Chris Wright

I guess Christmas is all about traditions, and if they are good ones, you really look forward to them. Well Christmastime for me has become a series of races, events and activities which make this 3 week period one of the highlights of the year. It always starts with the Loftus Poultry Run, a 7 or 8 mile 'multi-terrain' race from the Loftus Leisure Centre - mainly road, but with two sections of farm track which can be quite muddy, and certainly not a flat course - the highest point is at the the Boulby mast on top of the hightest sea cliffs in England (some 600ft!). This year's race was last Sunday, 18 December - conditions not too bad for running, a little chilly perhaps, but not icy like some years and not very windy. I felt quite ropey for the first couple of miles, but managed to get going by the first field track, and had various rivals from North York Moors AC in my sights by the second. By the high point, I was with a pack of 4 from NYMAC plus Rob H from Loftus &...

Last weekend I did two score orienteering events - a Bike-O Lanequest on Saturday and the NE Score Championships on Sunday. Now I really enjoy score events, and I do think it's a great pity that there aren't more held nowadays - a few years back EBOR used to run a regular series on a Saturday morning which I always tried to get to, and of course, NN run their annual Boxing Day Score event at Chopwell Woods, which I've been attending for donkeys years! I once took part in the Scottish Score Championships, and the Scots really treated it as a fairly important event - on a par with a Badge (sorry Regional) event. I subsequently tried to get the NE to hold a similar annual event, and it has limped along since, with the odd break. The main issue clubs have with running the NE Score Champs is that the attendances are usually well down on a colour coded (sorry District) event, and the event at Goathland last Sunday was no exception - only 60 in total, when we could have expected 1...

Earlier this year, Rob P published some analysis of split times from the Gisborough Moors Race on Sunday 9 April 2006 on the NYMAC website. This is what he had to say: The "% time to Cooks" is the % of total race time it took competitors to reach Captain Cooks Monument. A higher % than the average of 43.9% implies that the runner took it relatively easy to Captain Cooks Monument (compared with the rest of the field), whilst on the other hand a lower than average % implies the runner slowed (suffered more?) in the latter stages of the race (relative to everyone else). Correct pace judgement in this race pays dividends and it can be quite satisfying passing fellow runners as they struggle on the long grind from Roseberry Topping to Highcliff Nab. The No.1 early cruiser (i.e. strong finisher) was Chris Wright who spent 46.5% of his time getting to Cooks Monument where he was 84th overall. He then proceeded to overtake 23 runners and finish 61st overall. Having been named as the...

Have been so busy, just haven't had time to post anything! Working a lot on organising the 'Seaside Scramble 2007' orienteering event next April 14 and 15th. Our club's day is in Mulgrave Woods near Whitby. Thought these pictures of Mulgrave Woods were nice! Highlights since the last post in August: 10 days in Norway with the North East Junior Orienteering Squad as a coach Jools Holland at Castle Howard Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers at Gala Theatre, Durham Wizard Weekend on the North York Moors Railway Ripley Castle Deacon Blue at Newcastle City Hall - one of the best gigs I have been to in a long, long time! Steeleye Span at Grand Opera House, York Must expand on these when I have time!!

Summertime means mid-week races - on top of weekend events!! What this means in practice is that I don't train much in the Summer, I just go to races! Following the Darlington 10k on the Wednesday, there was the CLOK evening event at Silton Woods on the Thursday (6 July), a 3 hour Bike-O from Lordstones between Carlton Bank and Cringle Moor on the Saturday, then the CLOK Team Score event at Catterick on the Sunday, and the Gribdale Gallop on the following Tuesday (11 July)! The Silton event went OK, apart from a giant banana route early on, where I crossed an overgrown ride, and did a big loop back when the map didn't fit!! My Bike-O route was partly determined by the strong winds, but also by the possibilities of some big climbs! I took a westerly loop, finishing by climbing over the length of Cold Moor and traversing the face of Cringle Moor. Given that I was 3rd Vet, it must have been a reasoonable route, and made it back with 1 1/2 minutes to spare. The team score at Catter...

Always keen to try something different, I opted for the Darlington Harriers Pitstop 10km rather than the New Marske Harriers Coast Road 5km on Wednesday 5 July 2006. Rather than 2 times round a loop on the Stray at Redcar, the Pitstop 1okm was 3 (and a bit) times round the Croft Motor Racing circuit near Darlington. Flat, fast, no sharp bends - no breeze - high temperatures! I got there early, as my number had failed to arrive in the post. I was allocated '129' and looked forward to a good field. Unfortunately, I later learned that the organisers had started at '100', and the total field ended up about 50! I managed to get a decent warm up, and had a reasonable fast start. The first few shot off into the distance, and I settled into a good rhythm alongside a young lad from Newton Aycliffe. After about 4km, he started to struggle a little, and would drop 5m behind, only to battle his way alongside again - and again - and again - and again!! Was I ever going to break him...

I think somebody at the Nunnington Hall National Trust property must have very good contacts! In the attic of the main house are a corridor and a couple of rooms which they use for art exhibitions. And what good stuff they get! In the last 2 or 3 years they have had the wildlife artist Andrew Hutchinson (who was at school with my sister in Guisborough), Gerald Scarf and Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood. After trouble with the Sunday traffic on 2 July, we ran out of time to get to our planned destination, so stopped off at Nunnington Hall instead. Being National Trust members means it doesn't cost to get in, so we don't feel we need to get 'value for money' from a visit. Instead, we visit 3 or 4 times a year for relatively short visits (usually including the tea room!!) The exhibition on that day was photographs of His Bobness (Bob Dylan) from the 1960's - the first time it had been shown outside London! Some good shots, but some of the price tags were, well, expensive! I m...

Sunday 25 June was a busy day - so much going on! Eldest was away at the Junior Inter-regionals, CLOK had a colour coded at Coate Moor and it was the day of the annual Cleveland Way Relay. And then I noticed that Claro were putting on a Park Race in Knaresborough. I've organised the CLOK team for the CWR for the last few years, but what with the World Champs selection races in Denmark, the JIRC, the CC at Coate Moor, NYMAC putting a team in the CWR for the first time and everyone getting older, the chances of finding 15 runners was slim. So we decided to cut that from the fixtures list! Down to a head-to-head - Coate Moor v Knaresborough!. The right thing to do would have been to support CLOK and go to Coate Moor. But having run, planned and controlled there so many times over the years, my heart really wasn't in it! Can't recall ever going to Knaresborough, I really enjoy Park Races and what with the castle and river, it would make a nice day out for the rest of the famil...

For the last couple of years, EBOR have been good enough to let me and my two eldest daughters run as 'guests' in their club championships. This year, the venue was Cropton Forest, as used for day 2 of this year's JK, and only 20 mins 'over the hill' from home. Despite the bracken coming up and areas of thinning and brashings, the planners made a good job of taking our course through the 'best bits', particularly the quarry area down the steep slope above the Rosedale road, and threw in a good long leg with route choice! I chose to go through the Forestry Commission campsite, passing Dean F putting his tent up! He said later that he left a drink by his tent, to take in passing, having seen me take that route! Thought I had blown it when I lost contact with the 'disappearing ride' through a patch of rhoddies, but others had bigger problems here. I also managed to cleanly 'spike' the last two controls on cairns in young trees at the end. Pl...

As part of their 'cycling week', Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council ask CLOK to stage an evening Bike-O from the Pinchinthorpe Forestry Commission visitor centre near Guisborough. Paul and Linda T have been stalwarts in doing the planning and on the day organisation for several years, and this year on Thursday 15 June was no exception. This year, for some unknown reason, the event clashed with one of the Tees Forest 5km trail races, which was a bit of a shame. There was also some football match on the TV, which might have affected the turnout, but more fool those who stayed at home - you can watch hundred's of matches on the box, and you can watch the same match again and again and again, if you so wish. But you only get one chance a year to do a bike-O from Pinchinthorpe in Hutton Lowcross Woods!! Rode really quite strongly for me - the 'training effect' of having done the duathlons. I managed to get all controls in 70 minutes (75 mins allowed before penalties ...

The 'Harvester Trophy' is Britain's answer to the big Scandanavian based orienteering relays. Two classes (A & B), teams of 7 or 5, half of the legs at night, some at dawn and some in daylight, the split depending on how well the night leg runners do!! There is usually a long day leg to finish. I've regularly taken part for CLOK over the years - some memorable events include the one at Pembrey Sand Dunes in South Wales - I never knew it could be so hot at night in Britain! The last event I ran in was in the Derbyshire Peak District in the 5 leg (B) class. My abiding memory was MIDGES!! Well 2006 and Teviothead near Hawick in the Scottish Borders was just the same. The little blighters drive me to distraction, but don't actually cause any marks or lumps. I ran first leg this year, as the start time had been shifted to just before dusk, so that there would be sufficient time for people to recover for the Regional event on the Sunday. Went OK, if a little sluggish,...

I really like sculpture in the landscape, or art displayed other than in a gallery. English Heritage have used Belsay Hall (head away from Newcastle, past the Airport, through Ponteland and on for another 5 or 6 miles) to stage some great exhibitions of sculpture and art over the last few years. Stella McCartney's horse has been the outstanding exhibit for me. It was originally displayed in the old castle, hanging in the Great Hall. It has now moved to the new hall, and hangs in the entrance hall. It is difficult thing to describe - basically there is a grid, from which hang thousands of fine wires, the grid being suspended from the ceiling of the hall. On the fine wires have been placed thousands of crystal balls, arranged so that, as a whole, a crystal horse is created, nearly full size, floating in the air. The hanging in the old castle was great, very atmospheric, but for all round viewing, the location in the new hall is better! I would thoroughly recommend a visit. And don...

The last of this year's Mid-Week Seies of duathlons at Ingleby Greenhow took place last Wednesday 7 June 2006, in the Handicap format. Orienteering tends to go for the Chasing Start format, where the fastest goes off first, whilst the Tees Forest Trail Races and these duathlons are arranged so that the fastest go off last, with the intention (if the Handicapper has done a good job!!) of everyone finishing together! With the Trail Races, I really enjoy trying to work my way through the field (and Rob P does do a good job on handicapping), and I do tend to put in a good time. With being such a comparatively poor cyclist, the duathlon handicaps end up with a totally different skew on the starting times as far as I am concerned! Anyway, felt good on the first 2 mile run and put in a PB for that element - then disaster! The chain came off when I wheeled the bike out of transition!! I must have lost 15/20 seconds trying to get it back on again, and ended up with very black and oily finge...

I used to do a lot of road races. That was because a lot of them were on a Saturday, meaning I could still orienteer on a Sunday. That is, the long established races were usually on Saturdays - the young 'whippersnapper' races which sprang up during the 80's running boom tended to be on Sunday. As the 90's progressed, a lot of the traditional races were either killed off due to police opposition (Windermere to Kendal 10 being a typical example) or moved to a Sunday. Last Saturday, 3 June, I took part in the Kikby Malzeard 10k, based at a small village near Ripon, and part of the Black Sheep Brewery race series. There was a supporting 2km fun run, which appeared to have an excellent turnout, plus the 10k with nearly 200 runners. Not a bad route, undulating and winding, around quiet country lanes - a mile and a half out, round in a big circle, then retrace you steps to the finish. The biggish climb between 5 and 5 1/2 miles ended at the village cemetary! A killer of a cli...

Perhaps a fourth race in five days was a little much, but then next week's handicap is the last of the series, and I may not get a chance to do another duathlon until next year! Numbers were down a bit - was there a football match on? I read a report in the NE gig listings magazine (The Informer), which suggested that promoters have not even tried to compete with the World Cup this June - there would be too many half-empty theatres and band tours would lose money. Which is a great shame really, in that if you are not 'into' football, then your alternatives are being compromised. Perhaps it would have been better to book smaller venues for the tour dates potentially affected, so that at least something would be going on!! Anyway, back to Wednesday 31 May! Quite a nice night, calm and mild. 30 sec down on the first run, but a pb by 13 secs on the bike. John K passed me just after Broughton, and I tried really hard to keep him in sight (and to pass another chap who was ever so...

The idea of sprinting around the city centre of York may seem like a daft idea at the best of times, but doing it whilst orienteering on Whit Bank Holiday Monday - utter madness! But it works!! Alongside the JOK Chasing Sprint, this must be my favourite event in the 'O'-calendar. OK, so I didn't do that well - perhaps 3 hours on the bike in the wind on Saturday and a 10k race the day before probably took the edge off these old legs of mine - but what the heck! Still, missed a couple of the 'puzzles' set by the planner Steve W - well OK, more than a couple - but that's what makes it so much fun. Lessons learnt - read the descriptions more carefully and try to spot the alternatives more quickly. Dashed off at the start up the street, when the snickleway could have saved a few seconds to no.1. I knew where no.2 was (Whip-ma-whop-ma Gate), but still ran down the Shambles for the hell of it, when the road to the E would have been quieter and quicker. Now to get to 3 ...

Sunday 28 May saw the family at Raby Castle, Staindrop, 10 miles or so west of Darlington, eldest daughter to do the 5k fun run, myself to do the 10k, organised by Teesdale AC. The strong breeze of Saturday hadn't abated overnight, and it told in the faces of the youngsters finishing the fun run. It wasn't going to be a day for fast times! The last time I did this race, it was one loop round the Estate, starting and finishing by the castle. I'll always remember setting off near the front of the field, and as we were getting into our stride, a herd of red deer were gallopping parallel to us, to the right. The rest of the herd were to the left of the road, and the leading deer jumped right across the roadway, right in front of us! The leading runners and the galloping herd were on a collision course, when one of the larger animals veered off and away from us, taking the rest with her. A close call! This time, the route was a two lapper. Now I quite like laps, as you get to kn...

I rode in Steve Willis' Treasure Hunt from the pub at Holly Hill, Richmond in January 2006 and found it hard going that day! I didn't get at all far in the 2 hours. Back to the same start/finish location on Saturday 27 May for a 3 hour event with SI punching et al. I was looking forward to exploring a different part of the area this time, but there was a strong westerley breeze (gale) blowing, so it looked like I would have to head out west again as I did in January and come home with the wind behind. Based on my performance in January, a fairly nice loop presented itself which I thought would be achievable, but with some 'cut offs' available. So off I rode towards Hudswell, then across the moor to Downholme, then down to the Swale crossing. After this, I could either go out-and-back to 23, then through 28 and on to 24, or through 23, out-and-back to 24 and out-and-back to 28. After climbing up to 23, I decided to keep on, in an effort to minimise the climb. But the out...

This year's 5km Tees Forest Trail Races have certainly taken a 'step up' in terms of turnout. The first race at Wynyard Country Park in April had 103 runners, whilst 118 turned out for the race at Pinchinthorpe race on Thursday 25 May. In fact many races are experiencing record fields - the David Lloyd 10k at the Tees Barrage on May Day was full before the day (350 I think). Not only are the size of the fields getting better in the Trail Races, the quality is improving too, attracting some class runners like Rob Cole. I dropped two places compared to the 2005 race, but was 15 seconds faster than last year - a most encouraging sign!

I did a mountain duathlon several years ago up in Kielder - 6 mile fell run up Deadwater Fell, 15 mile mountain bike ride, then the fell run in reverse. I was tired after that! I didn't come across duathlons again until the 'Foot & Mouth' year - the path round the river near Stokesley had been reopened and they were the only races going. After a few goes on my mountain bike, I eventually invested in a road bike. Haven't managed to do too many since - maybe 2 or 3 each spring out of the 6 or 7 staged. This year, however, I have now managed 3 - the latest on Wednesday 24 May. They have now moved from Stokesley to Ingleby Greenhow after problems with car parking. Having been to the gig on the Tuesday and thus not trained, my legs were quite fresh, and I managed to take 15 seconds off each run. Unfortunately, it was a little windy and I couldn't seem to get the bike riding right - 45 seconds down on my time of 2 weeks ago. Overall then, I slipped 15 seconds - need t...

Tuesday 23 May saw me travel down to the City Varieties Theatre in Leeds to see my second gig of the year - the first was three months ago - Fairport Convention at The Sage, Gateshead. This time I was off to see the other group big in Folk Rock - Steeleye Span! Steeleye were actually the first group I ever saw live, back in the late 70's, at Middlesbrough Town Hall. I was still at 6th form, and I'll always remember having to miss the encore to catch the last bus back to Guisborough. I guess I must have seen Steeleye 20+ times over the intervening 30 years - I still think they are great, and all such great musicians. I particularly enjoy Ken Nichol on lead guitar - I always thought Bob Johnson's playing was very understated and restrained, but Ken can, and will, really let rip when appropriate. Come to think of it, when Peter Knight brought on his electric fiddle, that was quite 'heavy'! I thought the latest versions of Bonny Black Hare and Good Times of Old England ...

Went to the EBOR Windy Pits Regional Event on Sunday 21 May with the family. Weather was forecast to rain some time after 11am - our start times were 11.30!! The kids got back in the dry, but I ran the last third of the course (no. 3, M45L - 5.8km) in increasingly heavy rain. Thought I'd set off reasonably well, but the splits show I was still very sluggish over the first 4 or 5 controls - some 2 mins down on Alastair within 10 mins! The first tricky bit was 8/9/10 in the area from which the map gets it's name. Was sure I came out of 8 in the right direction, but then stopped, thought I was too high up the spur so turned left downhill. It all still seemed to make sense, so went back up the spur, and there was no.9 - if I'd gone on for another 2m before stopping I'd have seen the flag. 2 mins lost! Same thing 16/17/18 - took the safe route to 16, using the pheasant pen corner to attack 16. Originally, I was going to retrace my steps to the pen, run to the other corner an...

Computers - I've been using them for nearly 30 years and still haven't got the hang of them! So I'm going to give it a try - starting from now!!