OY4 - Stag's Roar

Yet another OY at Woodhill...although this time it was a steeper area of the forest. This is a prime example of thinking you had a good run and then coming in and seeing the results and realising that actually, it was a pretty shit run! But at least I love running in Woodhill.

Anyway, I was going really well at the beginning. Contours were all lining up and I was nailing each control...until #6. The problem was I thought I was higher than I was because I would have been about 10 metres away from it when I first stopped but I didn't see it. I then went round in circles trying to figure out where I'd gone wrong. I don't really understand why I had so much trouble. If I'd looked a bit closer at the map the height probably would have been more obvious but I have to say that I never noticed the clearing in the reentrant. Grrr!!


Control 8 I ran right past it and onto the next hill along but figured it out fairly quickly. It was still frustrating though and I think I was trying to go to fast to make up for the previous mistake which is never a good idea. Then at #16, after crossing the main road, I had heaps of trouble trying to adjust to the different terrain (you can't tell by looking at the map but on either side of that main road the terrain is very different). I should have slowed down a bit and been more careful instead of running round like a headless chicken! For #17 I didn't look far enough ahead as the track route didn't occur to me until I was much closer and it would have been heaps quicker and without the need to keep checking the map. Then at #21 I really have no idea what happened but I got really disoriented and frustrated.

I'm running okay but I have been feeling really tired although not nearly as exhausted as I was during the week. I just need to orienteer a hell of a lot better!

OY3 - Woodhill South

It was really cold and I'd gone for a long run over at Tawharanui with Michael the day before and my shoes had screwed up my heels so I didn't feel too energised which is never the best of starts for a race!! But surprisingly (if I ignored the pain on my heels) my legs felt really good and fresh. I started off fairly well and found everything coming together until I hit control 6. It was a small hill in a fairly vague area and I must have run past it a couple of times without realising it and there was just nothing I could find to reorient myself. It wasn't until I saw a couple of people a bit further north of where I was standing that I realised I'd come a bit far.


I was okay after that until #12 which I managed to completely stuff up...super embarrassing how bad I did! I thought I was on correct side of the track but I was actually on the north side and of course nothing fitted and I couldn't work it out. I thought I'd head out to the track and go back in from there but it never came (naturally, because I was already on the other side of it). Took me a little while to figure it out but once I had it was a mad dash back to where the control really was!

Then #14 also just didn't work out. There were 3 of us stuffing around in the general area and again nothing seemed to fit. Turns out I'd headed further west. The vegetation boundary wasn't distinct at all and it really threw me. But the rest of the course went fine apart from feeling frustrated about stupid mistakes.

My heels seemed to clear up after about half an hour but once I finished they were hurting again. I think they are having a reaction to my other inov-8 shoes I wear for training. And despite it being beautifully fine, it was freezing cold all day...even in the sun.

Running at Tawharanui

My mate was up for the weekend so we cruised over to my beach house to hang out. Of course, you can't go that far and not go running at Tawharanui Regional Park. I'll just leave you with a few photos...

Tough Guy & Gal Challenge

I'd heard of this race many times but never entered before. The original race takes place in Rotorua but it's become so popular that they now have events in Auckland and Palmerston North as well. A few of my friends from mountain biking convinced me to give the Auckland event a go and I'm always up for the challenge. This year's event took place at the Woodhill Sands Equestrian Centre about 45 minutes north (west) of Auckland.

The full race is 12kms (2 laps of a 6km course...there is a 6km option) and is, according to the website, based on an "army type obstacle course". You can run, walk, push, crawl or climb through a variety of natural and man made obstacles. Apparently the maximum depth of water at any stage is approximately waist deep...as you will read later on, this was not quite true by the time it came to my second lap! Basically it involves a whole lot of mud, barbed wire, bush and paddock sections, hurdles (it's run out of an equestrian centre) and swamp crossings.


I started about three-quarters of the way back with my friends which turned out to not be the smartest idea as I spent all of the first lap trying to get past people. There were so many people anxious about jumping into the swamps and people walking up hills blocking the way which made me lose a bit of momentum. I got swamped by one guy when I was in one of the mud pools and he jumped in next to me. It felt like a tidal wave going over my head!


The second lap was better as it was really spread out by then and I passed a few more people. All was going well until we caught up with the 6km guys (they started 10 minutes after us) who were picking their way over everything. Luckily they were pretty good at getting out of the way and yelled encouragement...one of the bonuses of being female near the front of the pack as you get heaps of support.


I was ahead of a couple of girls until right near the end when I got stuck behind a gridlock of 6km people and I took a stupid decision to jump into the stream (it was neck deep by this point). It was bloody hard to get myself out again! The other girls managed to get through the gridlock and went round and got ahead. I managed a good sprint finish to get within a few seconds of them but I would have been 3rd if I'd done what they did but had to settle for 5th. Damn!


I finished in just over an hour and 9 minutes which isn't too bad a k rate for mud, swamps, obstacles and sections of crawling under barbed wire! My verdict? Heaps of fun but not really that tough to be honest. I'll have to try the event at it's home (Rotorua) next year.

OY2 - South Woodhill

OY2 didn't come at a good time for me. I had a lot going on, hadn't really eaten or slept nearly enough and my head was all over the place so it was never going to be a good race but at least I got out in the forest which is one of the places I feel the most at home.


Anyway, I started off okay trying to concentrate on reading the map (I know, this sounds like a really obvious thing but you'd be surprised how many of us don't do it enough). I found the first 3 controls okay although I was a little shaky on #1 which is quite normal for me as I get into the flow of the map. But when I reached the maze (the open bit that we have named The Maze...if you saw it you'd understand) I knew it was not my race. I had heaps of trouble bashing around in there and managed to get a nasty big scar across my thigh after running into a dead branch and in hindsight there was a much better route that would have made finding the control more successful...I just didn't see it until I'd finally found it! #5 was okay but #6 didn't go well again...but then again even Marquita, who was out there with me, had trouble and if she has trouble then it's gotta be hard!

Once back in the forest again things improved a little bit but I was just so tired. Most of the controls weren't too bad apart from #17 where I thought I was in the right area but I hadn't gone nearly far enough. I can't believe it took me so long to work out! By then I was ready to finish but there wasn't any point cutting back early since I was about as far away as you could be and the rest of the course pretty much was the quickest way back! It was just a matter of dragging onwards to the end. Disappointing.

Queens Birthday Day 3 - Long Distance (Plantation Forest)

I've run on this map 3 times now and only managed 1 clean(ish) run so I was hoping this race would be different...but it was not to be.

I started off nice and slow...the first control was pretty easy (a spur not too far up off the track) but it was clear it was going to be a steep, slippery course. The route to #2 showed just how steep it was going to be and just trying to sidle round the side of the hill was pretty difficult. But navigationally it wasn't too bad. Neither was #3 but it was a little unnerving getting down to the control. Unfortunately #4 was where it all came unstuck...


I sidled round and got down to the river, crossing that, then debated going round the bottom of the next ridge but decided I'd go up and over...bad mistake number 1. So up and over I went, crossing over the track and what I thought was the next stream. I climbed up the next hill but couldn't find it anywhere and nothing was quite adding up. I spent so long (embarrassingly long) fluffing around wondering what was going on before finally ending up heading down to the bottom and stumbling over the track again which totally threw me and I wondered what on earth I'd done. Turns out I'd done a 90 degree error and crossed the wrong stream (turns out I wasn't the only one who did that either as one of the other girls never worked out what happened and ended up dnfing). I found the control fairly easily after that but it was terribly demoralising as I'd lost HEAPS of time. I stumbled through the next few...fairly easy navigation but the hills and slippery terrain were getting to me (the climb out from #5 was awful).

I passed Mum out there on my way to #11 and she said she was having a really good run...at least someone in our family was! I then proceeded to take the wrong track at the junction...silly me! But I realised pretty quickly and was able to bash up the hill to the correct one. #12 was a spectator control and I felt like bailing since it was right by the finish but that isn't me. The loop after this was pretty cruel with more steep, slippery climb. I'm not sure I've ever been so relieved to finish an orienteering race in my life (or had such a bad control)!

After the first two days which had gone pretty well for me I was pretty upset to finish the weekend on such a bad race but I guess that's just how things go sometimes.

Queens Birthday Day 2 - Double Middle with Chasing Start (Whites Line)

Quite a few years ago we used to have these orienteering events called Short-Os which were 2 short races back-to-back with a chasing start in the afternoon where your time in the morning race affected what time you would start in the afternoon. The winner of the afternoon race (the first runner to finish) won the whole day. Anyway, we haven't really had races like this in years...until this weekend. Sunday was 2 middle-distance races back-to-back with a chasing start in the afternoon. Basically starts related to your results in the morning...if you took 29 minutes and 34 seconds then you started at 1:29:34pm. First running back wins the grade. Make sense?

This event was again held out at Woodhill Forest. Woodhill is a pine forest grown on sanddunes out on the West Coast North of Auckland city. It covers roughly 12,400 hectares. The morning race started out fairly averagely really. I would get to roughly the control circle but be about 100 metres out from the control and kind of fluff around a bit before finding it each time. Tessa caught me at #5 where we both got ourselves confused. I thought I'd come down the depression on the right. Turns out I'd come down the one on the left and Tessa had followed me. Then the control felt further over than it looks on the map.


We ran together from then, catching up to Frances around #7. We all mucked around too much at #9, finding another control first with Frances mispunching (she thought it was the correct one and kept going). It was pretty physical as we were all pushing quite hard especially when we were running as a group. I was quite happy with my pace but not so happy about my orienteering.

Most of the W21E times were quite close together (although not as close as the men's elites) and we were all pretty revved up for the afternoon although standing around for a couple of hours in the cold took its toll. I was pretty nervous. There was quite a gap behind me so I was pretty sure I wouldn't be caught up but I was feeling quite determined to beat Mace, the Aussie Bushranger starting 24 seconds in front of me!

We had to write our start times on the back of our hands then line up in order (all grades mixed up together). They would count us down then when it got to your time (for example, mine was 1:29:54pm) you punched the start control, ran to the box with your course maps in it (double-checking you got the correct course) and followed the tape up over the bank to the start control and then you were off.


I caught Mace fairly quickly but I was so determined to get ahead of her that I made heaps of stupid mistakes. I slowed down and switched my brain onto orienteering mode after running straight past #5 but by then Mace had got ahead. Oh well. I just concentrated on having a clean run from there which went pretty well. Obviously heaps of the girls stuffed up somewhere too as I saw Kate and another Aussie near me and Angela raced past (despite having started a few minutes before me). Other than #9 (where I saw a few elite men standing on the tops of the ridges looking a bit confused!) the rest of the race was good. Just frustrating about the first half! I can run faster in this terrain than Mace so I should have beaten her if I'd be concentrating properly. Oh well, hindsight is a wonderful thing!