Busy Busy Busy

The past few weeks have been massively busy!
I had a visit from my dad and friend Julia. It was fun to show Julia around Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Stirling. Finally got to show someone from Philadelphia just why I love Scotland so much.

After their exciting visits it was on to training for BUCS (British University and College Sports) Orienteering Championships. This included two trips down to the meadow bank stadium for some track intervals. I hadn't been on a track in a long time so it was nice to feel a bit of speed again. The two sessions where 6x300 and 4x200 (3sets).
Then for some technical training I made my way to Edinburgh Unis gym to get a lift to FVO's Wednesday night event at Barr Wood. This was an experience to say the least! We got lost finding the start and nervously watched the head lamps dance around the hill as Toni pelted down side roads in search for the carpark. We eventually made it 30 minutes late but with enough time for me to go around one of the 3 loops. It started off as a chilly but nice evening with an almost full moon to aid in seeing. Then after getting to about the 2nd control it started to lightly snow and slowly picking up. I had some very good controls but by the end my concentration was lacking and my left foot was screaming "warm me up, you can't feel me!"
To then get a last technical session in I headed over to Arthur's Seat where EUOC's Jack had planed Fight with the Night. In order to get there I decided to take the bus, which if you live in Edinburgh know that the Trams have really delayed things. It was a 5 hour trip out but totally worth it! I was just feeling good on the course, things were popping up just where I was expecting them, and I worked hard on always having a plan. It was one of those nights that reminds you just why you love orienteering. You can find my map on my DOMA

Along with training for BUCS I had two other races on. Heriot-Watt's Athletics Club puts on an annual 5km run around campus as our main fundraiser. So on March 11th we had ~43 people take on our road/trail course. Being in the club and earning the title of Vice President next year I was there to help out. I learned how to set up the whole course the saturday before, and then marshaled during the race. It was a descent turn out for being the day after Edinburgh University's Athletics race. Next year though expect it to be even better! and we hope more people will come and support us.

The last exciting race I have taken part in was last Wednesday was Varsity, which is a sporting competition between Heriot-Watt, Edinburgh Uni, Queen Margret Uni, and Napier Uni. This was the first year athletics was involved in the form of a 5km race. There was a fierce battle between Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt. It was a 1 mile loop run 3 times and it was my first 5km race in over 2 years, but more importantly my first time wearing Heriot-Watt colors. I was nervous at the start but things settled down once the race started. I tucked in behind an Edinburgh girl and just felt out the first lap. It was extremely windy in sections, and calm in others. By the second lap I decided to up the pace and passed the Edinburgh girl. She however tucked in behind me and on the end of the third lap passed me out. I ended up placing 5th with a time of 23:20 for 5.25km. A bit slower than I was hoping for but pleased none the less. Edinburgh Uni ended up winning 50-70 but Heriot-Watt has a much smaller team so we were pleased with how close it was, and we are ready to kick their butts next year!

Next Up BUCS!

Planning Fight with The Night on Campus

I was in charge of putting on EUOC's Fight with the Night event at Riccarton (Heriot-Watt's campus) last night. It was a great experience in which I learnt a lot. Firstly I started just by getting to know campus. Ran some old sprint courses, had Colm plan me some other training, and just went running around. The issue with having done this is that I kept finding places in which I thought "Oh I could put a control there!" "That would be a cool control location". It also lead to me really wanting to update the map. Sadly though I never got around to learning how to update maps but probably for the better as in the last few months the University has pulled down many trees on campus.
When it came to actually planning the courses I was a bit nervous to be honest. It was probably only the 3rd or 4th set of courses I had planned and the first here in the UK. I wanted them to be really good and people enjoy themselves. Well between that and too many places I wanted to put controls I was having a few issues. Thank fully Colm looked at my draft and came to the rescue in making the courses better. And sounds like people really enjoyed them selves.

There were two courses. Short 2.6km with 16 controls and 10 runners. Long 4.9km and 30 controls and 26 runners.

Here are the results:
Short

Place	Time	Name
1	23:50	Ann Haley
2	25:40	Craig Woodger
3	25:48	Rachel Kirkland
4	27:22	Val Finch
5	28:18	Les Dalglesh
6	34:14	R Web
7	36:14	Margret Dalglesh
8	38:07	Janice Nisbet
9	47:32	Bill Gold
10	53:33	Brian Miller

Long

Place	Time	Name
1	30:46	Oleg
2	32:58	Philipp Von Arx
3	36:03	Simon Gardner
4	36:15	Andrew Lindsay
5	39:12	Andrew Dalglesh
6	40:38	Mark Wood
7	40:42	Rebecca Harding
8	43:58	Heather Thomson
9	45:48	John Ellis
10	45:51	Jo Shepherd
11	46:36	Mark Rove
12	49:20	Stephen Mcharg
13	50:17	Isla Simmons
14	50:20	Tony Loultson
15	51:22	Tim Kieniewicz
16	51:58	Marhoch Hamilton-Jones
17	52:10	Jack Baker
18	54:28	Lauren Eyre
19	55:05	Kirstin Maxwell
20	55:52	Crawford Lindsay
21	57:50	John Mckendrick
22	58:58	Peter Gardner
23	59:13	Heather Kiniewicz
24	1:02:54	Ted Finch
25	Mp	Laura Ramstena
26	Mp	Sam Kilferd

Both Maps:
Short


Long


I want to say thank you to Simon, Isla, and Marhoch for picking up controls for me. and a Special thanks to Ross and Quiche from Heriot-Watts athletics club for helping me at the start and finish. I'll get the athletics club to actually go at on a course at some point!

So main thing I learned from this is that I need to just draw up more courses for practice and figure out what makes a good course. Also I would love to learn to do map updates!