JK 2006

People were spread far and wide throughout Yorkshire, the events were miles apart but it all went smoothly for the ShUOC lot.
After the British Relay Mishaps, the mighty ShUOC men wanted revenge for the BOF rules about punching the 9th control. They got what they wanted.

Day 1, Ilkley Moor.

What a great day! The weather even held off to see the sunshine breakthrough! The assembly area looked amazing as the bank holiday shoppers did their tourist thing in the shops below. The event went smothly and the courses didn't disappoint - with an amazing dash down the hillside for the Elite spectator loop! The mentions for the day were that of Rach Elder who came home with the gold on day 1 and also Matt Crane and Hazel Tant (W20E) both walking away with the bronze. Dave Sprot also had a great run to seal his 1st team relay place.
I, however, was going well until the spectator control when it all went a bit pear shaped. My concentration lapsed and I was making mistake after mistake. Just at the critical moment my shoe fell apart and I also decided to navigate from number 14-16 missing out the obvious number in the sequence. Never mind, there was always day 2. Hmmm...

Day 2, Keldy.

We all hoped that there would be acres of runnable forest, trying to recreate the fast runs like the previous day. This was not to be and the traditional forest, usually associated with the White Rose, came to the forefront. The green splodges on the map didn't please the most athlectic of competitors...still the start beep came and you had to concentrate, taking you into some complex mining areas before running about 7km full of long legs until any other interesting parts of the area came to sight. The last loops were really nice, if you could run. Unfortunatley I was knackered and walk/jogged the last bit as the lack of energy kicked in. There were lots of people who flourished in this terrain/distance, not to mention GG and Oli who flew round the 14.6km course in 85 minutes. The result unfortunalty pushed all of the ShUOC contingent into the unlucky runnner up spot of 4th. I only managed 130minutes in an epic battle against the likes of a Mr Rob Palmer. Surely the relay would be quicker?

JK Relays, Bramham Park.

The rain set in around 5 minutes before the Men's Open was to start. I had been stressed and had to sort out so many problems as ShUOC had been picked on by the BOF orgainisation once again...the rumours were true! Still I started off on 1st leg expecting a little bit of technical running. It was awesome, so fast I could hardly believe it. I ran 7.2km in 38mins showing how fast the area was. The fastest time on my leg was over 5 minutes ahead of me running under 5mins/km in this forest and open rides full of undergrowth without posing much technical orienteering. The 1st team had a cracking start with Neil coming in in 1st, closely followed by the Interlopers team. Mr Sprot ran the 2nd leg and was caught up by Rhys who was only meters down by the end of the run-in loop. We were also being caught by the EUOC "legends". Oli and Craney however zoomed round the course with magnificent speed and the EUOC were left eating the ShUOC dust. Dave B-J managed to injure himself on the last leg, leaving Craney to bring in the glory for the ShUOC party. EUOC came close with Murray closing in but it was too late, ShUOC took the trophy back after a year in Edinburgh's possesion.
The girls also did well with Hazel on 1st leg, Sarah (stand in for the injured Lizzie) and then Rach on last who pulled a few places back, finishing in 10th which was very respectful looking at the the field infront of them!

Overall and awesome weekend with lots of ShUOC success.

Cheers gang!