Sprinting

We are having a weekend away just north west of London at the British Sprint and Middle Championships.  Today the sprint races took place around Milton Keynes, a 'planned town' built in the 1960s on a grid system.  It's a very leafy, open place with lots of greenery and sympathetic building, much more attractive than it has been painted over the years.  The first races were the 'heats'.  Basically, depending on how well you do in your first race, you either qualify for the A final or the B final or, for those popular age groups, the C final.  The heat was fast and furious and the winner of our heat took just 10.14 (I did 12.28 to finish in 6th place).  The course was not particularly difficult because of the grid system. 

After lunch it was finals time.  I qualified for the A Final and Tony for the B Final.  This time the course was confined to Campbell Park which is a great parkland resource with lots of quirky features and a good network of cycle tracks, well used today by local folk.  I made a couple of daft errors and finished last in the final (!) five minutes down on the winner, but enjoyed my run.  Tony did better, finishing 7th in his final.

After running I settled down to take 600+ photos of runners and rather liked this one of elite runner Rowan heading towards the finish down the hill, checking his map en route.  We then ate in Milton Keynes and drove here to the Premier Inn at Aylesbury.  By the look of the carpark there are several orienteers staying here too!

Tomorrow we move on to Wendover Woods for the Middle Champs!