NORWAY - NightHawk

Not really too sure what I was expecting from this trip…first orienteering after JWOC and I still wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy it again/wanted to be doing it. Hahaha had a complete mare getting to the airport, waking up at 5 getting tom to give me a lift to Southampton train station cept we couldn’t find Southampton Airport Parkway…went to Southampton Central instead. Then we couldn’t get out of Southampton quick enough, so tried to chase the train down to Basingstoke but failed so Tom ended up taking me all the way to London Gatwick :S WHUPPSS…the rest of journey went smoothly and the plane to Oslo was A MASSIVE one!! With nine seats to a row and TV’s and everything!! Never ever been on one like that before J

Landed in Oslo and got the train to  Lillestrom where I was staying with Matt and Elin. That evening there was Lillomarka training in an area similar to that of NightHawk (Il Tyrving), so ran on that along with some other clubs J That was good fun, terrain pretty similar to some parts of the lakedistrict/scotland and by the second loop I’d got the hang of it J watched a bit of Sherlock that evening with Norwegian subtitles, helping me learn some more of the language before bed. The next day I had the house to myself as Matt and Elin both had work, went for a run on a local area (Skjettenkollen) which was ridiculous that there are areas so close!! Literally nothing like that here in England, and if we do the areas are a pile of crap and not worth going to! I came back from that and then moved into a different part of Oslo to stay with Ingvild and her family J In the evening we watched some TV series ;) and took their dog for a walk – again around a local area which was gorgeous!! And then before bed had oh my gosh BROWN CHEESE! Which I love…miss it so much :L The following day (Friday) was the first day of nighthawk but it wasn’t until the evening so I went for a little cycle ride around the area we walked around before and having been used to road bikes, was not used to a mountain bike and how hard it gets on the up hill :L Showered and chilled out in the day…also had compulsory ice cream to help with Ingvilds sore throat ;) In the evening we made pizzas…which I failed pretty badly at, couldn’t make the base work. It just stuck to everything!! Stupid thing! They turned out pretty yummy and then Ingvild worked her magic on my hair..doing some crazy ass braiding before Siri picked me up for the race that evening.

PIZZAAA :D

Hair braidingg..

It was the first Nighthawk Event and I was running in both the night and day in a 5 man relay with a twist. The night part was a massive mass start with three runners from each team all starting together with their times added up…giving an overall time which then set apart the teams for the chasing start the next day.

The race itself was 4.7km in the dark – so I had a headtorch and the area was SO WET and muddy! I fell over loads and in the Lillomarka relay white suit it didn’t go down well! At one point I was wading around in this river trying to find the edge again without getting stuck in mud and marsh! It went well, really enjoyed it, especially in the parts where you could pick up the pace a bit instead of battling the green and crawling around on the floor. As a team we had done pretty well and headed off home after the race, looking and probably smelling like a drowned rat :P The next day I was the middle leg runner and we were racing on the same area as the day before. Siri had done well pulling up a couple of places which I basically lost again as soon as I left :P it was at control 3. I was basically there and then had a sudden lack in confidence convincing myself I was completely lost and had run in the wrong direction so then ran 90degress wrong before realising I was a fool and running back to the control. 

Event Area

The rest of the course was pretty solid except I was so so tired from the race the night before as well. After Linn had run and finished we ended up 4^th which I thought was pretty good :D and we won a waterbottle woooohhh, which I think they were handing out for free afterwards anyway -_-. The winners got running shoes!!! I was very jealous :P That evening I went to Nightflash where we ate the winners pig :P and there were challenges for groups to do, while everyone was drinking :L pretty amusing but I was knackered and happy when I got to bed!

Andrine and Vidar picked me up the next morning and we travelled to Rauland where there was a camp for juniors in areas similar to JWOC 2015 (which I will be too old for but decided it would be good quality training to do anyway!).

JWOC 2013!!!

Right, this is my epic blog for JWOC, missed loads out but I could probably write a book if I included it all :P Just a for warning, I was pretty disappointed with the majority of my performances so it’s not going to be the most optimistic thing you ever read but the general week was great with a brilliant GBR team and GBR supporters :)

 Zoe, Me, Charlotte and Jonny flew out early (the Tuesday before the racing – which started on the following Monday), originally also accompanied by Will, though he’d washed his passport, claiming it was his Mum’s fault so was joining us later. The travel across Czech was relatively easy and INCREDIBLY cheap, about £6 for a four hour journey!! The bus station was really close to Hotel Cernigov, the event centre and main accommodation for JWOC. We arrived, went for a slow run (I only managed 2km…felt pretty tired and my ankle was still sore from Jukola :().

We then had Wednesday, Thursday and Friday training and resting before the rest of the team arrived on Friday. We joined in with some training that the Australian and New Zealand team were doing so we got lifts with the Kiwi’s, who had some quality tunes on their buses ;) On Friday, we chilled out a bit and went to an AMAZING pool with three slides, and this one that was like a ski jump! The rest of the team joined us in the evening, including my Dad who was a coach. Unfortunately he brought some bad news from home that my Grandma had died earlier that afternoon. I spent most that evening on the phone to my Mum, who was going to come and spectate but after this news, had a difficult decision of whether to stay and home, support granddad or come out and support me. I obviously wanted to be selfish and have her over here but knew Granddad probably needed her more! In the end, it worked out okay and she decided to fly over for the first half and fly home on the Thursday (the Rest day) so she was home for the funeral which was organised very quickly for the Friday (and Sprint Race Day) so me, my dad and harry all missed it :(.

The Saturday was spent at the model areas, with the maps and terrain holding no surprises. Sunday people were chilling/stretching, just easy stuff before the race on Monday. I did some drills and strides where I felt rapidddd :D and lots of geeking, from the Bulletin 4, we predicted the start and from that the general course, going through some route choice! My start time on Monday was pretty late so I was in no rush in the morning, unlike some others in the team who had to wake up really early!! So it was the usual, bus to the pre-start, quarantine, warm up maps etc etc and I did my usual warm up where I string it out over about an hour, coming back to the GBR base to hydrate and adjust clothes/shoes/ankle tape :) Before my start I was perfect, joking around and feeling happy. Started the course well with a couple of errors to 1 and 2 but nothing huge. 3 was a route choice leg which I’d done before so took no time to decide, I was going left. FO SHO. From then on I was getting tired, not really feeling very sharp and motivation was lacking…I was running the Junior World Orienteering Championships and my motivational was lacking…WHAT THE HELL?? 4-5 was STRAIGHT UP HILL, lost so much time to the fastest on that leg as I couldn’t move. It felt slow and was slow! Annyywaayy, got there eventually, 6 was a distraction mistake but 7 I completely bossed – some DOWNHILL!! Finalllyy :D The rest of the course was pretty solid, nothing too bad just tiredness! Towards the end, at the 2^nd to last control the winner caught me up! Complete speed machine, couldn’t keep up at all!! I was so happy to finish and was placed in 18^th overall. Peter had DONE AMAZING, coming 17^th and Charlotte was the best GBR girl with 12^th place! Three top 20’s on the first day was a great start for GB but personally I wanted more :(

Women's long race.

AND THEN I GOT IT IN THE MIDDLE QUALIFIER HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. After the long, I immediately put the race behind me, not going through splits etc (plenty of time for that at home where it won’t impact on the other races!) and so I had a little look at middle maps etc. At the start for the quali, I was focusing hard on ORIENTEERING, not worried about speed but wanting to find the controls perfectly. It pretty much happened! I loved starting with two other people and having the excitement of seeing people out in the forest as I find it makes me concentrate more :) Out in the course I wasn’t feeling especially fast, walking up most hills but on the finish run in I was called out in 1^st on my heat :D WINNING YESS!! Everyone came in and that was overall place :D woop woop, really happy but knew it was only the qualifier and had the pressure of starting last in the final!! In the rest of the team there was quite a lot of disappointment with only 1 boy (Jonny) qualifying and 3 girls (Me, Charlotte and Zoe).

Middle Final...

For the final, we did a little geeking and I roughly worked out where the course would go and I was feeling happy for the final. However I really didn’t prepare for how much tougher it was going to be. Starting last mean’t there wasn’t as many people as I would have liked at the pre-start and out in the forest and similarly to the long I felt like I had no energy, SO MANY FALLEN TREES AND BLOODY BOULDERS. I remember going to 3, seeing some cameras in the forest, shitting myself and running into a pile of rocks hoping the control would just appear! I ended up circling around every rock, each time praying it would be just round the corner! I would have been quicker if I’d walked to some controls I reckon! Finished in 19^th place so again another top 20. This was the last day before my mum went home so I travelled back to the accommodation with her and was sad to see her go :( That evening me and Katie went to Tesco and brought some water pistols ;) we started a fight outside with the GB boys who obviously lost as they had no guns…but when we came back inside the whole hotel had gone crazyyy with water fights happening between all countries!! The GBR team had dinner that night at a local pizza place, courtesy of my dad :D and the pizzas were MASSIVE!

The huaagee pizzas :D

Time for a waterfight ;)

Rest day, team photo.

Rest day next, team visited the sprint and relay model areas and we had the spectators over for a picnic (where a flash mob happened which we of course joined in with :P). I also had the decision of running in the sprint the next day or not, this year had been the first year the management had mentioned not running all the races and a few of the team didn’t run in the middle final. I didn’t really know what do, feeling people expected me to run all races but I really didn’t want to run in the sprint. I ended up decided the morning before when I went for a run and felt like death, knowing my legs wouldn’t feel fast, which is what a sprint should be! I spent the day with Zoe, spectating the racing, again a mixed day with some great results in the boys, and a few disappointed athletes :( Jonny managed to hold 7^th place J (the best result of the week for the GBR team wooooh!) and Tim (one of the Kiwi’s we’d been hanging with) won a bronze medal which I was so happy about!!!

Waiting for Zoe..

The final day, the relay day was interesting with everyone being held in quarantine to stop cheating as there were cameras and gps tracking. Charlotte was my first leg runner (Zoe 2^nd and me last), who unfortunately didn’t have a great run, coming back around 6 minutes down on the leader making it tough for me and Zoe to get motivated and pull up places. The whole team were pretty disappointed but with that being sport we all knew that it could have happened to any of us! At the finish I was gutted, but went to see my brother who was a cutie and gave me a big hug <3. With all the racing over there was the coach’s race (me and Katie had bought millions of water bombs which we filled up ready to chuck on my dad and Dave (the physio!)) The weather was also completely beaut which helped the team stay happy J  In the evening there was the Banquet, which was a little messy ;) and the usual scandal went down :P 

The GB team (plus a few extras)

The whole week was organised so so so well, so a massive thanks to the JWOC2013 organisers, GBR team management, the rest of the team and supporters. Although the results were disappointing, I’ve definitely learn’t the most from this JWOC and will take it forward to next year, where I’ll hopefully be selected for my last JWOC in Bulgaria :D. Bring it on. ;)

Jukollaaa!!!

1500 teams, one mass start but only 3 teams that really matter. Lillomarka OK team 1, 2 and 3 in our sexyyy sexyyy white running ‘suits’ :P. SO I was super excited for this trip and it definitely didn’t disappoint! I arrived at Helsinki and waited around for the rest of the team to fly in before being introduced to everyone (forgot their names almost instantly…specially as I couldn’t pronounce anything in Norwegian without sounding stupid!).

They were all lovely and very welcoming though and soon we were off to the cabins that we would stay in the next couple of nights!! We spent the day before the race doing a little bit of training but mainly chilling out for the race! I was running 1^st leg on the second team with originally Ingvild, Ingvild and Ingvild…easy to remember right but then one of the Ingvilds had to drop out because of an Achilles problem :( although all of use seemed to have weak/problematic Achilles issues!! What a team :P Soon I was getting used to everyone’s names and decided I am definitely going to learn Norwegian over the summer!! Although they all spoke excellent English but I felt a bit ignorant expecting everyone to speak English!

Most of the team got 10 hours sleep the night before the race so we were well rested and excited!! Ingvild braided my hair before the race as well which was awesomeeee (always wanted to be able to do my hair in braids but don’t have the patience to learn)! I got changed into the white kit which everyone seems to hate…and yeh it might look hilarious but I LOVE IT, not amazingly flattering but you do stand out :P we had special socks designed for it as well…the ‘magic socks’ which we were optimistic would get us around the course if all else failed :P

So the start. OH MY GOD. Awesomeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! I started like five rows back, which in a crowd of 1,500, was pretty daymmm cool. At the beginning I was waaay too caught up with the adrenaline rush to orienteer just deciding to pace it for as far as I could get away with it!! Andrine (the first leg runner on the first team) pulled the BEST banter start ever, racing off after the gun, pulling a lead of about 30metres and getting to the first control first!! OUT OF EVERYONE! And got on Finnish TV ;) what a legend…though after she said she was absolutely knackered for the rest of the 8km course :P The course went well for me…I just trundled round and enjoyed it, it didn’t feel especially fast and I twisted my ankle fairly early on BUT came prepared and bandaged it up as soon as I finished! I think I came back around 65^th, a minute down from Andrine :). We then waited for all our team mates to return…the three teams finishing in: 43rd, 151st and 379th. Generally pretty strong but I had the feeling we all wanted to pull it out the bag and do something incredible!! NEXT YEAR GUYS! :D

We went back to the cabins, had food before leaving again to watch the guys start at 11pm (although it was still light…so although impressive not as good as it could have been in the dark with just the headlamps to see!) I didn’t stay too long – well until two am –  saw the first legs come back in (and Jonny Crickmore, running for Ravinen - on the team for JWOC this year - too did amazing coming in 32nd…someone’s going to do boss it at JWOC ;)). In the morning I found out the boys first team came 25^th!! TWENTY FIFTH!! Out of 1631 teams!  So they got to go to the prize giving and got a small medal :) Jealoussss! We met the boys at the airport before everyone flew off home :D Such a good weekend and I’m so glad I joined Lillomarka…definitely the best foreign club out there with the nicest people!

CZECH- JWOC training

Our pension in Petrikovice

I had been ill before flying out to the Czech Republic (since my last fell race on the 29^th of June) and it was being stubborn and sticking around. However during my trip away I got better – Orienteering’s obviously just so good for you it made me better :P  So I met Charlotte at Newcastle and we flew to Prague, unfortunately there had been lots of rain and Pragues metro had become flooded meaning our journey across Prague (to Cerny Most, where we could get the bus to our accommodation in Petrikovice) was difficult. We ended up getting a taxi to make it in time for the last bus (only just!!) and had to walk about a km at the other end with our bags in the pitch black!! A little scary but the owner of the accommodation was lovely, waiting for us with his daughter (who could translate!).

Getting excited for Orienteering ;)

Luckily there was Wi-Fi at the pension so we organised our travelling for the next couple of days on the JWOC areas. Most I’d already been to but it was really good to blast around the areas, making the final adjustments to my orienteering. On the second day there we managed to get a lift and entry organised for an event in similar terrain to the JWOC long. We wouldn’t have got there without the help of Jan Petrzela and his club who were wonderful and helped us out massively, so lots and lots of thanks to them, we really appreciate it! The race was a little longer than the JWOC distance but proved very tough and highlighted the importance of a really really good route choice. We both did really well and won some random goodies (I won a bag and calendar, Charlotte winning a gorgeous rain coat which I told her she had to have a photo in :P).

Another training day we went to Ostas, an area with MASSIVE rocks on the far part of the map. They were awesome reaching high into the sky with little passages between them! We decided you could hold an awesome ultra-sprint there!! This area was a little way to travel to get to with a hefty walk at the end…we managed to get lost on the walk home (too much chatting!!) but luckily made it to get the bus! The travelling around wasn’t ideal, to be honest, but we just about managed it, had some difficulties finding bus stops and getting off at the correct stations but somehow it all come together!

The lake on the relay area...

Towards the end of our training camp we moved to the official accommodation for JWOC and spent two nights there fitting in some relay training. It was pretty sunny this day and we were by a lake so went for a cheeky swim! The training was so good here…LOVED IT SO MUCH!! Although it took me 50 minutes to find the start in the morning (trekking around this forest for 5km!).

With a few more maps, notes and feeling positive and excited about JWOC (now in two weeks) we left Hradec Kralove and traveled to Prague before flying separately to Finland for JUKOLA…

FIRST FELL RACE

The Course..

Exams have started :( Had my first exam today, have six in total so to ‘celebrate’ getting through my first exam Peter, Pippa Archer and I traveled to the North York Moors for my FIRST EVER FELL RACE. It was an Esk Valley Fell Race: The Carlton Challenge. I was told it was quite a nice course and the weather cleared up for when we started running making it really pleasant. It was a little chilly but not thermal weather (had to tell peter to man up and not wear his :P) Had no idea how it would go, little nervous but excited and tried to suss out the people I wanted to beat on the start line from what they were wearing :P The first 4km was pretty much all downhill and after some heavy rainfall it was a bit slippy in places (had opted not for my Orocs as I was told the 4km back up the hill was flagstones :(). 

STILL LOVED IT…felt rapid!!  Roughly half way along the course turned back on itself and the ascent began. For the first part I was pretty slow and some people (mostly old people!!) overtook me…however after about 5km onwards I was feeling better again and even though it was still uphill I could pick up the pace :D There was a woman slightly ahead of me who I was slowly catching and the last part of the race was a pretty steep drop down to the finish from the trig point. As soon as the short descent through terrain started I’d cut the distance between us by half and (although a tiny bit conscious about my ankles) decided not to hold back and caught the woman up, beating her to the finish…felt sooo uncontrolled and like I was going to face plant at any moment. Also took a guy at the finish who I don’t think was best pleased. HAH. 

It was 5miles (so on my Garmin got 8km) in 43.29…not tooo shabby. There was a little wait before the prize giving (Peter had won!!! And I’d won U23 and came 2^nd in the Women) which was definitely worth the wait!! THREE BOTTLES OF WINE! YEAAHHH BUDDYY!! Entry was only £6 so £2 a bottle is a bargain! Definitely going to be doing a few more of these…planning on doing another Esk Valley race on the 30^th of May :D Absolutely loved the race and think I am beginning to overcome my mental hatred for hills :D

Wineeeee!! :D

Results can be found here: http://www.eskvalleyfellclub.org/results/fell/nehra/Carlton%20Cha llenge%2015-May-2013.pdf

British Orienteering Championships 2013

Originally I wasn’t going to go to this weekend as it was a trek away from Durham and was asked to go to Tiomila by my NEW INTERNATIONAL CLUB – LILLOMARKA!! Aaaaaaah yeaahhh…so excited for when I can finally run for them! Joined them pretty recently after some persuading from Helen Palmer and Matt Speake… I am going to run at Jukola for them later in June which I cannot wait for! Never ran in one of the big relays before!!

So anyway on the Friday before the competition I travelled down with Peter and Pippa Archer…falling asleep in the car! And then after arriving at peter’s house we were given some lush food <3 Fairly early bed time before the individual, especially as me and Peter went for a early (VERY EASY) run before breakfast!! Never done it before…just to loosen off the legs – never thought they would work as I’d just get tired but I actually think it may have helped!! The event assembly had an arena start for the elites again and had us starting on hay bails…when it was my time to start I was loving life. Couldn’t get enough of the attention ;) hahahaa.

The race went REALLY WELL! Started off fast…slowed up in the middle bit before powering it at the end, feeling like I had a bit too much energy at the end! It was a little hilly but I was feeling good on the hills and have been doing LOTS of hill work for JWOC this year (480m of climb in 6.9km :O). Half way round I had an energy gel (MY NEW FAVOURITE THINGS!) it was sooooo yummy…planned when I was going to take it and it was like having a mid-race snack! Loved it! The area was rapid and you could get a proper pace up! It was also good that the W21E had the first part of their course being the same as the whole W18/20E’s course so we could compare times etc even though they did still have another 5km of something :P

Even though lots of people in my age category weren’t actually there (at Tiomila/too far to come) the competition was still good with both Zoe and Tamsin attended, both are on the JWOC team. HOWEVER I WON..ahahahaha AND DID PETER!! So we had two Durham kids on the podium!! AKA everyone now come to Durham University…we will get you good ;) After prize giving I went home and got to see my fam which was lovely <3 missed them all loads even though it had only been like two weeks :L Stuffed my face full of fish and chips and ate tonnes of ice cream and chocolates to last me for a week!

The Sunday was the Relay and another early morning which probably should have been earlier as it was a bit of a rush at the event, especially as my club were making some last minute changes to the teams so I could run in a boys team (extremely grateful for this) with my little brother and Ben Chesters. I ran first leg which for the first part, flewwww round with all the guys but found the terrain harder and harder to run through as the race went on. I came back around 8^th I think and handed to Harry who destroyed it coming back third (much respect especially as he had 12km or something insane the day before!!). Overall we came 2^nd so I got to go on the podium with all da boiiiisss (/men) haaa. 

Also brought some new shoes (Oroc280’s) from Ian at Ultrasport! Absolutely love that man…always makes time to actually chat to you :D and some food…Harry even brought me an ice cream <3 what a babe. There was then the long journey home where I did revision in the back with Peter…although he couldn’t hack it as well as me and fell asleep <3 BLESSSS!! Again another great weekend and I’m thankful to all the people who helped me out and drove me to the events etc!! :D

British Sprint and Middle Championships

Haven’t written a blog in AGES…would say I’ve been busy but I haven’t :L Selections for JWOC have come out WOOP WOOP I got in :D

Okaay so there has been the British Sprint and Middle championships…which was held in/near Loughborough. Excellent weekend…we had all the JWOC squad (cept some slackers who had school/exams ;)) together to ‘bond’. Saturday morning I managed to get a lift down to the event at a ridiculously early time of 7 in the morning with the Maxwell family (VERY GRATEFULL!) saving me from an even earlier start and train journey! So having got into the assembly I sussed everything out before heading off to the start in my short shorts…WEATHER WAS STUNNING!! There was a heat and a final in which I was running with the W21E’s too so I knew I still had to run well to get into the A-Final. I was starting in the same minute as Katie and Charlotte, who both beat me back in…but of course I decided I had the longest gaffle with the most climb etc :P managed to get in the A-final but was one of the last qualifiers so had an earlier final start time (which wasn’t announced until VERY LATE so was a bit rushed to get ready but with my ‘pre-race preparation’ being awesome (aka non-existent) I managed to cope :P)

SHORT SHORTS

The race was great bants…there were LOADS of Loughborough students out and about tanning, Frisbeeing, BBQing etc etc making it hard to focus when they were shouting abuse…I was asked if I was winning at one point, replied no which they all loved and began shouting motivational comments (probably in pity that I was running round with a map trying to look cool :P) ALSO ran into a tree in front of a different group…SO SMOOTH!! 

Anywaaayy…had a pretty decent race and came 7^th (two minutes down on the pro’s: http://www.leioc.org.uk/results/2013/bsoc/finals/wopfa2.html and 7 seconds off Charlotte Watson – the winner of the W20s) ALTHOUGH check out the split times for the run-in…BOSSED everyone ;)

That evening I found out I had an incredible tan line (aka wife-beater burn line L)..attraaaactive! Also that evening there was a quick meeting and a pub meal with the rest of the team :D Not too many strenuous meetings etc as we all were focused for the British Middles the next day. 

Weather wasn’t as beaut on this day and when I arrived I realised my preparation was crap…looked at the area and it looked mingeeeennn! The start was in the assembly field which was so exciting and then the course sent you straight into this rocky (VERY ROCKY) technical part…I was SO sneaky though and worked out where my no.1 was in the start box (very proud of myself)…still it didn’t help, had to walk as running in the first bit was almost impossible whilst navigating perfectly!!)  After the first part there was some RAPID terrain which I was LOVING :D everything is soooo much more exciting when you can run fast! and then the run-in…UPHILL. Complete Joke :( waaahhh finished 1^st though so I was sooo happy…AND even got asked to do an interview…FIRST EVER :O thought I would say something stupid and retarded but I think it went okay!! 

Hahaa anyway, it was a good day and I was really happy when we set off back to the accommodation.

NOW then...it’s MY blog so I can say what I like but that evening we were told the JWOC relay teams. After having been to Denmark and JWOC last year running in relay with Charlotte and Florence I had naturally come very comfortable with imagining the relay team as us three but during Sunday evening we were told that this wasn’t going to be the case and Florence wasn’t in the team. This was said to be because she was “subject to fitness” after getting a stress fracture and not running in many selection races. She’d had the fracture in her shin since February (although it wasn’t diagnosed until middle of April!!) and was working through exercises and progressing, all be it, slowly to running again. (Note she ran in Denmark, in the team which came 2^nd with the stress fracture…bloody impressive no?). I know Florence, if we told her to run in the relay team, even if she wasn’t fit enough, she would do it or absolutely kill herself trying. Nevertheless, Zoe's in the relay team instead :) she's perfectly capable of performing as well as any of us with plenty of experience at JWOC so no hard feelings there at all, just being through a lot with Florence has made us close and I knew how much the relay meant to her.

After this draamma it didn’t take long the group dynamics to return back to normal and we finished the night with a couple more meetings (where there was a special consideration of the Party and how awesome it’s going to be ;)) HAHA.

Having waaayy too much fun ;)

Monday, the last day of the pre-jwoc camp we all packed up…fed the ducks (we were staying by a canal :P) and left for some quality Relay training, planned by Kris Jones. We completed 4x1km in which a relay scenario was created and we all had to race, head to head/chasing people down to the finish. It was a fun way to finish the weekend so thanks to Kris and the other coaches and people that made it happen!

A great weekend with excellent training and exciting racing, It has definitely made us all excited for JWOC this year

:D

GENERAL LIFE

OOOKAY…a blog about my life at home now…soooo I’ve been putting off revision for my exams later this year (decided to take everyone – except my parent's advice ;) – that first year is easy so I should chill out a bit). Haa been at home four weeks now…and I don’t know where it’s all gone :S At the moment it’s just me, my little brother – Harry and my parents at home; older sister and brother aren’t at home anymore, so secretly I know harry loves it when I come home as he has someone to annoy -_- he’s currently learning to juggle...and although really decent at it has to show me every time he tries something new (boreee).

NEW PINK TOP

So I’ve been training and on Monday selections for JWOC came out :D:D :http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/  so motivation for the next couple of months is high. Been out on my bike a couple of times to give my legs a rest, wearing my new cycling top :P Been on a ride with dad and harry, both pretty surprised that I am not bad at cycling ;) yesss!!…which annoyed harry as I don’t ‘do any cycling training’ where as he claims he does :P I don’t ever really train with my family though…Harry very occasionally and at most do some strength and conditioning in the sitting room with him. Although it can get a little crowded and we always start laughing, which when trying to do core IS IMPOSSIBLE :L

Dad searching for food ;)

Been trying really hard to sort my diet out but don’t have enough will power :L If I didn’t train I think I would be massive :’( ALTHOUGH I get it from my dad…caught him the other day <---- climbing on the cupboards to get to the crisps :P HAHAHA..couldn’t resist taking a photo...love you <3

Cornwall :D

Trying to save up for the summer too, every holiday I go back to working at my local pub to get some dollar…normally spend it on clothes before I get a change to put it in the bank -_- Got LOADSS planned this summer..so am in the process of choosing what to do and not :S but I want to do it all…got a lot of orienteering planned (of course!) and then some holidays with friends and still needing to see my family at home a little bit :P Have also just joined Lillomarka Orienteering Club, SO EXCITED! So that has given me some more training options too!! Going to Cornwall next week :D We own a caravan down there by the sea…gives the family a chance to chill out. Harry is off to Portugal for World Schools next week! SO JEALOUS…the two years I did world schools, I got to go to Scotland and Spain (where it was reaaalllyy rainy) :L nonetheless I wish him luck and will be watching his races online at http://www.isfori2013.pt/pt :D Better win lil bro ;)

JK Entry...

BIG NEWS. This has got to be my best JK to date (since my first one in 2002 back in Lydney forest where I was running W10B – Aged 8 years old (CUTIEEE..haa not, I was a fat child)!!) I’ve attached the map which I managed to find (1.7km in 28.45 - impressive ;)) and looking at the splits, took 17 minutes to get to control 7…a 150m leg! But thankfully a lot has changed since then and I can now orienteer in sub 16min/km :P In fact this JK was down in the lovely southern terrain so I could get my minutes/km down to 5-6m/km for the all events :D.

It started with the sprint, which isn’t my favourite discipline as I’m worst at it…but I accept that and went round to enjoy it. As it was 3km, optimum route, I decided to boss it from the beginning (:P) and started nice and speedy…as exciting as this was I didn’t have the fitness to keep going at this pace (annoying that I didn’t have my Garmin to tell me exactly what my pace was doing) and was slowing badly by the end. AND YES, for everyone curious I was actually wearing shorts for this race ;)

Saturday was the middle event, not a world ranking –so I could wear my Garmin YAAYY- and I was positive about the event as I had been to the area around four times before :D I reeeaally enjoyed this race..was so fast and fun :D I was scrappy at the end and got carried away with how well I was doing on the way to 6; I was soon brought back down to earth, struggling to find the control :( HOWEVER it was still enjoyable and I came back in 2^nd (3^rd including the W18E). Afterwards I was feeling pretty tired and went to see Rach who gave me a massage <3 and listened to my rants <3 BABE!

The last independent racing day was on Sunday, the classic event. I WAS DETERMINED TO WIN. After the previous days, I really wanted a win but almost as soon as I had started the race my confidence dropped below zero. I was getting SO distracted so easily…on the way to no. 1 I found another control which obviously wasn’t mine (on a different feature, about half the distance to my actual control) but decided to stop, check it wasn’t mine and try to work out where it was on my map before realising it DIDN’T MATTER!! I then panicked thinking I had done a 90 degree error or something equally retarded and ran around a bit before re-assuring myself I was doing perfectly…and carried along my route to no. 1 :D. I was a bit shakey to the next couple of controls, but soon relaxed before I began to get tired…like REALLY TIRED. I was falling over everything, missing features, beating myself up and walking up EVERY INCLINE (and there really weren’t many of them!!) I was gradually making my way around the course…grumbling the majority of the way, before near the end I spotted Zoe!! She had started 3 minutes ahead of me and I felt horrible (knowing if I was hating the course and had caught her, she was probably hating it x10 as much). We ran around the last part of the course together, pushing ourselves right to the run-in. There was a little wait before Charlotte came in (the winner from Day 1 by 51 seconds) when the commentary informed me I had beaten her by 58seconds!!! I waiting until the results had been printed to ensure I hadn’t heard wrong, and then celebrated by eating a cheeky easter egg ;)…adding both day 1 and day 2 times together I had beaten Charlotte by 7 seconds :S SORRRYYYYY!!! <3

There was then an EPIC wait around for the prize giving (especially as it was freezing temperatures, i was wearing ALL MY CLOTHES, sat in the tent with Florence trying to keep warm – started snowing at some points – pretty sure it was anyway :P) 
Monday, the last day, was the RELAY DAY!!! WOOOHH and I was in a team with EUOC…felt like a bit of a traitor to my club but it gave me a good last leg run around, especially as the team I was in  came 2^nd beating the competitive EUOC team ;) heehehe SUCKERS :P My brother's team had also done well in the Men’s Short (little brother this is - Harry), coming 2^nd – not doing quite enough to retain their trophy – but still getting on the podium! I finished the day by spending most of my winnings from the days before at Ultrasport before travelling home. It was an awesome weekend for me, running four tough races in 4 days and getting a top 2 position in all of them :D Results can be found here: http://www.cix.co.uk/~neper/jk2013/day3/index.htm The competition is also selection for the Junior World Orienteering Championships later on this year in Czech so fingers crossed for this (and everyone else!!)…selections are out on fridayy!!

Danish Spring Cup

15-17^th March 2013

WHERE DO I START? This was such a good weekend and probably a big blog…BE PREPARED. Right so,  I remember first thinking of wanting to do some more relay practice in late Autumn of last year and after speaking to some other girls in the GB squad (Florence, Charlotte and Zoe) we all decided to sort our shizz out and focus a bit more on the relay. The Danish Spring Cup looked promising with the Saturday being a Middle distance chase (something none of us had never done…spending a while browsing over the final details trying to make sense of the map changes/passage run throughs) and on the Sunday a standard relay (we decided to miss the first part of the relay which was Saturday night saving ourselves from freezing to death :P) so Florence, Charlotte and Me trekked across to Denmark for this event.

SO anyway, we all met at Manchester airport, flying to Copenhagen where my organisational skills came into play (NOT) and we tried to make sense of the trains and the ’zones’ having to punch our tickets in funny yellow boxes. I still have no idea if we did it right but no-one came round checking so we were lucky ;) After arriving in Hillerod, we found our accommodation relatively easy and tucked into our pre-made dinner…pasta and then Florence surprised us with THE NICESTS DATES EVER…so our thanks go out to Florence’s mum for buying them ;) haa and by 8pm we’d settled down and were in bed!!

Included in our hotel price was breakfast, so taking full advantage of this we took AS MUCH FOOD AS POSSIBLE for our lunch on Saturday…smuggling out our sandwiches wrapped in napkins we packed, caught the train (feeling very ignorant of the language as I tried to pronounce Marum with the WORST accent ever…the train steward looking at me like I was a complete fool) and walked to the event arena arriving with about 3 hours to spare :P originally we were going to do some training but sacked that off, lazing around…Florence and Charlotte read despite my efforts to annoy them so I amused myself by eating (of course) all my lunch.  Even though we were wearing all our clothes looking ridiculously obese, we were still freezing so went into the food tent to keep warm where we spied on Emma Klingenburg (multiple gold medalist...bit of a hero etc etc) who was buying food, hoping that she would buy cake... AND SHE DID :D woooh...making us feel so much better about eating so much crap! 

The race, was incredibly exciting, with SO MANY gaffles!! It must have taken years to plan, making it so hard to tell where about you were in the forest...seeing people randomly join your gaffle before veering off in a 90degree difference to my course! Managing the map change over fine, I started the second half feeling SO DRAINED trying to hang on to Cecilie Friberg  who was absolutely rapid (but felt better, after finding out it was her home terrain :P). Only after finishing, to my surprise, did I work out I’d come back in third, followed soon by Charlotte in 5^th and Florence (who has been out of training for a good month from injury LL) in 9^th. We were all really pleased…having no idea of how well we would do, rewarding ourselves with hot food and cake (IF YOU HAVEN’T GATHERED WE LIKE FOOD). Later, walking back to our accommodation we saw a RED SQUIRREL!! The first time me and Florence have seen a wild one…Charlotte was appalled :P So after an eventful day, Charlotte collapsed to bed at about 5pm (YES 5PM…complete slacker, bless :P) and that evening we found a Grill House in Hillerod, so all tucked into incredibly cheap, excellent, nutritional post-race food of burgers, chicken, falafel (Charlotte is vegetarian, to mine and Florence’s dismay ;)) bread and fries :D.

Sunday morning we were all a bit daunted by some of the senior teams but persevered when Charlotte (THE COMPLETE LEGEND) coming back, after 1^st leg in 1^st by 6 minutes. WAAAHH!! Although so excited…I was thinking, ‘WHAT THE HELL? What if I go out in first and lose it and everyone hates me!!’ Haaah (I think I’m psychic :P)…Florence powered through spectator still in the lead, and after finding out I needed to wear Tractrac panicked to put that on before she finished the final loop.

Then it was my turn, knowing I still had a 2 minutes lead I was aware of how ‘flukey and risky’ my orienteering feels so consciously chose a fair few track legs that were safe. About half way round…after pacing the first half at sub 5m/ks I was KNACKERED and my navigation paid, so I lost time on the middle control pick. There was then a last long leg, which I took the long safe route round the green saw Ita Klingenburg punching the control ahead of me. For a good few minutes my brain kept trying to convince me it wasn’t her, just someone else who happened to be doing the same part of the course but running through the spectator control I knew she’d caught me and I had to get closer to her with a chance of bringing it home. However THIS DID NOT HAPPEN…the last loop was exhausting and I hardly looked at my map trying hard to shorten the distance between us but at the run-in and with a home-crowd she was too far ahead to catch. Gutted but also OVER THE MOON that we’d come second, knowing we’d all run so hard we remained positive. Shortly after finishing, we had to quickly pack up and rush off to the station ensuring we’d get our flight back in time, all a bit shocked that the weekend was over as well as a huge success, sharing the knowledge that this was exactly what we needed to help our relay racing and confidence.  From all of us, THANK YOU so much to the organisers, other athletes, supporters and friends who helped out and made the trip A MASSIVE ACCOMPLISHMENT.

Results, routes from TracTrac and news can be found on the homepage at: http://www.danishspring.dk/results_2013/

BUCS Orienteering

 23-24^th February

Okay so this weekend started with the earliest morning :/ Meet at the DSU at 7pm…COMPLETE JOKE, I had still not caught up from my Birthday on Wednesday night so wasn’t feeling fresh at all! Luckily I managed to sleep on the minibus there (as did most of the other athletes in Durham University Orienteering Club - UDOC) so when we arrived, helped by the FREEZING WEATHER we were all a bit more awake! Not having seen a lot of people at the event meant there was A LOT of catching up, not something I have a problem with and soon it was time to get ready to run, wearing my Durham Vest with pride! Haa I had a pretty decent start time, being the second to last so I was quite comfortable, with Linnea Gustafsson 1 minute in front of me and Bex Harding a minute after.

I started well and was enjoying the course, with the open moor appealing to my orienteering style and so I was relaxed and happy. A few little fine-O mistakes didn’t trouble me too much and I was quickly at the finish, knowing I hadn’t done too badly by catching up a few other athletes starting in front of me J Near the finish, I’d run past Abi (a friend who I’d grown up with in the South West squad) who had injured her ankle and was hobbling back so I grabbed a coat and ran back out to her helping her through the last bit of the course. She was gutted not to have finished and worried about her ankle which I could understand, having had frequent injuries to both ankles. Luckily there was enough snow to mimic an ice pack and we’d got her to her car! Once everyone was back results clarified that me and peter and both come 2^nd (WOOOOHOOOO!!), earning Durham University lots of BUCS points for the championships and maybe, just maybe, a little respect after being constantly slated by the Orienteering University ‘top dogs’ – Edinburgh and Sheffield (Sheffield especially, who are way too cocky to realise in a couple of years Durham will be annihilating them :P).

The evening, as predicated was hilarious with dinner and then drinks being consumed happily until we made it into PopTarts (a Sheffield nightclub). Here the party continued with the theme (Rubix Cube) getting into full flow! Although the night was decent, it made Sunday morning a struggle for the most of us having to face an early morning and then the relay :S Nonetheless, we all again braced the cold and soon found the relays underway. These were hilarious…I appeared to be after the first km in the lead with Charlotte Watson and Sophie Kirk (which I remember having a conversation on our course about how rough we were feeling and our safest bet would be to just follow Charlotte :P) A prime example of our GREAT NAVIGATIONAL SKILLS :P Anyway it worked out well with Charlotte and myself pulling a lead, a sprint finish at the end where I handed over to Aine in first (WOOP WOOP – only just though ;)).

The relays seemed to last forever while standing around in the cold but once the majority of teams had finished, prize giving was underway and over both days, DURHAM HAD FINISHED THIRD!!! SUCH A GOOD RESULT that UDOC was so happy with!! Everyone in the team pulled their weight and helped secure the place J The best way to celebrate…was of course with food so on the way home we stopped off at some services and I brought a Chicken Burger and crisps :D LOVING LIFE!

PORTUGAL!!

13-17^th February 2013

While Durham was covered in snow and absolutely freezing cold I had arrived in Portugal which despite my pessimistic attitude was actually sunny! Woooh, so I met the team out there on Wednesday with enough time to get a little training done. Most of the team had already been out for the Portugal O-Meet races and so to my dismay, Florence had a better tan than me (Absolutely gutted…this never happens!!) Anyway, the training was AMAZING…the terrain was so rapid, and at the beginning my orienteering was a bit messy, just loving the fact I could run. After some epic relocation, I decided to navigate and control my orienteering a bit more and was prompted by Liz Campbell to have an aim for each training session. During the week, one of the main aims of the training camp was to ensure all training exercises were focused with a target which I always find hard as I have never been very good at articulating how I orienteer. Throughout the week and after a chat with Liz (which always helps settle my head) I’d roughly worked out how I get to each control...that I am going to call rolling relocation :P not the most efficient orienteering, I KNOW but it works (so far) and I know that it can be improved which can surely only be a good thing!

During the week we also had the opportunity to use a head camera which was interesting…definitely useful although I don’t know how similar my orienteering was to my natural orienteering when being shadowed with it on, it was a good laugh to watch back anyway! Also during the week we had a sports psychologist, Neal Anderson who was so useful, especially when talking to 1:1. Me, Charlotte and Florence also got together to speak with Neal about relays, especially as we were going to Denmark a month later to focus on relay training. This was also useful and the reality of getting to JWOC and performing in a team began to take shape.

We were staying in a cute little hotel near the seaside, so it was just a 5 minute walk to the sea where we went a couple of times after training to paddle soak up the teeny bit of sun that was around!! The evening meal was always a surprise…with some puddings comprising of a knife and fork to help us eat bananas, which of course most of the team took up as a challenge to eat a banana solely with the knife and fork!! We were also staying with some Finnish people and the Swiss Squad providing famous people to gawk at :P

So after a few days training we were onto the weekend in which the squad competed in two races, a long and middle. The long was especially tough as it was 11.5km (the furthest I can ever remember racing!!), so going out at my usual pace I died just after the spectator control and even found the run-in hard (I am going to blame the sand for this…tried sprinting in sand?? Well it’s NOT EASY). The middle day was a bit of a rush as we all had to leave quite swiftly to get to our flight from Lisbon at 3.30pm (some of the squad even cutting their races short) but we made it with plenty of time. The actual middle race went better for me than the long as I tried not to worry about HOW I was orienteering and instead decided to just orienteer normally. Overall this week helped me understand a lot about my orienteering whilst giving me the opportunity to analyse it under race conditions, against some of the best orienteers around!

Edinburgh Big Weekend

26-27^th January 2013

Florence Haines promised me it never rains in Edinburgh. SHE LIED. It rained when Durham University took a group to Edinburgh Big weekend (Urban race on the Saturday and two sprint races – one urban, one terrain – on the Sunday).

We arrived Saturday morning, having got the train up and had a short wait until the first of us started. I was a bit wary  of the urban race…I have never really enjoyed them, finding them boring and pointless as you end up running double the stated distance and (in my case) hurting your shins from the hard pounding! However, I enjoyed this urban, knowing not to go too fast at the start but letting go at times when I was feeling fresh. It was exciting, with longer legs and some testing navigation before entering the meadows just before the finish. Although I felt tired, I’d paced it really well so could still push at the end J Overall I’d come 5^th, which frankly I was over the moon with it, even though a lot of my age group hadn’t actually ran (they were helping out organise the event!!).

In the evening Durham athletes went to Sambuca (an Italian restaurant) for a meal before heading to an organised ceidhl and then onto a nightclub where there was an event: The Big Cheese..playing OLD SCHOOL music which was so much fun!! We left before the club shut at about 1pm and me and Aine (BESTY FROM DURHAM <3<3) headed back to Florence’s for the night (Me and florence go waaay back...been orienteering together since we were little) Luckily me and Aine had a tiny bit of a ly-in before our start, whereas Florence had to leave early to help out at the starts again hahaha (UNLUCKYYYY!!) although we still very nearly missed our starts!

AND they made cagoules compulsory just as we were arriving as some freak windy, rainy patch hit Edinburgh. For the record, I HATE RUNNING IN CAGOULES!  They just flap about and don’t keep you warm at all…and if they do, I overheat (much prefer being cooler when I run rather than hotter) and have to take them off, tie them around your waist which is SUCH a nuisance as they then ride up and you have to tie them back up every ten minutes. GAWWWD…such a palava..AND THEN I got to the start and the sun came out. TYPICAL…I decided to take it off and left it with Florence!! The race was then fine…raging a little at the downhill (the bit I LOVE) as it was sooo steep you couldn’t actually run down...had to shuffle/fall/slide! The next sprint (the urban one) was a chase and it was eventful with Kirstin Maxwell planning a godly course which caused about half the field to mispunch with a crazy surprise gaffle going on at the end. And yes they can complain but they have no right to…it was a good course and they should have run their own courses and checked their control codes. Rule 101 ALWAYS CHECK YOUR CONTROL CODES PEOPLE!!

They day finished with some chips :P YUM and then a train journey back to Durham, but all in all a successful weekend :D Results can be found here: http://www.rstrain.ndtilda.co.uk/results_13/euoc_bw/

Durham City Relays

13 Jan 2013

So  after arriving back in Durham on the Saturday, I’d already clogged my weekend up by saying yes to run in the Durham City Relays along the river! I decided to race in my BRAND NEW SPIKES that I was given as a present by my parents for Christmas, so was super excited to see how they would turn out, as well as a tad wary that my feet were feeling a bit battered from a muddy/wet run the day before which had caused my feet to develop a whole new set of blisters :/ Anyway I was first leg, running for Durham City harriers (So also sporting my relatively new BRIGHT ORANGE running vest-which I have got to say I LOVE, even though it goes against all fashion trends :P). Not knowing the standard of the field I started with was hard…so I set of WAY TO FAST and having to do two laps of a set route killed me, being knackered after the first.

I ALSO FELL OVER. IN MY NEW SPIKES! Raging. Spikes are supposed to STOP falling over from happening…especially in the muddy fields I was running around for this event! I realised it was because of my running style and that I heel strike, so, with there being no metal spikes on this part of the shoe, I had no grip and ended up finishing the race with mud up one side of my leg. ATTRACTIVE. Also being new to the club, I hadn't yet met my second leg running…which meant I was a bit hesitant at the finish, when I couldn't spot another bright orange person at the finish, however she quickly noticed me and sprinted off! The team did pretty well, with our first team destroying the whole field so overall a good (but muddy) day and good start to the university term!

GB SQUAD SPRINT WEEKEND

3rd-6th January

FIRST ORIENTEERING OF THE NEW YEAR. And I’d already decided it was going to be a good year, and what a weekend to start it off!

It was a slightly longer than the normal GB weekends, and was in Aldershot, The SOUTH, so it was bound to be an awesome weekend ;) haaa, so things kicked off with some night sprinting Friday evening where Charlotte Watson (fellow team mate, who’s been on shed loads of tours and event with me, so a lot of love there) and Katie Reynolds (complete welsh babe ;)) went round together. This ended badly, with the training turning into a MASSIVE GOSSIP and needing regular relocation! However it was good to enjoy the company, and familiarise ourselves with sprint orienteering techniques again!

A word of warning: The food on these trips is INCREDIBLE! I would just go on these for the food…it is STUNNING :D So Thursday night was no exception with so much food...I couldn't help but go up for seconds of practically everything :P Anyway, so Thursday was the travelling day, with everyone arriving and chilling out before the proper training started on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Highlight on the Friday was having an extended lunch with Katie and I going a bit crazy in the playground...wishing we were five again ;)

The training was really, really structured with a massive variety on offer with the help from local clubs J On Saturday morning we had a forest sprint…ONE OF THE TOUGHEST THINGS!! I was useless at it…trying to run at sprint pace, through terrain, up hills and across ditches I found, practically impossible!! I died even before half way round, getting caught up by numerous people and losing a decent flow and structure to my navigation! I was glad for it to end and decided to stick with forest orienteering OR sprint orienteering…not mixing them (my head and body couldn’t cope!). That evening we had a drill session, talk and question and answer time with Mike East, an ex-Olympic athlete who’s talk was really useful, especially helping understand a competition at an incredibly high standard and the differences between a sport with more support than orienteering!

Sunday, we had a structured Qualifier and Final Sprint Course which was a good way to end the weekend and there was A LOT of positive feedback from all the Squad athletes!! Even though it was sprint training I was still reaching 10-15km a day from each small course/exercise being further than stated due to having to run around houses. It was an intense weekend, as it was high quality, fast orienteering but in quite a vast quantity so my calves became INCREDIBLY TIGHT (they are very temperamental…getting tight randomly even after days of rest) so I was constantly monitoring, stretching and massaging them to reduce the impact on my shins!