I’m very pleased about this result. Admittedly, Hatfield Forest is extremely flat, dry and fast. But I’ve definitely come on a long way from my last run here, last September. That was my season’s opening race and I made some big mistakes, and ran slow (>9mpk.)
Today, I definitely made a few mistakes (mainly bearing errors) but the area is so fast that even a big deviation can be corrected in a matter of seconds. I knew I was on to a good time when I glanced at my watch near the end and saw I’d only been out for 40 minutes. Still, the winner finished in under 50 minutes, and a lot of the very good runners will have been away from this event and up at the National event in the Lakes, or rather walking in the Lakes as the event has been cancelled up there due to snow. The weather down here was perfect – bone dry, sunny intervals and cool, but not cold.
Looking at the map, the first couple of controls were really near the area where I made a horrendous mistake back in September, so I slowed right down here – and still messed up the bearing on both, needing to relocate on the second one. 6 was bad, I got confused about a patch of forest, and again had a bad bearing. Poor distance judgement at 7. My route choice to 21 was lazy and slow (but safe – Hatfield Forest contains plenty of green grot.) Another bearing error at 24. None of the above mistakes cost me more than 30 seconds apart from maybe No. 2. All in all, pretty clean.
(Cross posted from Attackpoint. See also my leg by leg analysis and mistake and speed analysis.)
I don’t think I’ve ever seen quite so many brambles as were at Selhurst Park. “North-sloping hill” must the planner’s code word for brambles. If there weren’t brambles, there were fallen branches to trip the unwary. My legs are a complete mess, it looks like I’ve been running through a field of barbed wire, and it certainly feels that way.
But there were some very pleasant sections too, and despite the area being non-technical (I only made one significant mistake, at 18, due to lack of concentration) picking a good route choice was key for many of the long legs – particularly as going straight was often not the best way, due to the five parallel deep valleys that stretch across the map and indeed define its style. I had some good fast stretches, and only really started to fade near the end, for the last third of the course. Until that point, it was probably my fastest race of the year. As it happens, I finished in under 8 mins/km, which is a personal target for as many races as possible this year, so is quite pleaing.
Frustratingly (and I know I’ve said this before) I had a good, relatively clean run and yet finished near the bottom of the M21L, results list – and almost everyone had beaten me by less than 10 minutes. If I had run the same pace in M21S, I would have had a top-3 place. Such is life.
The event was rather poorly attended, probably either because of a large number of other fixtures this week, or because the others knew about the brambles… it felt very much like a small district event – not that that detracts at all from the event itself. The event centre was in a sheltered courtyard, out of the biting wind, with tables to change at. Much better than the usual exposed car park.
Mistake Analysis:
3. Hesitation
4. Poor mapping
16. Hesitation
18. Poor navigation
20. Poor route choice
23. Poor navigation
The British orienteering “high season” for 2005-6 is now well under way – it runs from February-May in England, March-June in Scotland – and most of the big events of the year are coming in the next couple of months.
My planned events (using the fixtures map filtered view):
Tomorrow – Selhurst Park regional.
19th March – Hatfield Forest district.
25th March – Frith Hill local.
26th March – Epping South district.
1st-2nd April – British Champs & Relays, Midhurst.
9th April – Compass Sport Cup Round 1, Wisley.
14-17th April – JK, Yorkshire.
23rd April – No orienteering. 🙂
29th-30th April – Fonthill/Stourhead national (maybe.)
7th May – Perham Down district.
14th May – Shooter’s Hill district score. (Dodge the burnt out cars in SE London.)
21st May – Rushall farm district.
28th May – Ightham district.
4th June – Coombe Hill district. (I’ve walked to Coombe Hill – very nice place.)
June is local events and summer evening events, July is touring the multi-days in Europe!
The latest “Oxford Today” magazine, sent out by the university to its alumni to make sure we don’t forget it, has a great full-page article on OUOC and orienteering in general, featuring a map of the University Parks (with JOK logo prominent!) and a great action photo – that photo is worthy of the front page of CompassSport! I wonder how many times they had to repeat that action shot. And it’s good to see the Permanent Orienteering Course is still in use four years after me and Matt (the prez at the time) spent a physical afternoon hammering the many posts into the ground. A great lay-man’s introduction to the sport, and the latest in a long line of articles OUOC has got in the press.
I’ve scanned in the page, for your perusal until I get the take-down notice. Click on the picture for a full-size version.
(Cross posted from Attackpoint. See also my leg by leg analysis and mistake and speed analysis.)
Oxford vs Cambridge Varsity Match at Leith Hill, Surrey. Running for JOK (ex-Oxford) on the Men’s A course.
A great race for me personally, in beautiful, technical terrain. I had some personal demons to conquer on this map, having had a disastrous run in my only previous outing here. Leith Hill is a small, technical area, quite Scandinavian in nature, particularly with the sunny, cold weather, open and intricate detail and a dusting of snow on the ground. Due to the size of the area, the race was in two parts, with a map change near the start, around half way around. The planning style was very much taking us into the difficult area for a couple of controls, then out for a couple of long, easy ones, and then back in, over and over again, until you made a mistake. I forced myself to run at a slower pace than normal, and pleasingly did not make any mistakes that cost me more than a minute – it’s been a while since I’ve had a clean race.
The first three controls were a warm-up through the edge of the tricky area, then a couple of easy ones. I actually ended up at 5 before 4, as I dropped a little low around thick vegetation, but this was OK as it was only a few metres from 4, and my split from 4 to 5 has got to be the fastest of all – 18 seconds! The course then did a long loop in easier terrain – I was a bit slow here, although some of the features were very subtle. After another technical section, which I unwisely took a chance on and got lucky on, it was time for the map changeover.
Leg 17 was long and tricky, and relied on an accurate compass bearing, but I was lucky to strike it pretty much on. After another jaunt through the difficult bit, which I had no issue with, there was another long leg away, I was extremely lucky here as I hit the control while thinking I was quite some distance from it. One final run through the tricky section was again OK, I was going very slow here so as not to mess up a so-far good run. The penultimate leg was long, and I switched off a bit – dangerous, as I deviated by about 30 degrees, and had a long plod to get back on the line. Probably only a minute’s mistake as I picked up the pace.
Unfortunately, Oxford and Cambridge were unable to run on the Saturday, as the latter team were stuck on a motorway. So they ran on the Sunday, in cloudier but still pleasant conditions. I was a little bit hungover so just spectated at the race, before psyching myself up for the long bike home. In the end, Cambridge took the team trophies, just, as they had strength in depth, and Alan Elder took the Men’s Individual Trophy for a storming race in 62 minutes – you have to be pretty good to run at that speed and not make big mistakes, in an area like Leith Hill. Helen won the Women’s Individual though, so Oxford didn’t quite go away empty handed.
Photo Credit: Pete Huzan