Goodbye Winter

Finally my exams are over. Done and dusted.

The winter was an interesting one. It had very little orienteering, but more time in the hills.

I opened my Autumn campaign in the Leinster Novice XC in Mullingar. It was the beautiful rolling fields of Belvedere house. The race report is on attackpoint here

This was followed up the following weekend with not been allowed to run the Dublin XC Champs. I reckon my bitterness is best summed up by the below note taken from my log... As you may be able to tell, I wanted to race very badly.

Words can not describe how bitter I am today. I was meant to be running the Dublin Senior XC Championships. After winning a medal for Dublin last weekend, I was hoping for a solid run in Donore colours and possibly squeek a top 3 in the club competition.

However, according to the Dublin Board, I am not a member of Donore Harriers even after I transfered last year. The paper work left Kildare and was recieved by Dublin who did nothing.

In a nut shell, I can score for Dublin, which is not my county and aid them to win a Leinster medal. But I am not allowed to run the Dublin Champs.

Bureaucratic Bullshit at its highest level.

Once that saga was done and dusted, I finally got cleared to run for Donore and I put in my race of the season (so far). I lead the Donore Team to Silver Team medals at the Dublin Intermediate Championships. And when I say lead, I mean I jumped fellow team mate Ken with about 300m to go for the bronze medal. I was well chuffed. However, I think my dad was more excited that I was. Report here

So with that top 3 came snow and ice that shut down the country. Races got cancelled left right and centre. Christmas came and went, with only a 10miler XC race (59:03). New years brought exams, stress, the Art O'Neil as a guide (vicious rumors of a mishap on the mountains) and injury followed with more exams and a terrible race in the National Novice XC.

The exams are now over and 2011 can start in earnest. For whatever it may hold in terms of pain, glory and cold mugs of coffee.

Bring on 2011.