It’s almost time to start with a fresh uni year, so let’s take a quick glance back at what you may have missed in the past few months while we were all off doing our own thing. EUOC alumni Sasha and Ali Masson recruited a crew of Edinburgh and Deeside pals to join them on an adventure around the Cairngorm Munros, attempting to break the record for most Munros run in 24 hours. Ali pulled out because of a tumble taking a toll on his hamstring around 17 hours in, but Sasha managed to complete the round in time. You can find Ali’s point of view at http://www.attackpoint.org/viewlog.jsp/user_13114/period-7/enddate-2020-08-09 and Sasha’s write-up at https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=98872, they are both very interesting reads.
Soon after, in mid-August, a rather large group of EUOC boys and girls stayed in and around Aviemore to take part in the GB training camp in Speyside courtesy of Chris Smithard and Graham Gristwood, spreading out a bit to keep themselves sufficiently socially distances. They hopped from map to glorious map for a variety of exercises, including two one-man relays, one of which revisited the WOC 2015 relay, and a chasing start race at the end of the week! There is no shortage of fun terrain up north, and it was a welcome break from the usual routine we’ve built up over the course of lockdown. In between were visits to plunge pools and Loch Morlich, and it was a brilliant primer for some people as they prepared for the Junior European selections the weekend after.
This brings us to the GB selection races in Windermere and Graythwaite, which were graced by the likes of Ali T, Spender, Niamh, Eilidh, Max, Thompass, Ellie, Mairi, Kat, and Ben Breeze. Hopefully everyone competing for a spot hears back soon so we can publicize those that are going to Hungary for EJYOC 2020 (assuming it’s going ahead, I hear high profile countries, i.e. Norway and Finland, have already pulled out due to Hungarian entry restrictions). We also have a lot of runners preparing to go to the Czech Republic for Euromeeting and the WOC 2021 camp, but that is still tentative on the schedule and we will reveal more about EUOC members’ participation once we get closer.
Now, with British events getting scheduled once again and our training week getting finalized, we can tentatively start looking forward to future events as a club. There’s the UK Elite O League and the possibility of Scottish O League events, so as is allowed we will be doing our best to attend! We look forward to seeing everyone again soon and will be releasing our welcome week schedule very soon.