Chris Wright

In the last month we have been to two contrasting Park Race (or Urban-O) events in North Yorkshire. The first, on Whit Bank Holiday Monday, was the world famous York Park Race. This has been running for a few years now, and being on the East Coast mainline, quite a few people seem to travel in by train. This year, planner Steve Whitehead introduced a brand new twist to the event - a Trail-O (or Precision-O if you like) around the National Railway Museum to start everyone off. To make it safe in such a busy place, there was no running (or even fast walking) allowed. Control 1 was a 'taster' control, and didn't count. Control 2, after passing through the back gates into the museum, was in the gardens by the miniature railway. Just as we were leaving this control, the train driver, pulling empty carriages, called over to my 3 daughters to ask if they wanted a ride! Trail-O forgotten, they all piled on (after the driver had reversed the train back to the station!) I said my goo...

I have had the good fortune to run in a couple of 10km races in some pretty scenic locations in the last month. Over Whit Bank Holiday, there was the Raby Castle 10km, which I have run for the last 3 or 4 years. The castle is on the outskirts of the village of Staindrop, 10 miles or so west of Darlington in the south of County Durham, and is the home to Lord Barnard. The parkland surrounding the castle is home to a large herd of deer. The race is a two lapper, all within the grounds of the Estate surrounding the castle, and all but about 1km on beautifully smooth tarmac! Even the section of forest track is very well maintained! Although much of the route is through farmland or the woodland, the start, finish and middle section are in the deer park. Just after 4k and 9k, the route crests a short, sharp climb to reveal the castle away to your right, guarded by it's moat, and then at the turn for the second lap, you get a great view across to the walled formal gardens. The weather con...

So JK 2009 is heading for the North East of England! As the time approached when we would have to start distributing publicity, thoughts at Committee turned to an appropriate Logo. The last time the JK was in the North East, the events were all in the south of the region, so the local landmark of Roseberry Topping was chosen to form the basis. First thoughts by M featured that Newcastle landmark, so famous from the Great North Run if nothing else - the Tyne Bridge. The nearby Gateshead Millennium Bridge was also an early runner. Eldest daughter is taking a GCSE in Art & Design, so I thought it would be a good little project for her to have a go at weaving 'JK 2009' into the struts of the bridges, which I could take back to the Committee for approval. Instead, she came back with something completely different - The Angel of the North. I ran the 3 possibilities past the the Committee at the next meeting, and The Angel won out! My brother-in-law is a graphic designer, so I pas...

Staying away from home for a night or two for a multi-day orienteering weekend can be as much a part of the overall 'experience' as the orienteering itself - particularly for the kids! For week long events like the Scottish 6-days, Croeso in Wales and the Lakes-5, we usually go for a cottage. Done the camping thing - too much like hard work if the weather is poor!- though I do still try and camp at the White Rose with the kids, and by myself at the Capricorn and Phoenix Long-O's. Our usual first choice is now a Youth Hostel - since eldest was born 15 years ago they have really become much more family friendly, though sometimes booking a family room can be quite difficult, as demand can often exceed supply - particularly if it's an 'O' weekend! Looking back over 2007, it was quite a vintage year for Youth Hostel stays! The year started off well with a two nights at Pitlochry with the NE Junior Squad - training on the Saturday and an FCC race on the Sunday. Perhap...

Last autumn, CLOK staged a district event on one of our traditional areas - Eston Nab. The post event comments on the club bulletin board included some rather scathing comments about the map. Now having remapped/redrawn the map for one day of the October Odyssey back in the 1980's, where I was required to use the scale of 1:15,000 (because it was a badge event), when most people thought 1:10,000 was more appropriate, I have personally been on the receiving end of rather sharp critiscm of the map. Nowadays, unless there is something major being held, it is usual for the event planner and controller to make small changes to the map, so no one person puts their name down as responsible. Instead, the 'club' gets the flack, or rather, the mapping committee. The thing about this area is that the minor paths and gorse patches are prone to frequent change - it only takes half a dozen youths on scramble bikes to create a new path, or some youths with matches to clear some gorse bush...