I have kept the running to a minimum since the niggly injuries I got in October, but I needed to keep my orienteering hand in and the chance to run on the little used Swynnerton brought the dob spikes and thumb compass out of the cupboard.
The torrential rain of the previous week had left everywhere saturated and Swynnerton was no exception but many of the paths and roads were tarmaced.
At 9.3 km and the area being a flat ex munitions factory and military training area I knew the race would be fast and furious with a few long legs of pure running but most of the course was quite technical, and certainly was testing. The undergrowth was fairly man eating so path routes were favourable to trying to cut through in most cases. I had a good run with only a small error at #6 caused by a misplaced control, but this only lost me 10-15 secs or so, and a larger error on the way to #11 where I seemed to exit the wrong corner of a car park losing about 30 secs before I picked up what I had done.The route to #19 was quite eventful 
with huge berms, banks and walls to negotiate, I suppose all part of the old munitions installation. My hips and knees were sore as I punched the finish but was very satisfied at download to see I was in the lead, which I kept until fellow Chaser Rhys Finlay Robinson pipped me by couple of minutes.
The other reason for running was a bit of a recce to see what it would be like for MTBO if we could negotiate permissions. The bottom line is that it would be a fantastic venue for a sprint or middle race so 2011 perhaps, watch this space ?
its all about stodge, bikes, MTBO and the outdoors