Long O

Headed out to the Pentlands on a scorching morning for the annual Long Orienteering event. With the temperatures high I set off slowly to conserve energy. Did OK until around control 13 when the heat and time out go to me and needed to move to a steady walk for the last hour or so. Good course and made extra challenging by the heat.

Slieve Bearnagh - British Champs Race

Travelled down to Newcastle with Max Snr to take part in the short race in the British Championship series. The weather was nice most of the way round and some great views from the summits. A steep and very rugged race with lots of hard rockly terrain to battle through. Peformance was generally ok but need to push harder than I've been doing. 171% of winning time and very near the back of the field. Nice, well organised event.

Meadows 2 Mile - again

Another Wednesday night race at the Meadows. Hannah came out to support this time and the encourage helped achieve a better time of 13 min 54 seconds. Had to really push hard to get below 14 mins but pleased to have got a somewhat better time.

Stuc a Chroin

A tough race in tough terrain, climbing the summit of Stuc A Chroin at 975 m height.

The race starts easy enough along forest tracks with a steady climb before a climbing a grassy hill and descending to Glen Ample. Then the tough bit starts with a sheer climb to Beinn Each and then rough terrain like that pictured through to the summit of Stuc. Nice weather and great marshalling make this a painful but pleasant race.

Time was slow as expected given lack of form at 4 hrs and around 2 mins. I was around 30 mins faster 2 years ago ! Still, pleased that I was still jogging at the end after 4 hours.

Meadows 2 Mile

Midweek race over 2 miles at the Meadows. Slowest ever run round this distance in spite of feeling reasonably good. Time of 14 min 13 secs.

Loch Leven Cycle

Hannah and Colin headed out to Loch Leven for a 14 mile charity cycle for Scottish Cot Death Association. The weather wasn't great but it stayed dry and was a pleasant enough 3 hour cycle.

It was a there and back event to the RSPB reserve at Vane Farm.

Pedal on Parliament

Hannah and Colin joined a large crowd cycling from the Meadows to Parliament to ask for better facilities for cyclists.

PHOTOS TO FOLLOW

Mountain Bike Orienteering - Glentress

Second attempt at Mountain Bike O got off to a bad start. Really struggled with the map at first and the challenge of spotting the car trails from the one way single track routes. Got some help from another cyclist who was interested in the sport. Eventually got into it and made some ground although still a few mistakes. Just got back within the allowed 3 hours in 5th of 6th at the time of finishing. Full results not in yet.

British Champs - Coledale Horseshoe

Travelled down to the Lake District for the first British Championship race of the season. This was a Medium distance race of around 8.5 miles and 915 m of climb. The weather was a bit mixed with conditions ok at the start but there was snow on the first climb to Grisdale Pike at about 790 metres. I started slow near the back of the field and pretty much stayed there the whole way round. After a descent to the head of the valley there was a very steep ascent which was a scramble in places. Then decent run along the undulating ridge on the way back. Descent strong finish managed to pick up a few places and beat a few of the people I'd been running beside earlier in the race.

A time of just over 2 hrs which was about what I expected.

JK Day 3 - Craig a Barns

Another day orienteering at Craig a Barns just above Dunkeld. Another tough day in the forest with lots of windblow trees and slow movement through the forest. Max was again 4th but Colin was a lot further down the finish list this time.

JK Day 2 at Dunalastair

Max and Colin headed off to Loch Tummel and Dunalastair forest for the first day of the JK and some tough orienteering. Huge crowd of people here for the event from all over the world.

Both Max and Colin did pretty well. Colin was 6th in the M45S and Max came 4th in the M18S.

Hannah and Cherry headed off to the Loch of Lowes to see the Osprey and other wildlife and then walked around Dunkeld.

JK Sprint - Livingstone

Max and Colin headed off to Livinstone for the JK Sprint. We arrived early to help out with the set-up. An hour spent creating the tape grid and then another hour pinning numbers to a string ! Then 2 hours setting off the runners and finally a 20 minute sprint race. Both did reasonably OK.

In the evening we all headed off to Dunkeld for two nights at the Hilton and for the next two days of the JK.

Pentlands in the Snow

Colin headed out for a walk in the snow covered Pentlands. After temperatures hitting 20 degrees a few weeks ago the temperature in April had dropped down to freezing and the hills near Edinburgh covered in snow. Not great weather for 2 weeks off work.

Kilomathon (half)

Colin got up early to head down to Leith to run in the kilomathon (really a half kilo). One of the nicest courses I've ever run on going along the various cycle paths in North Edinburgh. Very cold to start off but the temperature rising throughout the day. Good strong pace throughout - although the time not brilliant compared to my historic best. Still - it felt good to be pushing along quite strongly throughout. The finish was in Murrayfield stadium so very nice end to the race.

Came 136 of 516 runners.

Jogged home afterwards and later on cycled down to Leith with Hannah to collect the car.

Deuchary Hill Race

Colin headed off to Dunkeld on Sunday morning to enjoy a long(ish) hill race in blistering hot weather. Race organiser required everyone to call full waterproof body cover but temperatures reached around 20 degrees on the course.

Lovely and very scenic course taking in relatively gentle climbs and the modest summit of Deuchery Hill. Nice views over the Perthshire countryside.

Struggled quite a bit. Did a 3 hour cycle the day before and this may have sapped a little of my stamina. Pleased at still having some legs to run the last segment of the race.

No sign of results or race photos yet but too around 2 hrs 30 mins to get round.

The Hunger Games

Three of us headed out to see the Hunger Games in Imax. Good film.

Also went out of cycle to Gladhouse reservoir on new bike.

The Doll

Hannah was acting in her Drama club presentation of a short spooky play called The Doll. Hannah was excellent as amongst other roles a funny old granny.

Mountain Bike O

Hannah and Colin went out to the Pentland hills for our first attempt at mountain bike orienteering. A three hour score course. Colin ignored Hannah's suggested route and proceeded to pick off the lowest scoring controls on the course ! Good spirits were maintained throughout the 3 hours. Nice social events with tea and sandwiches provided at the end.

More Pictures from Chapelgill

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Cherry, Hannah and Colin went out to see this at the cinema on Saturday night. Enjoyable light viewing. Worth watching.

Max was away to West Linton for a weekend training for his Mongolia trip with World Challenge.

Chapelgill Hill Race

Officially the steepest hill race in the UK. Saturday saw glorious sunshine and reasonably warm weather for this early season race near Broughton. A very tough, steep ascent and relatively poor form meant I was quickly walking and swearing on the hard climb. The descent was also rough and steep and I got passed by 4 or 5 people on the way down. Great fun in spite of the pain. Rubbish time - 2 minutes slower than in the 2 previous outings at this race.

St Andrews

Colin went away for the weekend to St Andrews for some city orienteering. Saturday was the Scottish Sprint championships were he put in a reasonable performance. Fairly slow but accurate. Sunday was a street race and got around the 1o k course in just under an hour which was pretty pleasing. No major mistakes on either day.

Max went off to North Yorkshire and the Lake District for a geography field trip.