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We had some winter sunshine today – almost strong enough to feel a little warmth – and with foxglove and bluebell leaves emerging from the ground everywhere, you can almost believe that winter will not last forever.

Rivers Wood is a classic southern English woodland. There is a mixture of plantation and less organised forest with trees of many kinds and ages. As the name suggests, there are some deep valleys with large streams. As the area is on clay, the valleys can be steep and the ground heavy underfoot so the area can be quite physical.

The green course was very good today. The first controls were simple enough and close together, calling for the confidence to apply straightforward navigation and go as fast as you could. Then things became varied, with some longer legs, changes of direction and lots of route choices to make. I never felt that I was “slogging around” – with 17 controls you were always onto the next challenge.

With a heavy cold I was never going to be very fast, but pace was reasonable compared with most and I beat one or two that I have been struggling to catch up with recently. I thoroughly enjoyed being out in the sunshine and felt better for the run.

A long drive south for a nice event in a forest I quite like. Slindon Forest is fairly open and runnable, without a clear compartmental structure but with a forest road and bank running through the middle, that you keep bumping into.

I was in an odd mood when I arrived. I was not feeling great but keen to orienteer as I have missed a few events over the last month or two. I have been dabbling with Jeff Galloway’s approach to running which involves frequent “walk breaks” and thinking about increasing overall speed by enjoying the run and not trying to push too hard. I sort of adopted this by deciding to relax and see what happened. Instead of becoming anxious that I was slow, I would just take things as they came.

I certainly enjoyed the event. I was focused on each leg and simply getting to the next control. When I ran fast on tracks I really enjoyed it but I did not push too hard. Apart from control 3 (where I ran straight but on an inaccurate bearing, hit the forest road and had to run along it a fair way) I had a smooth run navigationally and wasted very little time. I was not that fast but fast enough to beat a few who normally beat me and was in fairly close touch to some who usually leave me well behind. I also had that pleasant feeling that I had had a pleasant and relaxed run, but my time was much less than it felt like. Fifty minutes was OK when I have not run recently and the mental approach and “race strategy” seems to have something in it. I was 25th overall, but not too long behind the winner and the turn-out was huge.

The mild and dry day, with much less mud than I was expecting, helped too. The winter is far enough along to have dealt with most of the bracken and other undergrowth and the course was “spot on” – nice navigational challenges that rewarded clean, straightforward attack – I never had to go hunting around in vague terrain or searching in pits.

A nice way to spend my birthday and the first event as an M50.