Orienteering race 12:35*** 1.92 km (6:33 / km) +5m6:28 / km ahr:152 max:169 spiked:5/8c shoes: VJ Irocs
A welcome return visit to the most social event on the orienteering calendar - the Glasgow Parks Challenge.
Vet Men - 1.6km +5m. Drumpellier CP. A very short course to start off, which was welcome as my legs felt dead and oddly sore after yesterday. Of course short = sprint, but that was never going to happen. A respectable time was the target, but I blew 1 minute at the very first control by failing to find the start kite (I was not alone in this!) and getting flustered. I was a bit hesitant to #2, too, and #3, but picked up after that. I still ended up 3 minutes down, but a fair chunk of that was down to (lack of) running speed, so, no surprise. 7th/17 - OK. TRIMP 28.7
12 PM
Orienteering race 13:20** 2.68 km (4:59 / km) +20m4:48 / km ahr:162 max:172 spiked:10/11c shoes: VJ Irocs
2.3km +80m. Race 2 is often a burn-up on an easy area, and so it proved to be again, at Tollcross Park. Set off at what I thought was a decent pace, my legs now feeling slightly more lively after their sluggish start on race 1, but was put in my place when I saw that Martin Ward had caught up nearly a minute on me after 6 mins of running! He started two minutes after me, so at that pace he would be with me at the finish - and so it proved, as I tweaked my left ankle shortly thereafter and failed to increase the pace. I - just - held him off, to finish cumulatively 4:55 down after the two races. 6th. TRIMP 39.7
Running warm up/down 15:54 1.56 km (10:12 / km) +6m10:00 / km ahr:110 max:132 shoes: VJ Irocs
Warmed down by taking E around the Social course. Harder than you might think, because my left ankle had seized up badly and progress was decidedly painful. E put in a decent effort. TRIMP 11
2 PM
Orienteering race 27:52*** 5.03 km (5:32 / km) +103m5:01 / km ahr:164 max:174 spiked:12/16c shoes: VJ Irocs
And so to the fun chasing sprint third race at Pollok Park. 4.3km + 65m. I'd worked on the ankle and decided to go out, as the pressure was off with Roger, Patrick and Martin way out of sight in the top 3 places. Still, I had Steve W 50s ahead, then John McKendrick, then me, with Pat 15s behind me and Al a further minute back, so there was entertainment to be had!
Thought I'd had a decent start but Pat belted it and beat me to #2 with a better route choice. I got ahead at #3 then mislead him at #4, losing 30-40s; unbeknownst to me, Al then almost caught us at this point, as he'd really hammered off the start. I got a slight gap by #7 as I saw John ahead, and then we both caught and passed Steve just after #10. Pat took a bad route choice out of #8 and Al's madcap start caught up on him, and they dropped off the back. Then it was John and I nip and tuck, with a couple of decent route choices here and there, although Steve was only 10s down. My R hamstring started to tighten at this point - the inevitable referred LBP after the hard surfaces and hard pace, so I was hanging on. John and I fluffed the RC to #15, and Steve pretty much caught us up again. But it was hard all the way home, and although I couldn't stretch out to match John when he dug in on the long run to the finish, I was able to do enough to hold off Steve, and finished 5th overall.
Ace fun, as always, although I'll regret it tomorrow! TRIMP 86.4.