O.O'Brien

(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

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

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.

Leg 12 to 13 must be the longest leg I’ve ever done – almost 2km, I think. I managed to accidently visit Control 23 on the way to 13… But I had a clean run up until No. 16, at which I misread the map rather badly. 17 was also bad, as it was very technical, and I just ran in to the area, hoping to hit it – never a good idea in retrospect. About 6 or 7 other people were milling around trying to find it too, so once one person did, there was a pack punching and moving off. I wasted time at 18 trying to lose the pack, and then 18-19 was another super-long leg – again well over 1km.

Another silly mistake near 21, a parallel error – but at least the 3 people following me therefore made the same mistake. From there on it was pretty straightforward, although there were still a few long legs left.

The course overall certainly felt like 12+km! Despite my good time (<8mins/km) I still finished well down the pack. That’s the annoying thing with M21L – being the hardest course, all the really good people run on it. If I had done M21S at the same speed I would have been well up the leaderboard. Still, as the phrase goes, better to be near the bottom of the top class, than near the top of the bottom class!

Oxford were out in force, including Kat and distracted, the latter who (again) beat me by about 5-10%. One day I’ll beat him, one day…! 😉

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

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.

Once again the “rough open with scattered trees” colouring was indistinguishable from white forest. But my main annoyance with the map is that it didn’t mark on most of the gorse clumps in the rough open – and neither did the control descriptions. This meant I wasted a lot of time (5-10 minutes each) at both 8 and 12, these were hard, technical controls, and trying to navigate off the gorse clumps caused big problems for me. The continual rain started to increase slightly, and the mist closed in, making the moorland legs very technical and very physical.

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.

As before on long, cold and wet courses, I suffered some pain in my lungs, after around 8km, which is persisting a little bit now. As I was also completely soaked, I was pretty miserable at the finish, but was relieved and glad I got around OK, on a long course, with enough energy to keep going. As is almost always the case, if I hadn’t made my big mistakes, I would have had a respectable time.

I really hope it doesn’t rain at Burnham Beeches next weeked though. With this and Eridge, I think I’ve had enough rainy courses for this year…

Mistake analysis:
1: Poor navigation
3: Poor pacing
6: Bad attack point
7: Poor route choice
8: Poor route choice
12: Poor navigation
16: Poor route choice
19: Poor navigation
27: Tiredness

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

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.

I always like running in the New Forest, it is big, open and scenic, with ponies and the odd wild boar roaming free – and it’s all mapped. Today’s map was not technical, but it was beautiful to run in, with beautiful vistas, fast moor and varied woodland. Plus it was crisp and sunny, and not too cold for February.

I took it fairly easy for most of the race, careful not to aggravate the pain, and allowed an injury-hit distracted to still beat me by 4 minutes. What a world of difference from last weekend though – today I made no serious mistakes and only one that cost me more than a minute (and it was only because I was being lazy.)

The uphill finish was a sting in the tail but didn’t detract too much from an enjoyable, if technically easy, race.

A comment on map colouring for planners and mapping experts: For “semi-open”, please do white dots on orange, not the other way around! It was the other way around on today’s map and it meant the semi-open was virtually indistinguishable from white forest, while of course being different on the ground – and definitely threw me off my navigation in a couple of places.

Mistake analysis:
Leg 10: Hesitation
Leg 19: Poor navigation
Leg 20: Poor map-reading