O.O'Brien

(Cross posted from Attackpoint. See also my leg by leg analysis and mistake and speed analysis.)

The British Elite Middle-Distance Championships – as the elites were running the same class as everyone else, I decided to enter elite – and was promptly seeded last. This meant I started first, so had the whole forest to myself. I pushed myself hard, as I was determined not be overtaken by the presumably faster runners behind me.

The only other runner I saw was my two-minute man from 2 to 3 as I was going from 4 to 5. This spurred me to go even faster, although looking back, this person would have already dropped some time compared with me. Apart from that, the forest was silent, and I was first back, so was (briefly) 1st in M21E – out of 1. 😉

To #1 was a nice downhill run – I really like downhill starts! To #2, the best route was clearly through a field. I spent a good 15 seconds checking to see if it was out of bounds, before going for it. To #3, my route choice was indirect and unorthodox, but I don’t think I lost time. #4 should have been easy but I spent a good while on another knoll just 10m away, somehow failing to spot the red and white kite in a sea of green (there was a lot of undergrowth on this map!) #5 was my biggest mistake – saw the other runner and lost concentration in a highly detailed area, so overshot and had to clamber back up a steep bank.

#9 was an interesting spectator control – just after a low tunnel under a road, with spectators high above you. [Thanks to owls-count for the photo!] #11 was the only long leg on the course – no problems here for me, but others suffered. To #14 I misread light-green as dark green, so diverted around it and got stuck in undergrowth – then, due to the map being vague, came around the edge of the light green too far. The approach to #16 was tricky as there were unmarked paths in the haze of vegetation. #17 was in another complex area and you had to be right on top of the control, to see it (it was in a ditch.)

I had had a good run up to this point, but started to tire fast, especially as #18 and #19 were both up steep hills – so I tended to go round paths to these controls, rather than going direct uphill through the brashings. And finally, #20 and the finish was a sprint.

All in all, a good race for me, although physically tough due to the almost continual brashings on the ground. When I left the event, I was 22nd out of 29 elites – but once the regular runners are added in, I am confident of ending up in the top half, which is a good result for me. Less than 5 minutes wasted with mistakes, and running fast for most of the race – now I just need the stamina to be able to run the whole way around.

Mistake analysis:
Leg 5: Distracted
Leg 14: Poor route choice
Leg 17: Didn’t read control description!
Leg 18: Tired
Leg 19: Poor route choice

Length analysis:
Ran 7.2km for this 5.9km course – 22% extra.
Raw speed: 7.1mpk. Route.

To break up my nightmare 4 hour train/bus journey on the way back, I stopped at Salisbury and visited the world famous cathedral…

(Cross posted from Attackpoint.)

A couple of silly blunders near the end marred an otherwise very good HH District race at Northaw Great Wood, near Cuffley. I ran the Brown course, as it had just stopped raining. The forest was still damp, but this was actually rather nice as it kept me cool.

Legs 1-3 were long but straightforward. I took a bit of a lazy route choice to 4, and drifted off for 5. One characteristic of this race were lovely long, downhill legs. 7-8 was one of these, and was very nice. I had another poor route choice on a very short leg (11-12), mainly to avoid some nasty undergrowth – but on the whole, the area was suprisingly free of undergrowth, and very nice to run in. 15-16 was another lovely long (1km+) leg downhill. I ran fast, but got clogged up in some unmarked light green, so started to make mistakes. I exited 16 very badly, but the worst mistakes of the race were made after I stopped paying attention to my compass and was generally very tired. They were 18-19 (too far to the right and too high) and 19-20 (too far to the left and too low.)

If I hadn’t made these final mistakes I would have finished 3rd – a best ever result on Brown – still, my time was fast and I am very pleased with the result – finishing 8th out of 38 runners, and just 5.5 mins down on the winner.

This was possibly my latest ever start – I didn’t get out of bed until 1015 – a real luxury lie in! And yet I was running by 1230.

I was trying out my new birthday present today – a top-of-the-range fast setting thumb compass. It certainly was fast setting, but I need to get used to the way thumb compasses work (everything’s kind of backwards.) After trying to use it properly for the first couple of legs, I ended up using it as a simple compass for the remainder. It requires diligence to rotate the map correctly – not something I normally do.

Felt a bit bad on uphill sections in the early part of the race, but was fine later – and didn’t experience the “power surge” feeling after the race, as I warmed down properly. Pretty knackered now though!

Looking forward to the British Middle Distance champs next Saturday.

Mistake analysis:
Leg 5: Poor concentration
Leg 7: Unanticpated hazard
Leg 9: Poor navigation
Leg 12: Poor route choice
Leg 17: Poor route choice
Leg 19: Poor concentration
Leg 20: Poor concentration

Length analysis:
Ran 10.3km for this 8.6km course – 20% extra.
Raw speed: 6.2mpk. Route.

Sprint
Temple Newsham
Men’s Open
3.24km, 90m climb
21:03 (86th of 211)

Race Writeup

Day 1
Ilkley Moor
M21S
7.4km, 200m climb
69:20 (27th of 64)

Race Writeup

Day 2
Keldy
M21S
7.6km, 195m climb
73:22 (16th of 50)

Race Writeup
Route

Relays
Bramham Park
Ad-Hoc, Leg 1
3.73km, 40m climb
24:10 (10th of 121)

Race Writeup

(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!