2018-19 Season

What a year. This time 12 months ago I was living in Melbourne (Aus) coaching and training with the orienteers out there. It was an amazing opportunity which I've discussed in a number of other posts and one which I won't ever forget. Upon returning to the UK, I took up a position as Team Member at the YHA Keswick and absolutely loved being based in such an incredible location for 6 months. In September I returned to Sheffield to begin studying for a masters in Cultural Heritage Management and I'm currently looking forward to a good winter of mud, hills and little orange and white flags.

Whilst there's still a couple of races left this season, I wanted to jot down some thoughts on the past 6 months or so of racing. With this being my second senior year of orienteering and my final year of being an u23 on the fells, I was torn as to what to target. For orienteering, there was only really WOC or World Cup rounds to go for and as I'm not in any British squads, I felt these would be difficult to achieve. Sure I would race for them and give it my best, but I just didn't think I was really in the frame, especially as I'd been away for so long. So my attention drifted towards the mountains (as it often does!) and I set my sights on the u23 English fell running title. It's not to say that I wasn't enjoying or competing in orienteering, but looking back now I think a year away from stressing about selections and orienteering has done wonders for both my physical and mental state.

Whilst in Australia I felt very positive about the season to come, especially in terms of the orienteering opportunities, however my injury (plantar fascitis in both feet) spanning from January to March sowed the seeds of doubt in my mind about my ability to perform in the big races. Despite cross-training obsessively, keeping on top of my diet, re/prehab, sleep and everything else, the fact that I wasn't out running was really playing on my mind and massively undermined my confidence in my ability. In hindsight, this doubt may have been somewhat msiguided as if I instead focused on the positives or my technical ability then perhaps I could still perform well. It's easy to say now, but at the time I was just low on self-belief. Further, in the last week of my stay there, my grandmother unexpectedly succumbed to a sudden illness and died. She had supported me in absolutely everything I'd ever done and was always wanting to hear about anything that I was doing. To have not been able to see her before she died is something that still weighs heavily on me now and undoubtedly has had a profound impact on me during the last 6 months.

Rock n roll Gran

Upon returning and moving up to the Lakes, my passion for fell running and being in the mountains was let loose. I was now able to be on exceptional terrain within minutes of my front door. I had some trouble settling, no time spent at home for 6 months which was now extended, driving long distances to see friends and get to races (generally straight after a long shift) and feeling a little cut-off from my familiar life. This lasted for roughly a month and a half where I felt unsettled and generally uncertain about what I was supposed to be doing. However once I was settled, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the Lakes.

Lakeland landscape, what I got to run in whenever I fancied!

A tired looking run at the JK middle

After arriving home, I had less than a month to prepare for the big orienteering races of the spring, which also acted as selection races for pretty much everything this year. As I mentioned before, I was quesitoning my physical ability a lot at this time and this, coupled with not yet feeling at home in the Lakes, which meant that my performances were massively below the level I expected from myself. At the JK I blew the sprint by panicking and trying to overrun, which was a similar story to the middle, and in the Long I just never quite had the belief in myself to attack the course over that time. TioMila a couple of weeks later was a similar story, which was made worse by the fact that it was my first race for my new Scandinavian club (IFK Lidingö) and I felt I had let down my new club mates. This feeling of letting people down pervaded my orienteering at the time, I felt that I had let down those in Australia who had helped me, my family and people who had supported me and myself. The British champs saw an improvement, however this may have been because I felt that the chance of selection had gone and this allowed me to run more freely and enjoy the course for what it was, a theme which featured heavily in my orienteering later in the season and led to some improved results.

Not all bad, bronze in the JK relay with Matt and Will!

Despite this pretty dark month for myself over this time, I had at least recognised that I was now back in the swing of running after the spring orienteering season had finished, which allowed just a nugget of confidence in my ability to begin sprouting as I tried to hit the fells with purpose. I was also incredibly fortunate at this time to begin representing the footwear company Norman Walsh, who agreed to support me in my fell running and orienteering ventures and whose shoes I have used for the majority of the season. The first test came at the Inter-counties where I managed to come in 14th (2nd u23 behind Tim), which I ran whilst still feeling down on myself about my running. After this result though, I decided to just back myself and recognised that really I could only ever do as well as I could at the time, regardless of what had come before or would come after. I find this so much easier to do on the fells where to me really the race is against yourself and the mountain and you realise that everyone is pushing their limit and all you have to do is keep working. Certainly this year I have found my mental resilience has improved hugely, I think largely as a result of treating hills with this attitude.

The first climb at Black Fell

After the inter-counties, the races came thick and fast, largely on the local scene in the Lakes. As much as I was targetting the u23 champs, I also felt incredibly priveliged to be able to compete in some of the races that I'd read and heard about from afar, such as Latrigg, Loughrigg, Blencathra to name but a few. A consistency in training and relatively regular racing meant that come the first English Champs race at Black Fell, I was ready to just apply this new mindset and give it as good a go as I could.
Despite being nervous, I found that just trusting myself and my training, meaning I was able to run much more within myself for the race and equalled my best champs result, coming in 4th (1st u23). Whilst the u23 points were valuable, this really siginified to me that I was able to compete and marked something of a turning point in my season.

Scottish 6 Days

I did maintain some orienteering for the rest of the year. I really only ran 5 notable competitions thrhoughout the rest of the season though. The first being Jukola where again I felt disappointed with my run however enjoyed the team atmosphere. From then though I had a brilliant weekend in Belgium racing ASOM which reignited my passion for sprint orienteering. However the two big orienteering season highlights for me were the Scottish 6 Days and the British Sprints and Middles in August and September. I have raced the 6 days as long as I can remember and relished the chance to compete in the senior class. Whilst perhaps the field wasn't as strong as other years, it still meant a lot to me to come 2nd overall, with some good individual performances and a couple of stage wins. The results felt secondary though as I was just happy to find some consistency in my orienteering at a good level. This attitude of focusing on my own race flowed in to the Sprints and Middles where I picked up my best senior performances to date, coming 6th (5th Brit in the Sprint) and 5th in the middle, both in very competitve fields. To be in the mix or very close to the top guys was a big boost looking forward.

British Sprints run-in

The close of the season though was the last 2 English champs fell races that I needed to count in the u23 champs, the Grisedale Horseshoe and the Ilam Fell Race. I was a little nervous before Grisedale as it was a real brute of a course, but I just tried to run my own race and despite descending poorly, finished with another good 8th (1st u23). The championship came down to Ilam between myself and Max Wainright (a great friend and teammate) where if he beat me we drew but if I beat him I just nicked it. It literally came down to a sprint as we drew level with a mile to go but I was just able to pull away on the flatter running towards the end to take the title! (Admittedly he had run for England the day before with a great run in Wales). I was absolutely delighted to win the title and Ilam was also my best ever champs race with 3rd place overall! It felt good to realise my season aim after so much hard work and disappointment earlier in the year.

The first climb of Ilam, on my way to the English title.

In summary then a really polarized year. Initially I felt massive disappointment and almost a bit lost after poor performances in the orienteering races that mattered the most, but I absolutely loved the rest of the season racing in some fantastic terrain with some great people. Really I think my main take away from this season is that whilst I've enjoyed arguably my best season to date generally, I've remembered why I enjoyed competing in these two sports. Regardless of the selections or titles or any of that superficial stuff, the fundamental joy of smashing around a claggy hillside in the howling wind or spiking a control through intricate terrain is difficult to put in to words. However it's definitely something I want to remind myself of in future if I find myself drifting towards the negative mindset I had at the start of the year and something I want to make a staple of my running efforts as I move forward in to the coming seasons. I feel the best I ever have running and really, for now, I'm not interested in arbitrary things like my 5k time anymore. Despite running lower mileage than in 2018, I'm performing better and this slight reduction has allowed me to maintain a much better consistency which is far more important to me now. No longer worrying about distance or paces has also taken the pressure away to a large degree and allows me to run and race much more in the moment and gives me a better belief in my overall approach rather than obsessing about minute and often incosequential details.

That pretty much sums up my 2018-19 season from an individual perspective. I plan to write a follow up post about the fell relays and Hodgson's which have just gone and then another post after those two. I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has helped and supported me through last season and I hope that I am able to progress further in the years to come.

Orienteering Results 2019:                                                     Fell Running results 2019:

JK Sprint: 21st                                                                         Loughrigg: 4th
JK Middle: 19th                                                                       Lord's Seat: 3rd
JK Long: 17th                                                                          Inter-counties: 14th (2nd u23)
JK Relay: Bronze                                                                    Latrigg: 2nd
TioMila: Leg 1: 92nd (team 136)                                            Hutton Roof: DNF
British MSR: team 11th (3rd fastest day leg)                          Blencathra: 3rd
British Long: 11th                                                                    Langstrath: 4th
British Relay: 4th                                                                     Black Fell (EC): 4th (1st u23)
Jukola: Leg 6: 101st (Team 80th)                                            Skiddaw: DNF
ASOM WRE: 9th                                                                    Coniston Country Fair: 1st
Scottish 6 Days: 2nd overall (2x1st place, 2nd WRE).           Rydal Round: 2nd
British Sprints: 6th (5th Brit)                                                  Ambleside Sports: 5th
British Middles: 5th                                                                 Steel Fell: 2nd
                                                                                                 Grasmere Guides: 5th
                                                                                                 Longshaw Sheepdog Trials: 1st, CR
                                                                                                 Grisedale Horseshoe (EC): 8th (1st u23)
                                                                                                 Ilam: 3rd (1st u23)