Seven Hills Killer 2011

This year the Isle of Wight Council decided to rack the price of entry for the Seven Hills Killer event up to a whopping £25. That kind of price is perfectly acceptable for a XC event such as the Southern XC series, where there are costs such as course creation, taping and marshaling; but for an orienteering event, where Wight Mountain (the sponsor) appears to cover most of the costs and organisation of the event and the only real cost seems to be the hire of electronic dibber equipment, I find it hard to understand how a price of £25 is justified. £15 would be acceptable for a fun, non-race event, where the aim should be to encourage people to get out on their bike for a challenge.

Sorry, that was a bit of a rant; but I think the Council should be doing its best to encourage people to get out on their bikes, not using the cycling festival as a money-making scheme.

Onto the event. Because of the price and the fact that I am still getting over my little ride in France it seems, I decided not to enter officially this year. I just rode the course, pretending to dib in at each checkpoint and taking my time.
This year the route was run the other way round from previously - starting in Sandown and finishing in Freshwater. It was a good ride, always nice to see so many people out on the trails and the route really does send you on some of the best bridleways the Island has to offer (although I think the numbers were down from previously probably because of the inflated price).

I was looking for a sub 2hr time, as my previous result from last year was 02:11:43.
I didn't quite manage that, I clocked in at 02:01:14.

I was pretty happy with that, although I have yet to see how it fits in with the official results. It seems my little trip in France has stripped me of my fast twitch muscle fibres, even if my fitness is probably the best it has ever been (I cycled back to Sandown from Freshwater and still felt like I could keep going for another few hours), but I'm really lacking the power output that I need to race - time to get on the interval training I reckon!

(N.B. This year's results: LINK
If I had entered - I would have won by half an hour! Shows how many of the top Island rides dropped out because of the price hike)