Training Log Archive: GM

From the Big 10 camping ground in Napier through the Art Deco suburbs :) to some parkland then through to the cycle path beside the bay. I was meeting MaryMac at the Ocean Spa for a soak but misjudged the distance so ended up about 5 mins late.

Oceania carnival event 7 at The Slump. Such a pretty area driving in - green, rolling hills, dotted trees, sheep, mountains in the background. The assembly area was beautiful with wide shady trees and lovely grass. But just over the way was a deep, windy river gorge and our course spent a lot of time in it, across it, and back in it again. But it was great fun, and challenging, and tough. I made quite a few mistakes: tried reading my way to 2 but got caught up in some green that extended further that the map showed; crossed the wrong little watercourse going to 4 so ended up climbing all the way out and had to come back past the drinks on the way to 5 and down the steep slope. At least I knew the way back out. I decided to head left on 6 which was flat for the first 2/3 and had a good way into the control, but it was just the steep crossing of the gorge that took too much time. Should have gone straight on 7 but chickened out along the edge of the open where the semi-marshy areas were much slower that I expected. Only real other stuff up was on the second last control where I turned across the spur too early and got monstered by the green again. A long way off GL's time and would have hoped to do much better.

Lovely run to the start. Which was followed by the longest run to a start triangle I have ever experienced :)

Event 7 - Course 5 - Splits

Oceania Carnival event 6 at Smedley. We were squeezed in between the World Cup events in the morning and the afternoon so the organisers had mass starts for each course. This meant that there were far too many people on one course with no splitting so it became a running race almost. Not the most enjoyable orienteering events to say the least, plus it was almost completely open and hot in the middle of the day.

I started well and was tagging along behind Barbara Hill and a couple of M16s on the way to the first control, but I was still trying to read my map. Fine to 2 and was sitting directly behind GL on the way to 3, but got a bit caught up crossing a fence and SwissMiss got in between. At 3 SwissMiss stopped for a few seconds to punch the control and by the time I punched I had lost where people went. I was following SwissMiss out of 3 but to the left (I think most went right) but I thought I had seen a gap in the dark green and was happy with the route. By the time I got along the ridge and tried to cross I found that the dark green was thin and under the red line and the way was blocked by blackberries. I didn't want to go back so decided to head down the ridge to the lake and come around the bottom of the dark green. When I got there the lake was a lime green algae filled pond and the blackberries came down and into the water so there was no way through. I then slogged my way back up the hill and along the ridge to 3 and started again, but by this time all the impetus had gone. I jogged the next couple of controls and stuffed 5 a bit so decided to almost walk the rest of the course. Didn't make any more mistakes but the going was tough in the long grass. There was a large section of what looked like white forest on the map but no trees on the ground! When I got there the trees turned out to be seedlings about 1 metre tall. Apparently on the elites map which was offset printed you could see the semi open symbols but on our maps it was invisible. Either way there is no way it should have been mapped as anything but rough open. The last few controls were a slog up the hill. Didn't enjoy it much but at least I had a good idea what the elites were running through later in the afternoon - poor buggers. Apparently some compared it to the long distance at WOC and couldn't decide which was tougher! The spectating from the top of the hill overlooking the entire map was spectacular. The organisers should have broken up the courses into waves and had a much smaller group from each course starting in each wave - more like the STB race 5 at "The Slip".

Very limited opportunity for a warm up plus it was just too hot.

Event 2 5 - Splits

Oceania Relay champs at Glenlean. I ran the second leg in the Australia/NZ challenge team in M55-64 with Paul Pacque running first and Geoff Lawford third. The area was very open and pleasant farm land with some pockets of trees and a ridge line with these interesting conical hills with rocks - a fun area for a relay. Paul had a good run and came back about 20 secs behind Chris Norwood. I was chasing Ted van G and could see him from time to time all the way to 7, but he had pulled out a little bit. I was a bit hesitant through 7 and 8 but got going again to 9 and saw Ted heading out as I was going in, but that was the last I saw of him. I handed over to Geoff about 1:30 down on the leading team but they had Roch on the last leg who did manage to hold Geoff off until the spectator control but as that was less than a third of the way through the course it looked comfortable. The NZ team were in touch, sort of, but our lead was 1.5 mins at the end of the first leg, and 2.5 when I tagged, and Geoff pushed it out to 4.5 mins by the end with the NZ's finishing 2nd. Pleased to have a good steady run but would have liked to have been a minute quicker.

Oceania Long distance champs at Ngatawhai. A very disappointing day. The area was physical but limited and the courses were the same. The assembly area was poor and lacked any atmosphere. The day was hot and the only shade was on some very steep banks under some trees. The course was so-so but had about 1km of dead running at the end to get back to the finish. And to top it off my orienteering was crap. Geoff was the run away winner nearly 20mins in front of me, but 3rd place was less than 10min away and I easily stuffed up that amount of time.

Good to 1 but then got thrown a bit by the scale of 1:15,000 so under ran the next leg and got onto the wrong ridge ie. too early. Should have been reading my map better. Good through the next couple of controls and took the right hand route on the long leg to 5. Pleased with my nav and thought the route choice was good - GL went the same way. Ted caught me at 5 but he did say I lead him into the control :) Missed 6 by going too far right so lost a minute. Then there was control 8, a distinctive tree in the green. I must have been standing <10m from the control and still couldn't see the tree/flag. Hunted around in there playing bingo and eventually stumbled across it. I contoured out through the green to keep my height to 9 but didn't see the track route beside the fence lower down so lost some time. Should have taken the track to the far left going to 10 to avoid a couple of the green gullies I scrambled through, but then really lost the plot when I ran past 10 and was heading for 11 then when I realised I made a parallel error so lost a lot of time back tracking - at least I proved that the uncrossable cliff below the control wasn't. GL picked me up at this point but I had a better route to 11 and punched just ahead. Then the nav was over and it was just the slog to the finish.

Nice long jog along the road to the start, then about 10 mins around the start area to calm my nerves.

Long Champs - 5 - Splits

Walk with MaryMac starting from Holdsworth campground, about 20km from Masterton. The trails head up into the Tararua Ranges but we just did a flatter loop through the forest.

Run through the parkland beside the river in Masterton, starting and finishing from the camping ground. Not a lot of interest and the track was a bit lumpy in parts. Kept going until I ran out of track then came back the same way.

Oceania Sprint Champs at Wellington College. M55A 1st place! Not a perfect run and lost about 30 seconds with some hesitations and a backtrack on one control, but I was going for it. First time I can ever remember beating Geoff Lawford in a major event. Paul Pacque was 12 secs up at 11 but he stuffed 12 and lost 30 secs and the race. Beat all the M50s but would only have been 5th in M16 - those kids run a lot faster than me. Lucky for me the course had lots of downhill and Acejase reckons that's my forte on Cockies Sunday runs.

Sprint Champs - C4b - Splits

Wellington Harbour foreshore. An easy run from the Motorhome Park south along the dockside, dodging all the walkers, cyclists, and other runners. Stopped for a minute to watch the local youth bombing off the 8.5m platform and seeing who could make the biggest splash. Around to Oriental Bay then up the Southern Walkway towards the summit of Mt Victoria. Didn't go all the way to the top and headed back down to try and find the 'Red Dog' where we were meeting a big group of Australians for dinner. Ran numerous streets without luck, having seen a big red dog in the distance which turned out to be a golden hippo closer up! Turns out we were going to the 'One Red Dog' which was about 150m from where we were camping.

Dinner at 'One Red Dog' was great - huge platters of anti pasti, pizza, and chocolate fondue. Pints of beer too.

Oceania Middle Champs.

Middle Champs C 5b - Splits

Oceania Carnival day 2. Worst orienteering in a very long time :(

Event 2 C 5 - Splits

Event: 2013 Oceania Carnival & WC Races
 

Oceania Carnival day 1. Finished 5th in the M55A class. Lovely open/fast pine forest on not too complex sand dune terrain. Very flat in most places with just small knolls and depressions. Only complex bit was where the visibility was low but I just read the larger contours and had no problems. Made a bit of a mess of 2 by not following a good direction out of the control and ran off at a 45 degree angle and then started making a parallel error. When things didn't line up I relocated quickly but still lost over a minute. A couple of poor route choices where I should have run straight rather than out to the track-along-back in. Only other poor control was 14 where I ran past the control but just didn't see the knoll which was about 1 metre high, and got sucked into some larger knolls further on, so lost 2 minutes. GL was first in 40, then Paul in 44 and Ted in 45. A clean run would have had me at about 48 so would have had to run a lot harder to challenge. Good first hit out in the NZ terrain.

Event 1 C 5 - Splits

From our campsite at Scoutlands just south of Wanganui. Out along the road around the lake and then followed a dead-end road to the end past some nice houses and back. Very quiet - only saw one car the entire time.