Park-O: Hove Park
It was a glorious day for a Park-O. There was hardly any wind and there was that lovely “buttery” coloured sunshine you can get on cloudless days in September. As I drove off the downs, the sea was stretched out ahead; a delicate blue, dotted with grey fishing boats and sparkling beneath an electric blue sky. This was the fourth in the summer “Park-O” series organised by Southdowns Orienteers.
Hove Park is about 1Km long and 250 m wide, running roughly N-S with a curve so it is almost a crescent. It is an excellent example of a town park – it runs down a hillside with some interesting sweeps of slope, has small patches of thicket, and larger areas of open trees, of all sizes and some charming formal flower beds. It has a few buildings and fences and quite a few courts and a bowling green. It was very full of people enjoying the sunshine, including lots of young footballers, who set up their training session, with hundreds of cones and posts, right in front of the start.
I set off steadily on the light green course, slightly wary of my delicate shins and wanting to build up as I went round, rather than “bomb out” towards the end. It was about 300 metres to control 1 – straight across well-kept lawn to find the control in a clearing in the middle of a thicket. After that it was criss-crossing the park control by control to 8 where there was another master map to copy from – 17 controls in all. Navigation was “pretty easy” as promised, so it was a matter of going as fast as I could all the way round the 3.4Km.
I have mixed feelings about my run, mostly quite good. I did run nearly all the way, though not very fast. I had to have a few brisk walks towards the end, but my fitness was very much better than before the summer. It was hot (around 25C) and there was very little shelter. I did feel very overheated at times, but I was never completely out of breath or wrecked. Best of all, my shins and legs felt a little delicate, but I was never really worried by them. There was some stiffness, but no pain. I would jog along happily, get into oxygen debt and slow down, then start jogging again. A minute or two after the finish and I felt fine, perhaps I did not go hard enough?
Anyway, I was round the 3.4Km in 39 minutes. Around 11 mins per Km, which is my best so far by about 1 min per km. As navigation was no factor, this is a measure of my speed over the ground and moves me a little nearer some of the regular runners. The training has definitely paid off. All that is good.
It does show how far I have to go, though. It is really quite a small park. I should have been able to do 3.4Km much faster than the average 5.5kph I managed. That is really a brisk walk, though I am not disappointed. Training works, just a lot more of it to do. Running in the park did not cause me problems, I need to do more of it. That is the challenge for the future.
The results are here. I did not appear on the results list at first, but a quick exchange of emails and it was sorted out.
I will have to miss the last Park-O (next Saturday at Stanmer) as I am on the University run to Edinburgh, but I can’t wait for the SOG series to start again – back in the woods!