Countdown to Carneddau

Twenty-four hours till our event in Wales. I’m having severe computer problems, meaning among other things that I’ve had trouble getting the revised event details up, but you can read the first version here. New information is:

1. There’s no White course, but there is a string course.

2. The Green course is longer than shown.

3. Despite the recent rain, the car park field is useable.

4. The start and the finish are up on the hill, about 500m from assembly.

5. There won’t be a remote drinks station, but if it’s sunny there will be water at the finish.

See you there!

Into the Jungle

Managed to squeeze in a visit to the Harlequins’ event at Uffmoor Wood on the 14th. The Whites have been busy, organising and planning the Sandwell Valley event, running the weekly sessions there, and organising here!

I was looking forward to trying my first proper run for a while, but Marti asked me to take Catherine, so we did the Yellow. Well done to C for being so positive: not minding the longish walks to the start and from the finish, running quite a bit of the way round the course, and waiting for me while I went to check on the Hungarian mother and son we’d given a lift to. As it happened, I picked a good moment to go and check: they were having trouble finding the “clearing – North side” control that was a bit hard to access!

Results

Over the border

Where is Warley Woods? Bearwood? Smethwick? Oldbury? Er, Warley? When I was trying to type in the address of the park on the internet yesterday, the only option that I could get to work was… Birmingham. COBOC will be relieved!

Anyway, Marti thought the park was lovely, and we had some warm sunshine in which to enjoy our runs. I jogged round the Orange in 16 minutes, trying very hard not to run. I think I need to slow down a tad – my calf was a bit sore afterwards.

Midlands in June

Calf pretty good now – looking forward to trying it on Saturday and Sunday.

 

Sat 13: Warley Woods, Bearwood (COBOC)

Sun 14: Uffmoor Wood, Halesowen (HOC)

and: Severn Valley Country Park, Bridgnorth (WRE)

Tue 16: Fosse Meadows, Hinckley (LEI)

and Lilleshall, Telford (WRE)

Wed 17: Abbey Fields, Kenilworth (OD)

Thu 18: Clent Hills (HOC) – June Jaunter, a kind of sprint wayfaring, or wayfaring sprint.

Tue 23: Carding Mill Valley, Church Stretton (WRE)

Wed 24: Warwick University, Coventry (OD)

and Wombourne (StuWeb) – 5k time trial

Thu 25: Biddulph Grange (POTOC)

and: Lickey Hills (HOC)

Sat 27: Old Hills, Worcester (MADO)

Tue 30: Wrockwardine, Telford (WRE)

Wed 1 July: Coombe Abbey, Coventry (OD)

Thu 2: Haden Hill, Halesowen (HOC)

Sun 5: Park Hall, Stoke (POTOC)

and Carneddau, Builth Wells (POW/HOC)

 

All events within 50 miles of Birmingham

Our shrinking planet

Just happened to put side by side the new and old maps of Donisthorpe Woodland Park and something odd jumped out at me…

An afternoon of SINS

SINS is West Mercia’s two-yearly orienteering weekend, and this year it’s been blessed with perfect weather. I’m walking (as opposed to hobbling) again but I decided not to overdo it and “ran” course 12 at Brown Clee today, which was the shortest “expert” course available, at 3.2km. It was a good course, I made mistakes on a couple of the legs even though I was walking, and I got round in 80 minutes. I overshot #3, ending up at the lower pond, and after #8 I was dim enough to follow some tapes that I wasn’t supposed to follow…

The next couple of weeks will be taken up with various committee meetings. Checking the fixture list, unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be ready to run at Kingsford (June 4) but I’ll try and make my comeback (!) at Uffmoor Wood on the 14th.

Merevale Hall

My calf’s improving daily, so rather than cancel my entry for today’s badge event at Bentley I downgraded from Blue to Orange, and Steve Nightingale kindly lent me some walking poles. Unfortunately the Orange course didn’t go into Bentley Wood itself, but it did take me on a picturesque walk round the grounds of Merevale Hall. My pace was about 20 min/km and I came 11th out of 23. There was one tricky control, #4, getting to which coincided with a soaking hail shower.

At the top of the map you can see the remains of the POW camp.

Results Photos

Not the Baileys’ day

Yesterday morning Catherine was sent home from school after being sick on the classroom floor; soon after she got home she fell down the stairs. Not a fun day for her, or for Marti, who was feeling under the weather herself. So it was kind of them, soon after I got home, to let me go for my Thursday evening run – at Mike Baggott’s event in Redditch. But the family stars must’ve been in misalignment. I hit my right calf on a thin rootstock just after the first control, and it was a bit sore but I thought I’d run it off as usual. Bad idea. Running uphill to #4 the calf went bang and my race was over. “Calf strain” doesn’t sound too serious but I can hardly walk and I’ll be out of action till June…

Oh, and when I stopped on the way home to buy myself a treat, I discovered that one of the two quids I’d got at the event in change was a fake. Never rains…

brand new Bentley, £8 ono

Time for a few ads…

1. Harlequins’ Thursday evening series is under way and carries on through August.

2. Droobers’ new park race series begins in Coventry tomorrow.

3. We’ve just had a bank holiday, I know, but the next one is very soon. That means Springtime in Shropshire!

4. Before then, on the 17th, there’s a Level Two event in Bentley Woods, and the entry deadline is this coming Sunday. Maybe the timing is bad, it coming the week after the big races in Nottingham and Thringstone, but I hope the number of entries pushes on well beyond the current 145. (Even assuming they do, I think some of the age classes ought to be combined at smaller regional events like this one: e.g. 18+20, 21+35, 40+45, 65++.)

Although I can’t find the map, I’ve found the results of the only event I’ve run there: it was the Midland Champs in February 1996. A good run by my standards: I got a “silver” time on M21S. This year’s event seems better value for money: the M40L was 8 km in 1996, while this year it’s 10km!

Excluding the string course, there were 637 competitors, and these were the course winners that day:

10 Megan Greenall OD, Nicholas Tinker MDOC

12 Emma Whitehead DVO, David Hodkinson NOC, Matthew Dickinson DVO

14 Julia Leventon WRE, Stephen Wright NOC

16 Hannah Wootton HOC, Alastair Footitt NOC

18 Claire Daniel HAVOC, Adam Harrison WAOC

20 Jo Abbott WRE, David Jenkins LSOC

21 Alice Bedwell BOK, Jamie Stevenson ESOC

35 Janet Evans NOC, Stephen Kimberley DVO

40 Jane Booker NOC, Barry Elkington OD

45 Judith Holt LEI, Roger Richards WCH

50 Sue Porter LEI, Rex Bleakman DVO

55 Judith Powell WRE, Brian Morris WRE

60 Marlene Palmer WCH, Peter Bayliss WRE

65 Barbara Bradley WCH, Frank Smith OD

70 Phillip Broadhead LEI

p.s. I love you too, Mark.

West Midlands Champions

Since the WMOA website refuses to publish such information, here are this year’s West Midlands champions, elected last weekend on Cannock Chase:

M10 Alex Mitchell HOC
M12 Harrison McCartney OD
M14 Matthew Elkington OD
M16 William Gardner OD
M18 Matthew Halliday OD
M20 Adam Bushnell WCH
M21 Robert Little WCH
M35 Steve Parker HOC
M40 Jason Howell HOC
M45 David Nevell HOC
M50 Barry Elkington OD
M55 Bob Dredge WRE
M60 Mike Hampton OD
M65 Brian Morris WRE
M70 Colin Spears HOC
M75 Norman Hall WCH
M80 Frank Smith OD

W10 Ella-Rose McCartney OD
W12 Aimee Morse OD
W14 Julie Emmerson OD
W16 Emma Kettley OD
W18 Sophie Kirk OD
W20 no winner
W21 Jessica Halliday OD
W35 Sharron Richardson WRE
W40 Ianka Evans WCH
W45 Suzanne Humphries OD
W50 Carol Dredge WRE
W55 Hazel Waters WCH
W60 Sheila Carey OD
W65 Jean Rostron POTOC
W70 Hilary Simpson OD
W75 Marlene Palmer WCH
W80 Pamela Emberton WCH

Congratulations to one and all. It was a fine day and a fine event. I was there but did the Yellow with Catherine. (Note to users of AutoDownload – isn’t it possible to correct the name of the entrant when they’ve used someone else’s SI card?)