Different Sorts of Races
I've just had an interesting weekend. On Saturday we did the Craiglockhart round of the East of Scotland Orienteering series. A friend at work has been encouraging me to have a go at orienteering for a while. In fact our first outing had been at Mortonhall the week before. We did that one together, but, now with a little knowledge of what we were doing, we entered the Craiglockhart event separately. We'd just got signed on when we bumped into John Owens of myRace, attending to take some photos for a forthcoming article. This was his first experience of orienteering so, armed with a whole one week's worth of experience in the sport, I set about explaining to him how it all works. I got to the point about map and compass, and in demonstrating this to him discovered that I was about to set off in completely the wrong direction. Well, that was a good start! Anyway, Fiona set off first, I followed about a minute later. I was to see her at several points during the course of the next 30 mins, mostly passing in opposite directions. This was a bit disconcerting considering we were supposed to be doing the same, more or less circular course. There were times when both of us were completely lost, I stumbled across several of the controls points by accident, whilst looking for other ones. But finally the finish was in sight, and more to the point, Fiona was within catching distance in front of me. So I upped the pace and caught her just before the line. I know its only for fun, but I do have my pride!
Details of further local races can be found on www.eastofscotlandorienteering.org. By the way, they only cost £2 to enter and you don't need to be a member of anything. A bargain!The following day - very cold, very wet, very windy - I left Fiona in bed and travelled down to Glentress for the first of the winter off road duathlon series. I'd never done one of these before, so I made my way to the start with a mixture of apprehension and curiosity. The race comprises a mountain bike loop first, followed by a different loop on foot. Both loops were more or less up a hill and back. I guess there must have been around 60 starters; the first few mins were quite congested. I started off not too bad on the bike climb, but when we started heading down and things got technical with slippery descents and tree roots I lost a few places. But I actually quite enjoyed the bike leg. By contrast, the running leg was sheer hell. Anyone who's ever tried a duathlon will know that horrible feeling when you jump off the bike and try to switch your legs to running mode, they just don't want to know. And with the start of the running leg being up a hill this only made things worse. The hill went on and on, getting steeper and steeper. My calves were killing me but I was determined not to start walking. At last the top was in sight and we started descending. What a relief ! But then, after a mile or so, here's a course direction arrow back up the hill again. Only this time the route isn't even a path, its a vertical wall of mud and slippery long grass. There's no way I can run this ! I struggle on up the hillside for what seems like an eternity. You can't see the top because all you can see around you is trees. Eventually, and on the point of complete collapse, I make it to the real top and start the painful run down. Despite my problems very few had passed me on the way up, in fact I had passed more than had passed me, but the descent was, of course, a different matter! Still, I made it back and did in fact have the pleasure of passing one poor soul whose running downhill ability was even worse than mine. My overall verdict - hard but enjoyable. The next race in the series is on the 28th Jan - any chance of some Porties for company? See www.glentressduathlon.com for details. (Entry is in advance and limited to a max field of 100).
Reports Keith Mayfield
