Summer relays are here and with a few upcoming interesting events heres a Running post. I run too.
Have you heard about the 2014 GB Relay? A circumnavigation of the whole Great Britain coast. Over a month June-July this summer 594 stage runners will pass a baton between stages in an attempt at beating the world record for the biggest relay ever. Naturally when hearing about this I looked into it and discovered the Beer- Lyme Regis stage was open, grabbing the chance to run the Undercliff in the middle of a summer night, one of my favourite wild places in the U.K, I joined a link that extends east all the way continuously along the South Coast to Kent. Looking forward to this however theres still lots of the Cornish coast to assign to runners that are comfortable doing 10km an hour, do pass this Epic idea on as Im always keen to support and be involved in innovative events. On the 10km an hour point, my current goal is to crack a sub 40 minute 10 k.m race on 01 June, so yesterday as a long slow distance run myself and a club mate from Wessex Orienteers left the Studland side of the Poole ferry- headed out over Agglestone heath, up past the obelisk and along Ballard Down, through the village and onto the 4 k.m beach Studland beach run for our training. Nice.
GB relay reminds me of the superb Great Tour 2010 I took part in. Interview and bike riding here,( its not easy being cheesy)
This is also coming up :-Coast Path Relay a multi- club race along the Whole Dorset coast, Wessex have won this many times and hopefully will do again this year. Love the Dorset coast.
Event planning- I get to plan this years Dorset Delight event October 12. Around an area of Bisterne new forest around 300 Orienteers will be running the courses I plan for our club event, lots of visits to the area upcoming. A cartophile like me relishes these challenges as much as the running itself, finding fiendishly tricky route choices for competitors part of the enjoyment. Another recent result is to be granted the use of Avon Tyrell Activity centre in October 2015 for my Castleman Challenge. Ive written about this vision already and now to see that its possible to leave the westernmost tip of the New Forest in the opening stages of this race is brilliant news. Event format will be a variety of lengths, main emphasis for those that do Mountain Marathons and similar long distance races, we have a huge open space that whilst without serious hills- contains enough wild country to provide people with a serious challenge. My aim is to have a special Orienteering map composite of the 4 most South westerly areas of New Forest made, akin to the way that events Ive raced in Scandanavia using big A3 maps, and attract visitors with this and tough distance navigation. Watch as this unfolds over the next year.
Pleased to see the Guardian had an Orienteering feature on saturday link here as my weeks work will include a days Corporate Team building in the forest thursday, should be great. Along with the schools now booking up for summer term activities, next weeks Broadstone Middle sessions and upcoming events theres lots Im making happen as well as pressing buttons. One more thing, if youve read this far, cant help being a bit proud of winning a fiendishly tricky club event last week. Score events mean finding as many controls you can in a limited time. Our super chairman Julie set a course that enabled you to gain points by re-visiting a master control, in effect creating loops. potentially 12 loops with a minimum of 2 controls per re-visit in the hour. Anyway it rocked, and I came first, even without a caffeine gel.
