Today I finally realised that I have a ‘proper’ injury and one that simply won’t go away with a couple of days rest. Two Wednesdays ago during the O training organized by QUB, I must have pull my calf muscle on the initial 9km run. I only felt it at the end of the evening and I guessed (like most people) a couple days off running would be the standard cure. That Sunday I went out for a trail run around Belvoir Forest (I had no pain in my calf at this point), but after 16 minutes I felt my calf tighten again. I stopped and walked back to the car wondering what I had done to myself. At this point I realised I must have torn the muscle slightly. I give it a full weeks rest from running and by Friday the calf muscle felt fine and pain free. Today I had the chance to go down to the orienteering at Rostrevor, because the kids football had been called off due the recent heavy rain. The Green was the hardest course on offer so I thought it would be a good test for the calf. However, after 5 minutes into my warm up I felt my calf tighten again….oh dear!! It was not painful, but you knew it was there. I decided to drop down to the Orange course, so I was not tempted to compete with the usual guys on the Green. I was able to walk ok and jogging on the flat was fine as well.
I got around the Orange course ok and because I was forced to go at a slower pace it gave me a chance to concentrate more on the map and matching it with the terrain around me. Once finished the Orange course there was a chance to practice some micro navigation around the park. LVO had set up about 25 controls dotted around the various trees in the open park. There was then 4 courses to try and even though I only try one course it was very good fun and a great orienteering exercise.
At the end my calf did not get any worst, but it means I still need to get it sorted properly, which also means running is out of the window for a few weeks. Next week is the NIO Champs at Meelmore….I would be surprise if my calf was anywhere close to 100%, so it looks like I will be forced to give it a miss. Luckily the Dromare Trailquest Series starts next Sunday, so hopefully I will make that instead. …..so tomorrow it’s back out on the bike.
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Dromara Winter Trailquest Series
Its back…..
Dromara Cycling Club are expanding the fantastic sucess of the 2008 winter league. In 2009 we shall be holding 6 events on the following dates. There will be a 3.5 hour and a 2 hour event on each date. There will be prizes for each and the best team with youth members. The entry price, teams of up to 4, pre-entry etc will all be the same and a trail quest page will be available shortly.
The dates are.
Sunday 8th November at Dromara football Club
Sunday 15th November at Daft Eddie’s Killinchy
Sunday 6th December at Dolly, Brae Inn Ballyward Castlewellan
Sunday 27th December at Brennan’s Garage Seaforde.
Sunday 10th January at Paddy’s Barn Saul, Downpatrick, [TBC]
Sunday 17th January at Shimna Valley Newcastle.
There has been a great deal of interest in the trail quests over the last few moths, so lets hope for dry weather and plenty taking part. Proceeds to Northern Ireland Children’s Cancer Charity at Shimna Valley Newcastle.
For more information please email Trevor
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‘New’ Winter Race Series
Rowan and co have been busy again…..
A new ‘winter’ trail racing series starts this week. Organised by 26Extreme, the guys behind the Mourne Way and Causeway Coast Marathons, the series should provide a suitable extension to the summer ‘Hill and Dale’ series run by NIMRA.
26 Extreme invites you to banish your winter blues and take part in the 2009 / 2010 Winter Race Series. This is a series of ten trail races in Rostrevor, Castlewellan and Tollymore Forests ranging in length from 6.5km to almost 13km. The exciting thing about these races is that four of them will be staged in the hours of darkness. On these race nights competitors will don their head torches and with their fellow runners will light up the trails through the forests as they take part in these unique events. All competitors in these events will be have chipped race times as we will be using the Champion Chip Timing System.
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This is straight for the recent Open Adventure Newsletter and is great news for the UK/Ireland adventure racing scene.
‘Rumours are rife so we will put this to bed.. Yep we will be running an expedition event in 2010 sponsored by Adidas. It will be around 3-4 days in length, non stop for mixed teams of 4, location – Cumbria. A new website will be put together for this event which will be online in November (keep an eye on SleepMonsters) entries opening on the 1st December.
We are rapidly pulling this event together with experienced international racer and 2nd place C2C solo competitor Bruce Duncan – he has some crazy ideas which along with ours will make this a very memorable experience.
registration / prologue | 26th August
event | 27 – 30th AugustOur aim is to make this event achievable to a wide range of competitors, not just the very best in the world. More to follow..’
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Once I learn how to embed the script into WordPress, it should look pretty good.
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Last weekend saw the conclusion of the Tri Nations Challenge as the Men’s Health Survival of the Fittest 10k came to Edinburgh. Having previously visited Cardiff and Nottingham this is a 10k race with a difference. It is essentially a 10k urban assault course with competitors tackling an obstacle every kilometre or so. The event is also sponsored by For Goodness Shakes! who enter a race team of their own. I applied to join the team this year and was lucky enough to be selected.
With over 1500 people taking part starts are staggered in waves of 15 minutes with approximately 250 athletes in each wave, I was in the second wave. The race started on the Royal Mile and we were soon confronted by our first obstacle, several hay bail walls. I leapt over the bails and ran the first part of the race hard as I knew there was a small alleyway coming up and didn’t want to be held up by a potential bottle neck. I was in second place as we passed Waverly Station and made our way to Calton Hill. We were promised a race with plenty of climb and our legs were soon tested on the second obstacle, Jacobs Ladder Climb. A series of steep steps took us up to Regent Road; I eased off slightly up the steps knowing there was plenty more to come later in the course. As we ran to the top of Calton Hill I was passed by a few racers and probably slipped down into 8th or 9th place. The third obstacle was on the top of Calton Hill, an army assault course. A series of cargo nets, rope swings and monkey bars to name a few stood between me and the descent of Calton Hill. I was fast over the obstacles (slightly disappointed when I reached the end!) and left Calton Hill back up in second place. The early leader of my wave had faded badly at the steps and the guy now leading was Matt Sutherland a fellow FGS Team member.
The course then took us to Holyrood Park but not before we had another obstacle to tackle en route. The Urban Jungle comprised of some large tyres a couple of cars and skip we had to clamber through and over before passing through a housing estate into the park. I was feeling good at this stage of the race and looking forward to getting of the roads onto some parkland. It was here we began to catch the trailing members of the first wave up, over taking some was tricky on the narrow woodland paths. The course was mainly uphill along this stretch and my legs started to feel it as I had a tussle for the wave 2 second spot. We were soon at our 5th obstacle and nearing the half way point of the course. I hit the waterslide at the wrong time and had a slight wait as some wave 1 stragglers slid very slowly down the slide. I was in third place now by some distance with fourth not far behind. I good dive off the top of the slide meant I was down in milliseconds and soon running back towards the city centre. As we passed through a large tunnel another FGS team member caught me and we ran together before he gradually pulled away from me. Slipping to fourth I was determined not to lose any more places! We faced a small ‘stocking filler’ obstacle of spider’s web ropes and a drenching from the Fire and Rescue Service before descending into Cowgate. The course was well marked and as I saw left arrow I turned left, straight into a dead end! Quickly turning and taking the next left I lost little time but it all adds up and I now had the 5th place wave 2 run alongside me. It was a welcome relief to get to the next obstacle as I felt I was far quicker over the obstacles than most but slightly slower covering the ground between them. We were faced with a construction site type obstacle course with plenty of scaffolding to clamber on. It was becoming hard to pass the hoards of wave 1 members that engulfed the obstacles but with a bit of friendly pushing and shoving I got through…it is a race after all!!
We were then straight onto the next obstacle as we entered a building and ran round a maze of corridors and stair wells, I was now back into 3rd place and feeling a real buzz. We faced another incline as we ran back onto the Royal Mile to face the Under Armour Royal Mile challenge. Rat Race flash backs passed through my mind here as we clambered over bouncy castles and up margarine covered slopes! There was a queue at one of these which, although it was frustrating, did allow me to catch my breath. I knew we were homeward bound now and so pushed on through the Grassmarket thinking there were two obstacles to go and about 1.5 k of flat road…I was wrong! After flowing through the parkour zone with ease, the race entered the West end of West Princes Street Gardens we ran towards the finish but suddenly faced a nasty sting in the tail of a series of zig zagged paths uphill towards the Castle Esplanade! These really hurt the legs and I could feel the burn in my calves. I could also see the second wave 2 runner ahead and really wanted to catch him, however was passed on the uphill by another wave 2 runner and now found myself in fourth place. I’ve always been stronger a descents and really let rip when it came throwing myself off the top. I hurtled towards the bottom not entirely in control but caught 3rd place at the bottom and we ran neck and neck around the Amphitheatre. We had one final obstacle to face, the Men’s Health Wall of Fame, and 8ft wall. I threw my self at the wall ignoring the ropes that were there to aid/hinder climbing attempts. I made it straight up and over and crossed the line, exhausted. As I caught my breath I turned to see two guys from wave two crossing the line who were in 2nd and 3rd place before the wall…I had just managed to nab second place which brought a large grin to my face!
The race was the most intense I’ve done for some time, it was over a shorter distance than what I’m used to and really felt like a sprint from start to finish. I didn’t have the speed between the obstacles I would have liked, but having never run a ‘10k’ was pleased how I managed to pace my race. The obstacles were extremely enjoyable and I think really played to my advantage. The overall winner was Matt Sutherland, the wave 2 winner, in a highly impressive time of 44.23. I was pleased to finish in 7th place overall with a time of 47.19. Incidentally this time was quicker than both the winning times in Nottingham and Cardiff, which is a surprise as they were relatively flat courses. Another interesting fact is that out of the top ten finishers 6 were from wave 1 and 4 from wave 2, I think this shows the queue build up throughout the day and definitely felt for those running in wave 6! Overall I was highly impressed with the event but have come to expect no less from Detail Events. Huge thanks also go to For Goodness Shakes! for the race entry, it was a privilege to race on behalf of such a worthwhile sports nutritional product. Next up, the Open 5 Series gets under way on the first Sunday of November; a great race series to entertain adventure athletes over the winter months.
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Having never raced in a straight mountain bike race before I thought I’d give the St Fillan’s Mountain Bike Challenge a blast which took place in the beautiful Perthshire countryside. Rachel also entered the race and we couldn’t have had a better day for it. Although it felt cold the sun was shining and the ground was dry. Trying to fix Rachel’s brakes on the start line didn’t quite work and she had to ride the race without a front brake…which was fine for the uphill start but not so fine for the downhill finish! The race began with a short road section before breaking off into the woods and starting a significant climb. It spread the field out and as a couple of riders disappeared into the distance I found myself 5th where I remained for the race. The terrain was very 
enjoyable after the initial climb and the course constituted of undulating fire roads. We raced out to the highest point of the course before doubling back on ourselves which enabled you to find out how much work to do if positions were to be gained. I saw Rachel on this part…the leading female rider, although it looked a close race. I was quite far off the first two riders but not too far from 3rd and 4th. As the course took us past the half way point and mainly downwards I pushed hard to try and gain a place but found 4th place was no where in sight. A steep descent with a few tight bends took us back to the village before crossing the finish line. 18 miles in total with over 2000ft of climb, it was a great race and highly enjoyable. We’ll be back next year for sure…Rachel has to defend her Women’s Open title!
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Last weekend I had the opportunity to travel over to England with LVO and compete at the Compass Sport Cup. This is a club competition and attracts most of the ‘big’ clubs in Britain. LVO was the only club to represent Northern Ireland and was also first time the club had ever entered the Compass Sport Cup. Thirty nine club members came along and it was a very good opportunity (for me) to get to know some of them better. Because we had planned to fly over on Saturday morning a few of us also had the opportunity to enter the Cambridge City Race (the Compass Sport Cup was on Sunday). This was the first time I had entered an orienteering race outside of the ‘local’ scene and I was looking forward to see what level I was at against some of the best runners in the country.
The event at Cambridge was billed as a chance to test your orienteering skills amidst the narrow streets and amongst the ancient colleges of Cambridge. The start was located on Jesus Green and as this was my first time to Cambridge I was ‘wide eyed’ at the history surrounding me. There were over 300 competitors, each running in there various classes. I decided to stay in my M40 class as this was my first ‘proper’ urban orienteering race. The map was slightly different to a standard O map with ‘olive’ green area indicating out of bounds areaes i.e. don’t step on the lawns!! My race started well and it did not take me long to get into the swing of things running around the streets and dodging people and bicycles. Then I made an error going from CP5 to CP6. Crossing a busy road I must have slightly turned my map and when I looked down at it again, what I thought was CP6 turned out to be CP9. I wasted a lot of time working out were I was – on the ground I was heading to CP6, but on the map I was heading for CP9……and of course something just did not add up. It wasn’t until I got CP7, CP8 and heading for CP9, I realised my mistake. I knew I had MP’ed, but I quickly continued on with the remaining controls error free. At the end I was disappointed with my simple mistake of mixing up 6 and 9, but hopefully it will be other lesson learnt for future races. I still feel planners should make a clear distinction between a 6 and a 9 especially when the controls are places relatively close together. However, it was a very good race and I did really enjoy the run and did enjoy the concept of urban races.
On Sunday morning everyone headed up the road from the hotel for the 20 minute journey to Finnshale Wood. This was the location for the Compass Sport Cup. After a slightly cool and breezy Saturday, Sunday dawned clear and sunny with very little wind. In fact it was like a warm spring morning and the atmosphere around the car park was great. I had never seen so many orienteers in one place. Every age group was there from young kids to old men who looked like they would topple over if they run further than 5 metres. I was stuck in the Open Class doing the ‘Brown’ course. This would be my second ever Brown course so part of me was very nervous while the other part was excited. My plan was to start a bit slower than normal and then quicken up once as I got use to the terrain and scale. Over the 20 controls I made 2 mistakes – one a CP2 and the other at CP13. Looking at the splits of the guys around me I guess I lost about 13 minutes where I shouldn’t have. I completed the Brown Course in 82 minutes and covered 13km for the 9.1 km course. I finished 79th (out of 126) and even without my mistakes I would never have got higher than 45th place. It’s still a big jump up the placings, but not big enough to make an impact. The winning time was 49½ minutes, which then jumped down to 10th place on 58 minutes. I need to learn how to save seconds going to and leaving each control, as well as running faster. There is still a lot to learn and no doubt I can and will get better……this I am looking forward to, but I also realisde that I might need to concentrate on the orienteering for a while and drop everything else.
Overall, it was a great weekend and it really did fire up my desire to become a better orienteer. Hopefully I will be able to balance everything (including the kid’s football), but I think O will be taking first choice for a while. Finally, a very big thank you to Declan and Wilbert from LVO for all their hard work in organising this trip.
Cambridge Results
Finnshale Wood Results
Some Photos (Flickr)
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Disappointed at having missed out on the Mourne Way Marathon due to it clashing with our local Triathlon race back in June, I had eagerly said I would be signing up for the Causeway Coast Marathon, organised by 26Extreme. Having run my first marathon in May this year, I found the most difficult part of it the boredom of running alone for such a long time (I’m not a fast mover!) So this time I contacted an American friend of mine, now living in Galway, a seasoned ultra-marathoner and Ironman competitor, wondering if she fancied doing the half-marathon. Fortunately her response was a definite yes, but only to do the full distance, it would make up for the long drive.
As seems to have been the norm this year, work got in the way of training and the week of the marathon arrived with my longest run stretching to about half the distance I should have covered. However, Reilly and myself were looking forward to doing the race for the craic, and had been told the views were spectacular. She is also doing the Dublin Marathon on the 26th October so didn’t want to be pounding around this.
I wasn’t particularly worried about the race, that is until I arrived at the start line and realised that everyone else there were proper runners and adventure racers. The one girl that told us she had only recently taken up running was in fact doing this as a warm up run for the ultra runs… I started to think that yet again I had signed myself up for something that was perhaps a bit out of my league to say the least!
After a few encouraging words from Rowan, one of the race organisers, telling us not to fall over the cliffs, and some less scary ones from the local Mayor, we were on our way. As the faster competitors took off, the more relaxed amongst us started to chat. I recognised Peter Jack from his commentary at various triathlons I’ve raced at over the recent years. He’s always good for providing a laugh, whether you are a competitor or a spectator. He was running alongside Catherine Butcher setting a nice pace, and so we had a bit of a chat as Reilly explained how she came to be a Californian living in Galway studying frogs… always a good conversation opener!
Pretty soon we were into the Giant’s Causeway, and Reilly was getting my phone out to take some photos. It was obvious that we weren’t going to be breaking any records in this race! I was glancing up at the magnificent scenery of the cliffs to our right when I realised that people were running up them. Ian and Rowan had thought this the perfect way to start a marathon, send us up a cliff that most tourists take a bus up. Fantastic! Making sure to pose for the cameras on our way up, Reilly and I were amazed by the beautiful scenery once we got to the top. This continued for the length of the race. Whether running down muddy steps or climbing over stiles, there was just so much to look at around us. Having laughed at the warnings about falling over the side of the cliffs, I soon realised what Ian and Rowan were talking about, a whistle wouldn’t have been saving us if we went down there!
The course went along beaches, over boulders, through caves, past cows, up and down hills, it was just amazing, and all the time these spectacular views. By the time we headed on to the long stretch of sandy beach, the serious competitors were coming back at us thick and fast, including my Rat Race team-mate, Barry Tinnelly. I was glad I didn’t have to make an attempt to try and keep up with him this time (earlier he had declined my request to carry me in a rucksack around the course.)
A quick run through knee-deep water and before we knew it, we were at the halfway point, where yet more bananas, oranges, and top ups of water were waiting. It was really nice to have something non-sickly sweet to eat on the course. The lovely people at the stand were so encouraging, and we turned to head home having arrived exactly on our target time.
Heading back we started to close the gaps between some of the other runners in front of us, but this wasn’t the type of race in which we were watching the clocks. We had to keep slowing down to take some more photos – that is how incredible the scenery was. However, after we passed the big orange tent at the 6-mile marker, I started to suffer a bit more than I would have liked. Before we started out we reckoned this would take us about 5 hours, an hour longer than our normal marathon time. At this stage I’d run for as long as I’d ever done, and those hills and steps were getting tougher each time. Reilly was a better prepared having ran a 50-mile off-road race earlier in the year. At this point, some of the faster half marathoners who had set off from Ballintoy started to come past us, and we congratulated ourselves that we were far tougher than them. So armed with some more haribo, and continuing our catch up on the latest gossip, we slowly covered the remaining miles.
Thankfully we didn’t have to go down the Shepherd’s Path steps, as I don’t think I could have faced climbing up the hill path again. We even got to stop and let the tram go past – it was like that steam roller scene from Austin Powers, the tram was moving so slow, but we were afraid we wouldn’t have made it across in time! Coming up the hill to the finishing line this was definitely one race where I couldn’t find any energy for a half decent finish; my legs just gave way as we went across the line. This really was a true test of a marathon, my previous marathon I was a bit disappointed that it wasn’t more of a challenge.
Surprisingly I was able to walk almost normally the next day, although taking a group of children to Belfast Zoo with all its hills on Monday morning with work was not one of my brightest ideas. However the benefits of not having pounded along tarmac for 5 hours were pretty clear. I’m already looking forward to the next race 26Extreme organise, but hopefully I’ll have put in the training beforehand!
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Recent Entries
- We have moved……
- Orienteering – Autumn Trophy – Kilbroney
- Dromara Winter Trailquest Series
- ‘New’ Winter Race Series
- Coming back to the UK for 2010 – Expedition Racing
- Here’s an interesting way to view O Maps
- Men’s Health Survival of the Fittest – Jonny’s report
- St Fillan’s Mountain Bike Challenge – Jonny’s Report
- Cambridge and the Compass Sport Cup
- Causeway Coast Marathon – Report by Di Di
- Orienteering is ……..
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