Captain’s Blog – May 2008

In contrast to April, May seems to have been a quiet month for high profile events – or was it just that I was on holiday for much of it and didn’t notice? If I’ve missed any notable performances or exciting news, please feel free to let me know!

Surrey Hill Races, 26th May

Either age or fatherhood (or probably both!) are taking their toll on my fitness. After winning the A course in 2006, my return this year was less than triumphal. The Hill Races are more fell races than orienteering courses, with the same routes being used every year and compeitors positively encouraged to recce the course in advance (in part to avoid the organisers having to wait for lost runners to return!). However, in common with orienteering, there are controls (with orienteering flags), route choices to be made and even the occasional bit of terrain running! The A course is roughly 30k and takes in the summits of Leith Hill, Holmbury Hill and Pitch Hill crossing the orienteering areas of Winterfold and Leith Hill. The B course is 16k and the C course 10k. See SLOW’s routegadet site for the actual routes.

For some reason the races regularly seem to attract the worst weather in May, 2006 had hailstorms, 2007 was wet and pretty close to freezing and this year was just plain wet and windy. I set off at a pace marginally quicker than 2 years previously, but it soon became clear that this would be unsustainable. Towards the end my vision had started to blur and I could sense and then hear the guy behind gaining on me. I managed to hold him off to the finish line with a last desparate dash down the final hill and through the woods to come in 4th and first M40, by 1 second! My time, even though conditions underfoot were similar to 2006, was about 8 mins down. Still it was good training for the LAMM on 7/8th June – more of which next month.

CHIG v HAVOC 2008

As Josh has already said, we had an excellent turn-out at the first (home) match. We achieved a convincing win with 94 points to HAVOC’s 25.5. Don’t forget the next (away) match which is on Sunday 8th June at Thorndon North Country Park.

Stragglers’ Relay – 6th July

The annual Stragglers’ Relay is coming soon with its unique and interesting format. Historically (in the 80s and 90s) CHIG were regular winners, and in recent years we’ve come close, with one of our 4 teams coming 2nd last year. Please put the date in your diaries and let’s see if we can overturn WAOC’s recent run of success.

Notable Performances

BOKTrot, Brierley, 11th May

  • Pete Cheetham 2nd M50S

BADO Butter Wood Regional, 1st June

  • Dylan Campbell 2nd JM2
  • Caitlin Campbell 3rd JW4
  • Alice Campbell 2nd JW5S
  • Robin Campbell 2nd M70L
  • Charlotte Cheetham 3rd W45S
  • Ruby Campbell 1st W70L