Cottam!

Wednesday night saw the 4th Night Street league in Cottam. Driving past the start doesn’t bode well for taking part in an orienteering event.

Emma managed to make this event and she was hoping to get some map reading practice. Emma and I had planned to run together at the first event but unfortunately Emma didn’t manage to make the event do to…..communication problems! Albert and Neil had already registered and were just readying to set off as Emma and I came out of the pub. I think Albert didn’t want me following him.

Emma decided that as per the plan on the 1st event, we would run together tonight. Emma got her map 1 minute before me and had 1 minute to plan a route before I got mine. Don’t think it made much difference though as Emma seemed to look at the map blankly to start with. However when I started I did forget one key thing and that was to start my stopwatch. I did ask one of the other runners though en-route and we managed to work out what time we needed to be back for.

I tried to let Emma do some map reading but I think the competitive side of me kept taking over and whilst Emma was still looking at the map, sometimes I was already heading off in the direction of the next point. 1/2 way round we saw Albert who yet again suggested he wasn’t doing too well. Shortly after finding two pig shaped statues we headed for the only 1 of 5  60 point points. The 2nd 1/2 of our route though was definitely the muddiest, including a leap over a small stream and a dash to the finish within the allotted time.

I never managed to catch Albert and Neil at the finish as they headed straight off so Emma and I stayed for food and a drink. Chatting to one of the other runners, tonight's map was a higher scoring map which explains my 870 point score (my average is about 700 points).

One more event before Xmas and 5 more after Xmas. It’s a great alternative to normal running and if you fancy something different then you should give it a try. There is a Night event a week saturday in the woods near Kendal which I might have a go at to add a different flavour to the orienteering scene for me.

For more information visit www.sroc.org.
Results at http://www.sroc.org/menu7/menu7_1/2009/SROCnsl.htm

It’s been a bad week!

Well this week has seen ZERO miles on the running front. Monday I was tired from Sundays long run, then Tuesday was my birthday and we went out for a meal. Wednesday and Thursday saw me over in Dublin working so no running still and Friday, out again to Bradford with Josh’s running club in the evening.

I had hoped to run today but Joanne had other plans and then this afternoon I just lost all motivation. So IF I can manage pull my sorry ass out of bed early enough in the morning then I’ll go for a run locally but I have to be back for 9AM as Joanne is out with Josh to Sunday Soccer and Oliver has to go to a birthday party at 12PM. If that fails then I’ll have to run Sunday night.

Next week has signs of too much running. Although Wednesday is Orienteering in Preston and on Thursday I’ll try to make Hill session on my way back from Bradford. However the Dave Staff race is on Sunday and assuming Joanne “gives me permission” then I’ll be heading for that one!

See through bags stop terrorists!!!

Readying myself for a flight to Ireland I needed to travel light so crammed what I could into my laptop bag for an over night stay. The only toiletry item I took with me was toothpaste. On arrival at security I took the laptop out of the may bag and put it in the tray, took off my coat off and placed that into a 2nd tray along with my belt (Not the shoes today for some reason) and then placed my bag in another tray. At the same time I opened my bag and took out the toothpaste to place in a tray also.

Now I know you have to place all toiletry items in a small see through bag but I thought this was just to keep the items together I had no idea these bags helped in the detection of strange substances that could be used to take over planes?? I presented the toothpaste to the man helping to feed the X-Ray machine and just said “I only have the one item!”, he replied “It needs to be in a clear bag”. “But it’s just one item!”, “Yes but it still needs to be in a bag!”. Now I was late for my flight and decided that now was not the time to argue and definitely not over a nearly empty tube of toothpaste so when I asked what he wanted me to do I was told “Just put it in your bag”. So I did!

Sure enough, as soon as my bag came out the other side of the X-ray it was pulled to one side for having toiletries in it! After what seemed like 10 mins waiting for a foreign family to empty out all manner of creams, drinks, jams from their bags my bag was brought to be looked at and I told the guy the toothpaste was in the front and that I had been TOLD to put it back in the bag. I may as well of said nothing! Having removed the toothpaste, the bag now needs to be scanned again because I’m guessing that the toothpaste plays havoc with the X-Rays and stops the operator from seeing anything, but this time I was allowed to go on my way.

Now am I being stupid here or does the mystical see through bag perform any other special function and WHY could I not just put the toothpaste in a tray of it’s own! I appreciate the need for security at airports but is there really any need to take away the toothpaste because it wasn’t in a see through plastic bag??????

Answers on a postcard to TheAnti-TerroristMagicalSeeThroughPlasticBag@liverpoolairport.com

I’m too old for this!

Well today saw a trip to Wigan Linacre centre for our first scan. Yep Joanne's pregnant again!! I’d always wanted three kids and Joanne only ever wanted two but she also wanted a girl, so after Oliver she changed her mind. Early last year I told here she had until the end of the year and if she wasn’t pregnant by 31st Dec then no more. I then went through a period were I decided I just didn’t want any more kids but I gave in earlier this year.

Joanne had been worrying about today and she wouldn’t be happy until that first scan was out of the way. Anyway, meet the next little Sammon. Boy or Girl doesn’t matter although I would like a daughter now as I always wanted boys when Josh and Oli were born. Joanne wants to find out if possible at the next scan but I’m adamant I DON’T want to know until the day it’s born. I’ve no doubts we’ll have a few arguments about that before the next scan in January.

The dates (9th June) mean that Oliver might get a new brother/sister for his birthday. Am I bad for think that I could save money on Birthday parties!

After 3 events….

Street orienteering in Morecambe was a little tougher than the first two. The map was a little larger and the points were more spread out. I picked a rough route and headed out. You can use this link to see the route I took. With more running between points I felt that I was covering more ground but this made it harder to judge if I would make it back in time. I passed Albert over 1/2 way round my route and he was still heading away from the start, asking if he was ok he replied “No!” :-D

Having done a full loop back to the start and with no more points close enough to fit in, I finished with over two minutes to spare. On the run in Albert came flying past me only just making it back with 30 secs to spare. Neil was already back with under 4 mins to spare.

Counting the points in the pub after, Albert wasn’t too happy with his points and decided not to count them. I counted mine and had managed to get 710 which seems to be about the average mark for me. At least I’m consistent. That put me around the mid point in the results for the 75 min group with Albert and Neil propping up the foot of the group. Results here.

The overall results are here. Not sure how the age adjusted scores are adjusted but it puts me 11th out 77 for the gross scores and 18th out of 77 in the age adjusted scored which I think are the ones that count.

Next event is Cottam (Preston) on the 25th Nov and I still have a good buzz for these events. Think I’ll try one of the non street type orienteering events in the future.

I used the GPS to plot me route too but I think I need to increased the plotting interval for the next one.

Mark

 

Links:

South Ribble Orienteering Club
British Orienteering