Christine Currie

I was a bit dubious at first about going out night orienteering while nearly 6 months pregnant but I love being out in the middle of nowhere in the dark and figured that I’d be fine if I stuck to the paths so we headed off to Ocknell on Saturday evening. I’m really glad I went as the going was really good, if not a bit wet, underfoot and it was a beautiful night. The highlight had to be having a herd of about thirty deer stop about ten metres away from me. I could see their eyes reflecting back my torch beam as they stood stock still and hoped I wouldn’t notice them. I think they’d been startled by another orienteer.

Despite the fact that I was going so slowly I managed to make a couple of mistakes as it was hard to distinguish between the rough open and the runnable open in the dark. I only missed out on one ten point control as a consequence so it wasn’t the end of the world. Although no where near Dave, who got all of the controls, I wasn’t last. Thanks to Bill, Roger, Charlie and Kevin who all seemed to be helping in some way on the night.

It won’t be long before excursions like this become a wee bit more difficult so we’re trying to make the most of our last few opportunities for freedom!

We were up early on Saturday as I was organising a morning of coaching for SOC, WIM and SARUM orienteering clubs. It was a gorgeous frosty morning and the views of the Forest as we drove over made it well worth getting up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday.

The technical exercises were planned by a few people from SOC who are trying to qualify as Level 2 coaches with British Orienteering - no mean feat since First For Sport came on board and the amount of paperwork needed increased dramatically. I then planned the final exercise - a caterpillar relay.

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Had a really good day at Red Shoot today. The organiser and planner are both good friends of ours so it was no surprise that we spent a good part of the day helping. It was an early start hanging controls, but it was one of those very clear, bright mornings so in no way a hardship. The first aid duty was slightly more stressful with three injuries to deal with but all three casualties were smiling at the end of their treatment!

Having run far faster than I normally run in the Test Way relay yesterday, and hung controls in the morning I decided to run the blue course. I was out early and saw hardly anyone out on the course. The navigation was just taxing enough - you had to think but you still had time to daydream! So, I had a fun time. Thanks to Peter Smith for some excellent planning. He said that the blue course was the worst of the lot - the other courses must have been excellent!

Christine

This post is already out of date as the Triple O Severn ended 6 days ago. However, there are still things to say about it (although probably few that people would be interetested in reading!).

I had a pretty successful weekend of orienteering, with a second place in the British Middle Distance Championships on the Saturday and a win at the national event on the Sunday. I’ve been trying to remember since whether this is my first win on elite at a national event, and I think it is. Maybe it’s the start of my come back! Obviously doing much less training over the winter has paid off!

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We travelled to near Midhurst in Sussex this weekend for the British Orienteering Championships. I was running elite on the first day and had a fairly poor run to finish in 17th. I felt tired and unfocused, which was all down to poor pre-race preparation and a lack of sleep during the week. Petra, one of my Czech friends who travelled to the race with us, took some photos of the muddy assembly area and of some people finishing. The photo is of her boyfriend Petr coming in to win M21L. These are on our photo site.

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The weather meant that the Dorset Delight didn’t quite live up to its name this year. It was drizzly and pretty damp underfoot. I had a few wanderings off the straight line route, especially on the open. I think it was probably the late night on Saturday, combined with the clock change that addled my brain.

This was a new area for me (Holmsley and Dur Hill) and I have to admit to being a bit disappointed. It wasn’t as nice as other New Forest areas. Nonetheless, it was good to get out.

Today I did the Wimborne long-o in the New Forest. It was a beautiful sunny day (at least to start with) and running across the icy heathland was a great pleasure. In fact, I spent too much mental energy marvelling at how much fun I was having at the start of the course and consequently made quite a few mistakes.

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