Training Log Archive: GM

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