What a week! And you get the first of my weekly roundups! I can only apologise for the length, but we have been up to so much!
We started with a big day at the sports fair for the committee and Fergus (the stag in case anyone was wondering) with many new keen faces, which is incredible to see! Skip forwards to Wednesday, and EUOC is out in force to show everyone that we are a multi-discipline club (see also our cycling and football-playing branches haha) as some trails were explored round the Hermitage and Braids before a quick transition into potluck and rounders (oops, sport five!). One team won at rounders, as to be expected, though we might need some clarification on the rules before we make our entrance onto the pro circuit…
A few of our members, both new and old, then braved some proper Scottish conditions on Thursday to complete our yearly Arthur’s Seat hill race. It came nail-bitingly close in the men’s race, with a final surge up Salisbury Crags securing the win for Bish, with one of our newbies Rosie stealing the win in the ladies’ race! And if our legs weren’t already tired from all the running, EUOC could be seen hitting the dancefloor on Thursday night, adorned with some rather amusing headbands. We met the Haries in O’Neills, for some socialising and karaoke (or Duolingo, which was spotted as well…), before EUOC continued on the age-old pilgrimage to Hive.
Coach Dan then started the first of our beginner-friendly training sessions for this semester on Saturday, where we explored all of the alleys around the library and got to grips with our trusty compasses. Excellent practice for new and returning members! Followed up by yet another social, with a huge game of fishbowl, a real memory test. As per usual, there was dancing to be had for those not yet afflicted by tiredness or freshers flu, as our members made yet another pilgrimage to Hive. All topped off by a classic Pentlands long run to dust off the trail shoes (and maybe the hangover…) and explore the very reasonable café options at Morrisons. Yikes, we’ve done it all this week!
A special shout-out as well to those at the Coast and Islands this week on the Isle of Coll. There was a weeklong battle for who came out on top in the men’s race between James, Thomas and Alex W, with James taking the win 4 times and Thomas once, to make it a full EUOC clean sweep! On the ladies’ side some excellent racing from Daisy saw her take home the victory on 3/5 days! Some well-fought battles on freshly mapped west coast terrain, dreamy! Also keep an eye out for our members representing GB and the US at the European Orienteering Championships this coming week. Good luck to Daisy, Immy, Charlie, Euan and Thomas!
That’s all for week 0! If you have any questions, please feel free to pop them in the general chat, or if you are struggling at all, please feel free to reach out to me or our wellbeing officer Alex W (otherwise known as Wozzle) for some advice or just a chat.
Muchas gracias,
Izzy
(she/her)
