Training Log Archive: Frostbite

Harvester, 2nd leg, Blakeholme.

This was all a bit traumatic. First off I didn't know Steve was about to arrive because he had not been through the last 2 radio controls. I had to get my kit off and sort my dibber and compass and spare torch out and collect my map and have my kit checked all after the clock had started ticking on my run. I did not know at this point that Steve had not completed his course so I thought I ought to try a bit.

On the way to #1 it was clear that I wasn't really able to run properly. I guess this was partly down to it being 3am so my body just wasn't in the mood, and partly down to it being dark so I wasn't stepping out very confidently. It seemed to take an age just to get to the start kite. Once I got off the path it was even worse, stumbling around without being able to see where my feet were going, lots of bracken and long grass and fallen trees.

I got into the circle on #1 no problem, then got myself on the wrong ridge so I had to retrace my steps and try again, maybe 1.5 minutes lost. Then I was just fine through to #8 which was a leg going down across the slope on Gummer's How. I was hoping to navigate off the patches of green on the map but there seemed to be bits of scrubby vegetation all over the place and I didn't descend far enough. I met Jenny Peel similarly confused and we found the control together. At a wild guess, 5 minutes lost. Me and Jenny stayed pretty much together from there to the finish, for mutual support and encouragement.

#10 in the green forest I didn't quite get the right place to leave the path, missed my open knoll by a few yards and went in a big circle before coming back to the path and trying again. 1.5 minutes.

#11 was the worst one, on a clearing in the green. I was approaching from another clearing and thought I knew where it was, but didn't quite go far enough up the hill to see it. I changed my mind and wandered around in the green for a bit, relocating on another clearing but again not going high enough up the hill to find the control. Then I went down until I saw the fence, back into the original clearing and this time did climb high enough to find the control, helped by somebody else's light being up there. I have no idea how long all this took but it seemed like 10 minutes.

After that there weren't any more mistakes. It started getting a bit lighter which made the navigation a bit easier. At one point I fell off a stile and landed on my back. I seem to have injured my wrist in the process.

In the end it was a relief to finish. I didn't hang around as I was doing Day 2 of the coaching course 4 hours later.

A bit more running today on the coaching course. I was a bit tired but felt so much better than the night before. My body felt awake and it was possible to run quite quickly if I put the effort in.

The Harvester now seems like a sort of bad dream that I am struggling to remember properly.

Coaching course, Great Tower. Mostly strolling around but had to jog a little bit when putting controls out. Good course.

After a morning of turf laying and an afternoon nap I got up and struggled out to Seven Arches in the drizzle. Slooowly.

More if the same. A bit laboured on the sprints, good on the steps, poor on the bounds, long on the hops, 33.1 for the Donkey Steps.

Great.

Big lap, Hollies and Meanwood.

Jogging to the park to do the fast lap, then met Tasha by the Cafe and went out to Bywater.