November

 A strange month- The Runfurther season has finished, Street O has started and the weather often turns dark and grey. I needed some motivation and decided Turfing again would get me out when it might be easy not to bother.

I was determined the Turf would not take over my life, rather that I would use it to suit me. I had lots of turf bike rides locally. This helped Frances too as we re-took zones from each other several times. Mostly these were in decent weather although I did have one dreadfully wet trip to Leyland. I know where most local Turf zones are and so can leave my phone screen off and even hide the phone away in a pocket. Not so in Leyland and trying to cope in very heavy downpours led me to abandoning the effort after a while. I did also manage a bike Turf trip to the seaside taking in both Lytham St Annes and then most of Blackpool. My favourite Turf activities are definitely runs on the local hills with some lovely runs around Roddlesworth and the West Pennine Moors. Not the best value points per hour but nicer runs. It must have rained lots at some point because on one run across the moors heading towards Pike Stones I was splishy splashing along and then stepped in a much deeper hole and fell. Soaking wet up to my chest! The only solution seemed to be to strip off, wring things out and put them back on with a cag over the top. Luckily I was able to cut short my route so that it was on less exposed terrain and I got warm again. I also had a wonderful day running on the moors above Clowbridge where there is an extensive set of Turf Zones. All was going well and I had a small loop of 12 zones left when my phone pinged. Bob asking me to return to the van. He had injured himself in a MTB accident. The huge lump on his leg was impressive but nothing compared to what it morphed into over the next fortnight. Urban turfs on foot are not really my thing but I did Turf in Chorley when we made trips to A and E there twice, Horwich before a street O, Southport when running errands and even Blackburn. Parts of that last city are lovely but on the whole a trip there just makes me grateful I do not have to live there! I also organised  a Turf event based around the riverside parks and old rail and tram lines in the south of Preston. I think I finished up 4th in the UK for that Turf round so not too bad an effort for somebody who was not taking it too seriously.

We continued to climb roughly twice a week(indoors) of course and the new wall does have the joy of regular route changes to keep us interested and tested. They also set up the winter bouldering league again. As last time I am the only Super Vet F in Preston so I had to enter ;) I will never do particularly well as I will not commit if I think I may fall from near the top. Give a rope to dangle on any day.

After the OMM I was determined to hone my nav and orienteering skills. We did quite well at the OMM except for one huge mistake where we actually punched an incorrect control and so were disqualified on day 1. The weather had been cold, wet and windy as we approached Esk Pike and then we had a nightmare finding a control in very poor visibility. We knew we were getting cold but could not find shelter to stop and add layers. Eventually with the CP found and dropping off the tops we found shelter. IN our joy we raced off downhill and punched the wrong control- ours was a hill not a large knoll and was about 500m further on. It was the only time we did not check all weekend and the only time two controls were so close together! The weekend as a whole was the sort of fun/ adventure it usually is.

Street O helps with quick decisions and route planning but not with fine nav on terrain.  The Runfurther prize giving was based on a 3 hour score event in the Goyt valley. Relatively easy nav but some tricky decisions about which controls to take and which to ignore, especially for those not local who did not know which paths or hillsides were really runnable. Despite this I was pleased with my run and had fun - helped by the torrential rain stopping long enough for me to enjoy my run.

Day time orienteering on fairly open ground suits me best and I had a lovely run at Dean Clough. Lots of fast running with just enough navigation challenge to make it interesting. Plus the weather window was perfect for me yet again.  I then spotted that the first NW Night O was on Beacon Fell. We used to look after the permanent course here and so know the hill pretty well even if storms have flattened some forest bits. The night O was tough. Nav in the dark is a whole new challenge plus the undergrowth and fallen trees caused me real obstacles and reduced me to walk and jog. Towards the end I also had head torch issues and so sped up just in case it failed when what I really needed to do was slow down and concentrate. The day time event the following day was so much easier. The next Night O was Longsight Park near Bolton. It is an abandoned and re-wilded golf course. There should have been lots of decent running but a couple of foolish nav errors caused me some serious time loss. Not deterred I entered the next Night O on Hurstwood near Burnley. I know the main paths through here from various races but not the intricate old mine workings that are scattered around.  This was an even tougher challenge and I knew to take care. In the dark some parts of the terrain were awful tussocks so I couldn't run much anyway. Trying to avoid tussocks and area of rock strewn ground meant it was hard to keep on a compass bearing. I made one silly error early on and then another when I let myself believe a better orienteer knew the way better than me. Despite this I did OK and got a better time then some and certainly better than all those who retired. Again the day event on Sunday although a very different course was so much easier. 

Visiting family reduced my adventures for a week and I missed some sunny frosty hill days but did manage one escape to Bowland. Now the roads seem to be sheet ice and the skies here are grey and I am hoping it will thaw enough for a sunny trip out tomorrow. I need some running in my legs before the Tour de Helvellyn.