Training Log Archive: Clara

20km walk to Cape Kidnappers. The birds were awesome, but not the best rest day activity. Blisters.

Oceania Day 7. Mass start race. Got a bit of a shock upon turning the map over and seeing the mess of contours, trees and rocks. Was at the back of the mass start where people were making sheep (and sheepdog) noises. Noone took my route to 1, but met up with a couple there. Gradually passed a few people. Decided to run in runners for some reason, and almost executed a control-punch-while-sliding-down-hill-on-bum, which was a lot of fun, and much faster than picking my way down the hills. People seemed to implode at the end so passed a few (girls and M35s).

Event 7 - Course 2 - Splits

Oceania Day 6. Last starter, last finisher. Possibly the worst race I've ever had. Not overly motivated going out at the same time as people were heading home. Even less motivated wasting over 10mins looking for a dodgily mapped number 2. Came the closest I think I ever have to giving up - thinking that as I had to run the next day it would actually be a sensible option. Couldn't make sense of the map. Everything was on the opposite side from where I was expecting, or I turned the wrong way whenever I got to a linear feature. Saw a guy also looking for number 2, but other than that didn't see any other runners until I found people collecting controls right at the end. The sheep and trees weren't very talkative and wouldn't tell me where I was even when I asked nicely.

Event 2 2 - Splits

Oceania Relays - 2nd leg. Legs had nothing on the hills at the start. The rocky hills were pretty cool, and it would have been nice to play some more in them. Rolled my ankle on the way to 10 and scraped my knees in the process - had a bit of a sook then made myself get back into it. Hot slog. Didn't make it back in time and Emily got sent out in the mass start.

Oceania Long/Day 5. Another epic. First few controls were nice. Was really conservative again, and went a fair way out of my way to keep out of the gullies (to 6 and 16 especially). First time in a race I've run through the start AND the finish area during the race. Loved the beech forest at 10 and 11. An ankle brace broke somewhere on the way to 12 and was a bit annoying rubbing my ankle. Hit myself in the head with a branch taking a misplaced route to 14. Big slog.

Long Champs - 2 - Splits

Oceania Sprint/Day 4. Pretty cool to get to run the WC courses, with the added advantage of spectating them running in the morning. Found 2 dead ends on the way to 1, then used my spectator's knowledge to get me through 3-5 (taking Lizzie's route around the school to 5). Slight detour to 6 by missing a path. Read the school pretty well at the end, although I wasn't sure what side/level of the building 15 was on. Was running with Claire Flynn and someone else towards the end which was good to keep my pace up.

Sprint Champs - C2 - Splits

Oceania Middle/Day 3. A little higher up the leaderboard today. Navigation was a bit scrappy, with bigger misses on 11 and 12 back in the detail. Really didn't feel in control in the white forest and was glad that we'd sent the M35s out earlier to make tracks for us.

Middle Champs C 2 - Splits

Oceania Day 2. The first of the 2hr+ epics. Really enjoyed the pine forest and felt like I had the hang of it (although comparing routes with Fraser afterwards suggests that I was too soft in always going to the tracks). Lost it a bit in the low vis forest - went out to the beach on the first control which meant I lost track of where I was and lost a lot of time - although from a tourist perspective it was cool to see an NZ beach full of cars/4 wheelers. Overran 16 and struggled a bit getting through the sand dune grass, although I was glad there are no snakes in NZ. The end of the course was a slog and I managed to penetrate some impenetrable green on the way to 25.

Event 2 C 2 - Splits

Event: 2013 Oceania Carnival & WC Races
 

Oceania Day 1. Was happy enough with my run so a bit surprised to be so far down the list. Definitely handled the sanddunes better than the last time I was in NZ. Did make a rookie 180 error on a track somehow.

Event 1 C 2 - Splits