Müller and Leonhardt win in Tamadaba

Swiss orienteering star Matthias Müller and Austrian orienteer Karin Leonhardt both came out on top in Tamadaba today. Matthias won the 7km H21course in a very impressive time of 38 mintues beating me by over 2 minutes. Karin's win was equally as impressive winning D21 on the same course as the H21 in just under 60 minutes, beating most of the men.

I was quite please with my run today, as I have had quite a tough week's training. I was pretty clean until the 9th control when I lost my line through some green. Matthias caught me and we ran the rest of the course together. I felt good to be running with someone like Matthias after such a long break from top level orienteering, and it made me really want to try to get to some race in main land Spain and the UK.

VIII Media Maratón Campo a Través Ciudad de Arucas (half marathon Arucas)

Today was Carucat's 8th annual mountain half marathon in Arucas. I had planned this to be my last race before K42 Gran Canaria (6th April), however things didn't quite go to plan. After spending a little longer than planned at carnaval (dressed as The Tin Man), I forgot to set alarm clock to off on Sundays. I woke up at 09.10 ate a bannana then started to look for the car keys, to cut a long story short I eventually found the keys at 09.45, and started to attempt to get Arucas for a 10.00 start. As I arrived in the car park I heard the starter gun go while I was frantically looking for a car parking space, I quickly changed my shoes and ran to the start to pick up my number and timing chip. I started 8mins behind the other competitors. It wasn't long before I start to pick off some of the slower runners, passing runners soon became very difficult on the narrow paths. I never quite caught up with the leaders but I managed to finish in 8th position in a time of roughly 1hr27 (I forgot my watch too).
The race was won by host club's Yeray Santana in the very quick time of 1hr24.

What have I learnt today? Carnaval and racing do not mix well!

Results available here. Or on Top Time's webpage.

Corre Ve Y Dile!! What a crazy race!!

At the weekend Zonaboxes and RunGoSay (my mountain running club) held their second edition of Correveydile, and Active Canaria had a team 'running'. Before you read anymore let me explain, this was a novelty race where teams were expected to dress up! So for some reason Active Canaria decided we would go as the Spice Girls.

Active Canaria's team consisted of:

Allan Bogle- Posh
Alison Hill- Ginger
Gordon Sutcliffe- Sporty
Manga Dembele- Scary
Fran Harkins- Baby

Although we did not win, or came anywhere close to winning we had a great time...and we are already thinking about what we will dress as next year! Any ideas Gordon?

Photos: Bichillo Runner