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!!