Chris Wright

I know it was along time ago, but having just competed in the AIRE promoted Dales Weekend, where I managed a combined 12th place over the two days in M45L, my mind wandered back to the MDOC Twin Peak weekend in the Lakes back in June. Now there I managed to snatch the combined title in this class (much to my surprise!) with a 4th and a 3rd on the two days. For whatever reason, I appear to be getting slower through the terrain. But generally, I'm managing to keep it quite accurate. This 'steady away' approach really seemed to work in the Lakes, with most people running much faster than I was, but making big, big mistakes. Moving on to the Scottish 6 Days, I based my strategy on the Twin Peak result - steady away - keep it accurate. Except most people were keeping it accurate at twice my speed! So after the first two days, when I found myself languishing in the 80's in M45L, I tried to concentrate more on the running. An improvement thereafter, but the damage was done, an...

Now Paul Th and I both think that the JOK Chasing Sprint is a great event. However, it's not really a 'sprint' - more like a middle distance race. Looking for something for the Spring 2007 offering for the CLOK Juniors, Paul came up with the plan for a sprint distance chasing sprint! Ideal training for the JK Sprint and the British Sprint Championships in Scarborough! Stewart Park and Ormesby Hall are two oases of parkland in the suburbs of Middlesbrough, separated by the Middlesbrough-Whitby railway line, and both have been mapped. The pair have been combined before, some years ago, for an evening series event. Stewart Park is run by Middlesbrough Borough Council, and was formerly the site of a large mansion house. Although only about 10m of arcading are all that exist of the building, the grounds around, with the terraces, pathways and ornamental ponds still survive. Captain Cook, the famous explorer, was born in a cottage which used to stand near the site of the mansion ...

Think Institute of Modern Art, and I bet Middlesbrough wouldn't be the first place to spring to mind. But the town has recently acquired a fantastic new, award winning building to house and display it's art collection, the MIMA. Eldest daughter is taking Art and Design at college, so we made a special effort to get to see the first headline exhibition, DRAW, featuring Picasso (18 works), Matisse, Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst. There was some pretty good stuff, and some interesting stuff, and, well, some other things! I almost think that the building overshadowed the exhibitions. Perhaps I'll get used to it on future visits. Having said that, I still think 'wow' whenever I see The Sage in Gateshead. Now if I had to name my favourite artists, then it would have to be Andy Goldsworthy. He has a major, year-long exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park near Barnsley. We made a special Saturday-long visit last Bank Holiday to see it, particularly as middle daughter has ...

I've just spent the last 9 months organising the British Elite Orienteering Championships at Middle Distance in Mulgrave Woods near Whitby, on Sunday 15 April 2007. I would say that 99.5% of the organisation was fine. Unfortunately, the event will be remembered for the 0.5% which wasn't - the awarding of the junior Elite prizes to the wrong people. To compound matters, I wasn't actually at the race site for most of the event - I was running the Gisborough Moors Race (or it's F&M year replacement) for the 30th consecutive year. And dear Chris P told everyone in Assembly, so no chance of sneaking out and back without anyone noticing that I wasn't there! And there were those BOF Committee individuals who lambasted me as soon as I reappeared - presumably they considered this a severe dereliction of duty and that I should be made to suffer - the organiser should have done this, the organiser should have done that, the organiser should have consulted here, the organis...

Racing on your own home patch can have it's advantages and it's disadvantages! If you are running a road or fell race where you know the route, or orienteering in a familiar area, I find it does give you a slight advantage - you know the hard bits of the course, the 'stings in the tail', the narrow bits, the wet bits, the scenic bits. You know where the finish is, and you know when to start the drive for home! You can also get complacent - too busy racing, and you miss that turn! Just like I did last Sunday! The race from The Eskdale in Castleton has had various names and various routes over the years, and I don't manage to do it every year, but I do train around many parts of the course on a regular basis. I really ought to know the whole route like the 'back of my hand' (but then, how much time do YOU spend studying the back of YOUR hand!) Anyway, I'd set off fairly steadily up the hill to checkpoint 1, worked a bit harder to 2, and got into my running...

Long distance orienteering has been around for a long time and in many forms. I guess my first effort was the Karrimor Mountain Marathon on the Isle of Arran in 1980, followed soon after by the Capricorn Long-O - similar in navigational style to the KIMM, and often using the same areas, but being a solo event without the kit carrying. I also have had a go at the Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon 2 or 3 times, and the Lowe Alpine once! The Phoenix is a relative newcomer, but being in the Cheviot Hills in Northumberland, it is one of my favourites. All of these are two day events in mountainous terrain. Locally, here on the North York Moors, the Cleveland Search and Rescue Team organise the Cleveland Survival in March each year. This is a 25 miler one day challange walk or run. There is navigation involved getting from checkpoint to checkpoint, but due to access restrictions, it usually incorporates major paths and bridleways in the circular route. In fact, if you get a leg along the L...

T his is a little experimental - so please forgive the layout! Anyway, in the autumn of 2005, I decided that there was a small area, which had previously formed part of a larger orienteering map, which would be great from a sprint race, having just returned from the Scottish 6-Day sprint race in an Aberdeen park. Lordstones is a plateau, lying between Cringle Moor and Carlton Bank on the Cleveland Hills escarpment, some 600ft above the Tees Valley. The owner had opened a cafe by the roadside, and had developed the surrounding area into a pleasant recreational area - he'd dug a few ponds, planted a few trees, and mown paths through the grass/heather. I resurveyed it and Paul T OCADed the map. So why not run a junior training session on the area - have a sprint race first, to which parents and other CLOK members were invited, and then use the controls for a training session afterwards! Well, it was a great success, and out of that effort was born the 2006 Autumn Sprint Race Series. I...