A 5km PB, last week of uni lectures, last assignments and tests and probably some of my best racing in the elite women grade ever!
Last week was very hectic. I was studying for a 35% test on Wednesday, so was up late studying almost every night over the weekend, Monday and Tuesday. The last O'Hagens Pub 5km series was held on Tuesday night, so most of us Auckland O'ers decided to head on down and compete in it for the last time before some of us head over for JWOC. It was a really nice evening, a little on the cold side, but we still decided that we could race in singlets :P I was unsure how this would go as I have had hardly any sleep the past few days/weeks. I managed to get off to a really good start and keep a good speed. It started to rain about 7min into the race which was really annoying as it made the ground so slippery! At the turn around I managed to be at 8.50min which is really good for me, although I was a bit scared I would not be able to hold the pace that much longer. I managed to keep pushing, but not as hard as the first half. My time was 18.35 which was a PB by 7 seconds for me. I was so happy with this result, especially with the lack of good preparation! Poland is looking more and more hopeful every day :)
After the test and last few lectures of the semester, I guess I was able to relax just a little bit before the gigantic weekend of races!! In this time, the JWOCers from Auckland Uni managed to set up a meeting with the Uni in regards to any sponsorship. After hearing what we had to say and how much we have to pay for the trip ourselves, they generously gave us $1000 each in order to help us with our endeavours! We are so extremely helpful as this will definitely help us with our trip!
Queens Birthday Weekend...
This weekend consisted of 5 races; 3 multi-day long distances and 2 events put on by some of the AUckland JWOCers, a sprint and a superseries relay.
I was running up in Elite womens this weekend as I decided to have some competition practice before JWOC, especially since the Aussies were over for the Pinestars/Bushrangers test match. I was also selected for the NZ Pinestars too, so that was another reason for running up a grade :P
DAY 1:
The first race of the day was at Telephone Track. We had an 8km course with 150m climb. As I warmed up, I just said to myself to take it careful as this map is tricky and requires a lot of work with your compass. When I started, I realised that to number 1 I was not quite following exactly where I was, so I told myself to slow down just a little bit as I believe I was running a bit too fast. This helped a lot as I was checking on winsplits later that I was getting the fastest times on the first 5 controls. Number 6 was pretty terrible as I must have lost concentration with my compass direction and started doubting myself so much. I soon realised after 1.30min what I was doing, and corrected myself and went to the control. At number 7 I managed to catch Anna Sheldon and Angela Simpson. We were running together for a bit on the legs 8 to 9, then soon after it was just Angela and I battling it out to each control. I managed to keep my concentration pretty well after catching Angela and managed to run with her as well. She took a different route choice to number 19, and I think she may have stuffed it up a little. I was by myself on the last loop, but managed to miss 1min on #20, 2min on #22 and a further 30sec on # 23...so a very poor ending. Even though there were a few mistakes on this course, I still managed to keep them quite small. I felt pretty strong when I was running today and was very happy with my win in the elite grade! What made it even more satisfying was that I won by 7min! Very happy :)
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| Day 1: Morning course |
In the afternoon we had the sprint for the JWOC fundraising events. I think I was running a bit too fast as I kept making too many mistakes. Was a really fun course though :) I tried to get a picture of this map, but the quality is not so good..
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| Angela and I after the first race |
DAY 2:
Today we had a longer course of 8.8km and a bit more climb, so I was expecting quite a tough run. I was not very happy with my run today as I just never really had a good flow. My direction out of most of the controls was seriously shocking. The first 2 controls were steady and good for me, and even running to #3 I was running really fast, although I read the map pretty wrong when I got closer to 3 and managed to stuff it up quite a bit by about 3min or so. After 3, I didn't make too many mistakes, just little ones here and there. I was extremely tired towards the end and was actually walking up some of the hills. I think the felled tree areas were really draining as I was so tired of picking my legs up high for a lot of the race. Was a fun race, very excited to run a long distance with quite a few long legs in it :)
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| Day 2: Morning course |
In the afternoon, we had the 2 person superseries relay. Ross and I were in a team together. I managed to boost it up the really steep hill to the triangle, and even to the first control. Number 4 is where I really lost it for myself, I stuffed the first pivot by a lot and many people passed me :/ not so good...after this I managed to orienteer and run really fast to catch up a bit, but probably not enough. I was hesitating at so many controls as I kept checking Ross's control descriptions as his map was on the back...grr..I don't even know why I kept doing it! eek. Anyway, Ross went out in about 5th behind Tom and 3 Aussies. He absolutely smashed it! I think he mentioned he did under 5min per km for that tricky area! Pretty crazy! We ended up winning the superseries relay which was cool :)
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| Superseries Relay |
DAY 3:
Last day of racing today. Felt pretty average when I woke up in the morning, but knew that every one else would be feeling the same way :P
Managed to get off to a good start again today. Didn't make any mistakes really until number 9. I totally misjudged my compass direction which then lead me into the wrong tricky contour detail area. After I realised, I managed to get myself back to number 9. Am so angry as I lost at least 3min here, and at number 8 I was winning by 2min! The rest of the course was good, no really big mistakes, so was pretty happy besides that one bad control. I won 9 splits, which was the most in our grade, so I am pretty stoked.
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| Day 3 |
Overall a really good weekend for me, especially running up in Elites :) Enjoyed myself thoroughly, and am now having withdrawals from orienteering! I want to do some more!
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