Graham Gristwood and Rachael Elder win the Sheffield City Chase!
On Saturday Sheffield Uni Orienteering Club hosted the final race in the Nopesport Urban League. The chase involves two orienteering races, a prologue followed by a final in which your start time is decided by time taken in the prologue. First to cross the finish line wins!
Some good planning created a challenging event for all involved. The prologue started on an estate (where reading control descriptions was important if you wanted to be on the right side of fences) before heading out into the city centre to finish outside city hall. The final started in the centre and covered most of the busy shopping area of Sheffield. Added complications with control kites on different levels above ground lead to several miss punches.
As I set the start up then immediately started I set off a tiny bit (lot) too fast, missing number one in spectacular style! Oops...after that I had a clean run but my legs felt heavy after a weeks hard training and I was kicking myself for making such a big loss at the start.
Putting that behind me I took over helping at the start before heading back to the event centre for the second race. Making sure I wasn't going to mess up number one again I set off well and had a clean run! My legs were absolutely shot by the finish though, was happy to end on a better note than I started the day, gaining 6 places to break into the top 10 in the chase! Now I need to just race like that in both races and it will all be fine :-)
At the head of the field in both the male and female races team inov8 were in the running by the time of the chase. Graham Gristwood won after a very close race with Kris Jones (although Kris chose to omit a control..) and Oli Johnson(2nd) and Rachael Elder also won after chasing down Grace Crane!
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Sheffield City Chase
Sunday, 22 November 2009
Two Weekends of Mud!
The last couple of weekends I have been enjoying some winter racing in some tough events to keep me interested as we head into the colder and darker months.
These races were great. The Puma Hellrunner is based at Longmoor Army Training Camp near Bordon and runs you over the training area, with the last part of the course taking you through the 'Bog of Doom' - a bit of track that is chest deep in muddy water and goes on for about 50 metres. Spectators line the banks on both sides (they are way up above you) shouting 'swim, swim, swim...'. Not Bl**dy Likely! It was a little chilly. I was not alone in my Inov8's - seemed like half the field had them on - sensible lot!
The Saab Salomon Turbo X 10 mile race was slightly different. Rather than a cross country race followed by one or two wet and muddy bits, the mud started early on as we crossed another Bordon Army area - this time the tank training area. The course weaved through the forest over tracks, paths, sand, mud, steep hills and descents and then through the 'Jungle'. When orienteering I don't think I even go in areas like that - they are usually marked on an O map with an uncrossable marsh symbol. Well....it wasn't uncrossable...but it came pretty close and it was stinking!
I ran most of the way in front of Natalie White - who I think is a well known fell runner from 'Up North' although as far as I am concerned that means anything north of London! She started in front and then I think she spotted me and then let me take the lead. Then, just before the really bogging part she passed me and put in a kick. I caught her up again in the bog but in the last flatter section she was just a bit faster and came in ahead of me with 100m to go. I think she ran the better tactical race. Great fun to have a proper race on my hands though!
Anyway - tired legs now - and I'm not sure the mud is the sort that is good for the skin....
Friday, 20 November 2009
Roaches 15m 3700ft
After last years race here I decided to go back and give it another go. The weather was much better than previous with plenty of sun and a slight freezing breeze but the mud was just as deep and the river just as cold.
After about 1.5 miles five of us pulled away with Dave Aucott from Dark Peak doing most of the work for the first 4 miles. We all stayed fairly close until the turning point where I pulled some ground back on the climb and then got a nice little gap on the run off the hill and down the road. I decided to take it easy on the remaining climbs after last year and make sure I had enough to finish. By the water crossing on the way back no one was in sight and it was just a matter of holding onto it. With about 2 miles to go and just fields to run over I started feeling heavy and had to a walk through parts of the field that were deep with mud when I glanced behind to see I was being chased down by Stephen Pyke of Staffordshire Moorlands. I just about crossed the line on two feet in first place and a time of 2.08.16 with Stephen only 16 secs behind. This was a massive improvement on last years result when I finished 86th in a time of 2.52.
Sunday, 8 November 2009
Jue at the Endurancelife Coastal Marathon - Charmouth, Dorset
Jue James begins her quest to complete the "7 x 7 x 7 Challenge"
Just back from the marathon at round 1 of the Endurancelife Coastal Trail Series (CTS) at Charmouth, Dorset. Having completed the marathon at the last round (stage 7) of the CTS last year I knew what to expect. All the stages are based in stunning coastal locations and make good use of the coastal paths and off-road trails in the area. Hills feature heavily and roads/towns kept to a minimum. Game on....
The forecast earlier in the week was not promising but undeterred I headed south and after a rainy night safe in the campervan I arose to a cold but sunny morning. The race started right next to the beach and headed straight uphill on the coastal path! With legs and lungs kick started it was time to enjoy the views. The coastline and cliffs didn't disappoint and with the sun strong and only a slight wind initially it was near perfect conditions for running, especially for early November. Only problem - running east without sunglasses!!
The pre-race briefing warned of treacherous conditions under foot especially the clay based mud, slippery bridges, stiles, steep steps etc.. Thanksfully I was wearing my RocLites! While other skated I could confidently run past. There were the odd handful of people at the the race briefing who admitted to not wearing trail shoes - ummmm!!!!!
The course was fantastic - a real variety of terrain: coastal path, shingle beaches, woodland trails/singletrack, farmland, cyclepath and a two mile section back along the beach to Charmouth. The only noteable section of tarmac was through West Bay and back through Charmouth to the finish (less than about a mile in total over a 26.5 mile course). The weather was definitely favourable but changeable from glorious sunshine and minimal winds to squally showers and strong winds. The memorable moments include the far reaching views (including from the trig point at Golden Cap), running through the autumn leaves around Langdon Hill with the sun streaming through the trees, the pounding waves on the shingle beach below West Cliff, a beautiful rainbow climbing up one of the steep sections of coastal path and the numerous fossil hunters complete with rock hammers on Charmouth beach.
Having gone through a rough patch about 4 miles from the end where any inclines were a struggle, i regained some energy at the end. The downhill section from Golden Cap was a blast and I managed to keep running (or was it just a jog?!) along the beach which seemed never ending except for catching a few competitors. The final challenge was to pick up rubbish from the beach and deposit it in the bin at the end - not much left by the time all the 10K and half marathon runners had already passed through but the full bin was evidence to everyones efforts. Well done guys for this great initiative.
Running into the finish felt a real achievement, especially having completed the OMM 2 weeks earlier. Awesome course. I definitely look forward to the next stage in 4 weeks time and the rest of the series, in my bid to complete Endurancelife's 7x7x7 challenge (7 marathons in 7 months).
London Rat Race
Another Rat Race outing in the big smoke: Pete James, Sarah Odell and Tarquin Cooper get 3rd at the London Rat Race
We knew that this was our best Mean Streets yet, and we were happy even before we heard the results. And the key was the team work. Trying to navigate and re-plan simultaneously on the go had led to Pete making too many small mistakes in the past. But with Tarquin taking over bits of street navigation Pete could come up with a better overall route. Sarah has a sharp eye for SI boxes and is a great race tactician after years of racing with some of the top racers in the world: shortcuts, watching other teams, tactics to trim time down. It all helped give us an edge. And we were all running really well, which never hurts if you're using your heads too.
Highlights of the evening? London can’t match somewhere like Bristol for greenery, hard core outdoors on the doorstep and parkland, but on the other hand it’s fun to be racing in one of the biggest cities and the world. I loved sneaking through St Catherines docks in the dusk and not getting dead-ended, hopping in the sit-on tops for a quick paddle in the City Road Basin, chasing around the Barbican (now I know it a bit better, 3rd time around), and just generally watching Tarquin and Sarah making fools of themselves when I ducked out of activities because I was supposed to be looking the map.
Sunday, didn’t go quite so well! The speed limit on the canals led to frustration and silly mistakes cost us – especially the one where we had to turn back and join the rear of a huge mass of riders. It was tricky navigating as neither the route notes nor the map marked up in advance were enough, so it required a hard to manage combination of both. We just weren’t racing as smart as we have, and it showed. It didn’t help that the seals blew on my front forks, turning what should have been some really quite pleasant bits of urban off-road through Epping Forest into a teeth clenching struggle to read the map on the go, but there’s nobody else ot blame for that!
There were plenty of new chunks of London to see with the switch to the North-East. There was a nice little three way checkpoint at Mile End with a climbing wall traverse, kayak and park orienteering. And we got to see one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in London at the Honorable Artillary Company, en route to a nice little abseil and landrover pull. I even had another chance to get to grips with HMS Belfast, and with Sarah’s help we did better this time around.
So in the end we were 3rd mixed team against one of the biggest fields of racers ever assembled worldwide. And there’s more to come – if we can just put together two good days in one go:)
Thanks to Detail Events for a fun weekend, and Inov8 for all their support.
Thursday, 5 November 2009
What a Splash!
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Team inov-8 dominate Oxford City Race
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After winning in Cambridge 2 weeks ago, both Sarah Rollins and myself (Graham Gristwood) were at it again in Oxford on Saturday, comfortably winning the two open classes.
