(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
Burnham Beeches is one of my favourite areas – but it was a shame the weather wasn’t great, a gloomy overcast day, with rain for the second half. The map had a new section at the top, which most courses started in – I didn’t think too much of it, as it wasn’t technical. The real “meat” of the course was later on, down in Burnham Beeches itself. 
I was expecting a forested course today, as it’s in Ashdown Forest, but the course was almost entirely on grassy and heathery moorland, with various tank tracks providing fast routes. The area was cold, raining and misty when I arrived, so I had planned to run just the 8km short course – especially as Nick Barrable, Simon Evans and the Rollins were all running M21L. However, the maps had run out (I hadn’t pre-entered) so I ended up running the long. 11km in the rain was always going to be tough, but I got off to a good start, making only minor mistakes (<1 minute each) up to control 7. I was going well, running hard, and could be posting a good time in the tough conditions. Then, things went a bit downhill.
Control 8, as mentioned above, was a disaster, needing two relocations to fix, thanks to much confusion over marked and unmarked gorse bushes. 12 was a very technical control and I ended up a long way from where I should be. In the end, it was hidden in a gorse bush (unmarked), that I had run past at least twice before in my search. Some parts of the map felt very remote in the murky rain – even though it’s only Sussex, it felt more like the Scottish Highlands. 15-16 was possibly the hardest leg I’ve ever done – it was only short, with little climbing, but the marshes I tried to cross in the rain were man-eating – I ended up suddenly up to my waist several times, I’ve never been so glad to see a control. I fell in several more man-eating marshes, and was flat on my face several times after then too – it was a real fight to get around! I did however still have plenty of energy and was able to run well where I could. After a final section through pleasant woodland, the penultimate leg was a tough uphill stretch and the only leg for which I walked part-way.
This was a part of the New Forest I haven’t run in before. Got a lift from Southampton (where I was out the night before) – many thanks to distracted and OUOC. Arrived very hungover and sleep-deprived and having only eaten two bowls of cereal in the last 24 hours, so I decided to do the short course. 
The first control was bad. I somehow missed an obvious path, and was 30 degrees wrong, and overshot. No. 2, I again headed 30 degrees wrong, meeting control 24. But I at least spiked it. Towards number 6, I felt a little tired, and a branch spiked my eye – could have been really nasty, but my contact lens dropped out and I spent a couple of minutes fixing that. Towards number 8, my feet started cramping again (as two weeks ago) so I stopped straight away this time and relaced loosely. 10 was a bingo control and I failed to notice a good route choice. 11 was a massive error of judgement – to lose a runner, I decided to go down a road (failing to spot a much better road route), mistaked a ride for a path, got stuck in a marsh, ran back down a hill and back up again. Aaargh! 
Cross posted from 
(referral) is an O’Reilly book and is right up my street – I had it high on my wish list. Although unfortunately it was published just before the Google Maps API was made available and everyone when 
Eridge Park is a rather nice, grand old county estate in East Sussex, comprising a large central deer park (fast, featureless, open) surrounded by several areas of complex, quite steep woodland. Or, at least, it would have been rather nice if it hadn’t rained continously throughout the course. I ran M21S, mainly because the 11.7km M21L sounded like a little much after Christmas excess. But, despite the rain and the mud (and wow, there was so much mud!) I got around the course pretty well – 5 mistakes in the first 7 controls, then none for the remaining 14, and got a pleasantly good time. I really didn’t push myself though, and got the end with enough energy for at least another couple of km. A pleasureable post-race afternoon was spent out of the wind and rain in a local pub by Eridge station, where the usual post-race analysis, splits games and real ale drinking was carried out with fellow JOKers and SLOWies. I’ve now got to spend the next three weeks doing some serious training for a national event at the end of the month at Cold Ash, for which I’ve foolishly entered Long without knowing the course distance.
The annual “Festive Frolic” put on by my old club, ELO was this morning. This year, for the first time, it was at the John Muir Country Park (rather than Yellowcraig) and was on a newly updated map – half the map is on a flat plantation, and the other half is on the changing dunes of “Spike Island”. This year’s race was “Sud-O-Ku” – going to each control on the score reveals a symbol (with coordinate) to be added to a grid – once all the controls are done, the Sudoku puzzle can be solved and the first back with a completed puzzle is the winner. However, 50 other features on the map were flagged with tinsel and another symbol and coordinate, so if you couldn’t do the puzzle, you could run around hoping to see as many of these as possible. In the end, I spent too long trying to find the extra tinsel features, and by the time I sat down to solve the puzzle, it was too easy – and others were already back. One of them was Jamie Stevenson, the British Champion and UK squad member – he didn’t win. Once again, nice weather – cold, with a bit of snow in the air, but no rain or gloom. The complementary soup at the end was timely, though.
After last week’s walk to the start and then painful limp home, my sprain seemed to have fixed itself more quickly. So, it was yet another cold crisp morning that found me in yet another South East London forest.