Chris Curtis Web Site

It had been frosty overnight and there was a delicate mist hanging between the houses as I set of to Buxted Park. There were still tiny patches of snow among the trees in the high part of Ashdown Forest but none at Buxted. It was grey and misty and there was mud: lots of it.

Buxted Park is now a hotel, but was previously a stately home, surrounded with the obligatory gardens, deer park and woodland. The house is on one side of the valley, looking across at the park, over a river and lakes in the valley bottom. I felt much better than I did last week, but definitely not in form.

The first control took us into a field at the bottom of the valley – easy enough but it was not until I actually reached the control that the map began to make sense. I was much better to control two and three, but as registration was next to control three I stopped to take of my jacket – the day was brightening quickly and I was too warm. I was not very precise to four, much better to five, a bit vague to six, better to seven – almost a repeating pattern. After eight we crossed the river and had two legs across the deer park. This has ankle eating tussocks. If you are light or strong enough you run over the top of the tussocks, but I had to settle for weaving between and going very slowly. Control ten should have been easy, but I was slightly to the right and only twigged when I saw control 11 through the trees. Unfortunately I was now behind some nasty scrub and it took me a while to get back to 10, though at least I knew where 11 was. Things went smoothly from then, as the navigation was very easy, but I was terribly slow and looking at the results, some people ran like the wind.

By the time I finished it was a glorious day, with just the vestiges of mist and almost warm in bright sunshine. Although my result was not great (55 minutes for 11 minutes per km and 33rd) I cannot think of anywhere I would rather have been – enjoying a perfect morning outdoors, even in January.

The new version has been out for minutes, and it is in operation here, thanks to the very smooth upgrade.

After being ill all week (low level) I was very tempted to stay in bed, but once I got moving I decided to go orienteering despite the miserable rain that was falling. I am glad I went.

As I drove towards Slindon, the cold front came through and it dried and brightened up. It was a very pleasant January day and there were lots of runners. I was still not feeling anything like 100% and it showed. The terrain was chalk with mostly beech woods. Paths were very muddy on top of hard chalk.

The first control went well enough, but I was slow going to number 2, then started moving at a more reasonable pace until about two-thirds of the way round when I just had no energy and went slower and slower. On the way to control 10 all I had to do was run down a road for 300 metres but I just could not do it, then got into nasty thick trees and fumbled around, looking for enormous depressions with the controls at the bottom.

Eventually, I took 56 minutes and was not in contention at all. Never mind. The result made no difference to the autumn series of the club “SO gallopen” league which is based on “best six”. I was twelfth, up two places from the last series, and ahead of a number of people who were ahead of me then – there has been an influx of new talent so although my times have improved significantly, the places not so much. I am pleased with progress generally, though I wish the fitness would come quicker and stay easier!