Tamworth Sprint-O




I wasn't going to do anything this weekend, partly because I've got to pick my mum and sister up from Birmingham International Airport at 1.30am on Sunday morning. I wasn't going to do the Sprint event this evening either because my mum conveniently decided to order the Sainsburys delivery at the time when the event was on. The shopping came early so decided to make a late rush to the event. I wasn't exactly prepared, having just eaten four bags of crisps about half an hour before and nothing else that day so was a touch bloated.

I decided to park my car at the new flat that I'm not living in yet and walk the rest to the Snowdome. I came across a few of the controls on the way. In the end it didn't make any real difference as my legs were like lead after just a few controls probably because of my bad diet and maybe the exertions from Shugborough a few days before. I had a really scrappy run, hitting most of the controls ok early on but lost 5-10 secs here and there. I lost 20 secs from 4-5 forgetting that I needed to cross over the river, 11-12 not realising the control was at the castle as I was way too low. At 14-15 I lost 30 secs - I went straight to this control but it was in the wrong place in the edge of the circle on a grassy area next to the path. It also had the wrong number on it so ran around for a while before punching it anyway. As I punched I noticed that a small sticker had been placed on top of the box with the correct number. I was later told that this was a replacement control as the original had been nicked. 15-16 was also dire exiting the control in completely the wrong direction and almost went off the map in the process. Must have easily lost 5 mins here.



Overall I enjoyed the run and the course was well planned but my performance was pants. The last mistake in particular made me go from a reasonably respectable 8th ish to 21st out of 30 which is really pathetic. What was most concerning for me was how bad the legs felt. I'm not so bothered about the navigation errors as I haven't orienteered for a few months and I'm a part time orienteer these days anyway. I'm going to rest again this week as my foot is still not right - I have an appointment with the chiropodist on Friday, before running the footpath relay on Sunday.



Only other thing of note was that as I helped the Stodge (Event organiser) carry the printer and laptops out of the Snowdome we got apprehended by some ugly (whose face only a mother could love) and miserable security/bouncer who said 'had we got receipts for those' - we just thought he was joking and laughed before carrying on until we realised he was being serious. Stodge told him it was our own equipment for the orienteering but he still wanted our names anyway. Jobsworth.

Comments

  1. Steph Cooke24 June 2007 at 13:55

    Hi Lloyd, glad you are still managing to train, I guess it will take time for our bodies to get used to the higher mileage we are now doing, good luck with the chiropodist.
    I am back from my trek- it went well, ta- good fun! I will post some accounts. Good training hopefully, and touch wood the Achilles was ok, just felt it a touch on the rougher downhill sessions.
    Hope the footpath relay goes well.

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