Harlow Running Club

Week 20 (16/05 - 22/05)

Weight : 11st 12lbs

Booze : 10

Miles : 39

In light of Fulhams decision to erect a Michael Jackson status, Chelsea are also planning on

putting up a statue outside their own ground.

A lifesize replica of Bullseye legend Jim Bowen will be placed outside, with the plaque reading

: "Let's have a look at what you could have won !"

Just got my Olympics ticket allocation back. I just missed out on the mens 100M final, but

picked up 35,000 seats for West Ham v Doncaster..

Tuesday : 10k Midweek League race at Royston.. I would probably describe it as undulating,

as the climbs weren't too significant. I started (as usual) fairly steadily (some would say

"slowly"), and started to pick up from about 2k.. Caught up with Stevie A at the 4k mark, and

we had a good pace going until I must had said something wrong around 7k 'cos he just

buggered off into the distance in a blinding flash.. Time was just over 43 mins, but I was more

satisfied with the steady way I ran it..

Thursday : Did about 7 miles loop around from Roydon on my own with map in hand

Saturday & Sunday : Brecons Training Weekend.. Altogether, there were eight hardy souls

who made their way to Pencelli Castle campsite on Saturday morning for a rather wet and

windy weekend..

I had already plotted seven checkpoints (CP's) for each day, with grid references and

descriptions. The "teams" (pairs) were to mark up their maps, then work their way round the

CP's.. Each pair was given a chance to lead to next CP, whilst the remainder followed, but

ensuring they had an eye on where we were on the map. As we hit the hills on saturday

afternoon, the weather got steadily worse. In the interests of safety, and maintaining team

morale, I decided to cut it short at CP5, and head back to base - always have a plan B is the

motto for the day.. (then have C and D in reserve)..

Sunday morning was similarly poor weather, although it brightened up around midday, and

was superb in the afternoon.. Again, some variation necessary on the original CP's / route in

order to get most out of the day..

Altogether, we covered around 25 miles.. Time on the feet was close to 11 hours, carrying kit

on our backs - legs were tested on some of the latter climbs.

The guys seem to "enjoy" the weekend (as much as I can stretch the meaning of the word

"enjoy") - they certainly all agreed they got a lot of education and useful information relating to

navigation / route choice / use of altimeter / contouring / safety.. They tested out their tents

and stoves, their newly purchased clothing and rucsacs etc - all seemed to work ok.

My @ss is hurting after the weekend, but it's nothing to do with the fact I kipped in between

Steve & Tony in the tent - it's definitely a sign that I need to do more steep hill work in the

next six weeks before Saunders..

dg