SLWC IV
Saturday, 14 January 2012
 This year's so called "Super Long World Champs" started near North Sydney oval. Our map was a huge 9 x A3 maps that we folded into our map bags before heading out towards Cremorne Pt. Jogged together to every 5th then "sprinted" to every 10th. Poor Andy, who set the course and printed and compiled all the maps, stacked it badly mid-sprint on a marina at no. 19 and was bleeding in his hand and crouched in agony when I came along. We got him to walk up to the road then waited until Katrin came to drive him to hospital. Dislocated elbow, finger and torn tendons in hand and finger it turned out. 
Anthea and I were the only girls and we cut off the point to be caught by boys at Luna Park. Ran on through McMahons Pt, around Balls Head (where Undy cut his face) and Berry Is through Gore Creek Res up into Osborne Park through golf course, down to Tambourine Bay where Anthea left us, through Iggies, across Burns Bay Rd where Lorenzo left us then into Blackman Park and around to Planet Shell for Maccas stop. Prong left us here and I just went on a km more to the nearest point to home and walked the 400m home, leaving 5 runners left. It was probably my longest ever run - 34km. In the end only Mounty made it for all 200 controls and 50km.
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Running the 2011 SLWC
Saturday, 22 January 2011
Thirty or so keen orienteers took part in the so-called "Super Long World Champs" or SLWC today. I was out there for 4 hours, or 2 hours 40 minutes in running time, and it's a long time since I've run that far - 23km in the end. A group of hardcore guys plus my friend Jenny who came up from Adelaide, ran all the hundreds of controls and all the 35km from Roseville to Balls Head and the ten orienteering maps. Us other ladies didn't so much run on all the maps or to all the controls or take part in the pointscore system. We more enjoyed the scenery and each other's company. We went through some nice bushland strips finishing at Balls Head. A couple of the hubbies and kids meet us along the way providing moral support and lemon cordial and my family supported us at the end by cooking up some snags on the BBQ to share around.
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Xmas 5 Days
Friday, 31 December 2010
We took the New England Highway up to Armidale for the 5 days, going through a bit of floodwater in Tamworth. The orienteering was great. The terrain was different every day. The forest wasn't as we normally know being so boggy underfoot. We were really lucky with the weather - the only week in many up that way when there wasn't rain.
Tiia and Jamie orienteered with Nea on the first few days, "helped" at the cake shop on the 4th day and took it over on the 5th! Like many other orienteers we stayed in the Pembroke caravan park. It was fun for the kids especially to hang in the pool after races and hang out with buddies.
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Back at Olympic Park
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
We seem to be spending a lot of time at Olympic Park at the moment. In fact it will be four weekends in a row. The day after Tiia’s party, Malin and I ran there to see Grant & Shannon and a bunch of other orienteers run in the Run for Fun. Shannon was 4th woman (and would have been $500 richer if she was 3rd) and Grant was proud to be the second finisher wearing a T-shirt (rather than running singlet) and managed a 33-something minute 10km. It took 80 min for us to run the 14km there and for future reference for weekend runs, Malin’s GPS watch ticked over 60min and 10km exactly as we passed IKEA. 
The weekend before, we raced there in the Big Foot Sprint (and I ended up in a sprint finish with Paul and Lisa Grant, with all three of us on the ground fighting to punch the control Paul knocked over)!
Before heading to campout this weekend just gone, I also came to Olympic Park to be trained as an orienteering coach in the Active After Schools program. Dad, Malin, Marina and Mary were all at the training course and may join forces to deliver orienteering at some Sydney schools next year.
This week I returned to track training at Rotary Athletics field at just the right/ wrong(?) time. After a nearly three year absence from John Atterton's squad and UTS Norths, I have been be roped into running for a 1500m for them at the NSW Relays at Olympic Park next weekend.
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Canberra for the Weekend
Monday, 25 October 2010
We went down to Canberra for Dave Searle's 40th birthday. It was a great night with the orienteering gang. We are very happy that Dave and Stace are expecting a baby. Jase and Stace did his usual funny speech and Stace too. I was proud when she pointed out that my sharing a flat with Dave ten years ago helped to get Dave and Stace together:) Stacey and I were training partners.
Malin and I took a bus down on Friday night and stayed at Grant & Shannon's new house, which is very swish. The four of us ran in the Mt Majura Vineyard 3 Peaks race, though Malin and I just took the one peak option. I managed to be first female after being 2nd up Mt Majura but passing and gaining heaps of distance in the downhill to another mum of 3 kids called Emma. She slowly reined that distance in over the rest of the course and ended up only 6 seconds behind me in the end. Malin was 4th and Grant and Shannon won the 3 Peaks (26km). We had an obligatory Cafe stop on the way back to their place and then had the rare luxury of lying on the sofa watching a movie until Paul turned up with the kids. 
Paul and I took Malin and Kari to Parliament House and the Art Gallery, while Grant and Shannon minded Jamie and Tiia. Then Malin did a fine job of getting all kids to sleep during the 40th.
On the Sunday our family went to Questacon and to the Plunkett-Prosser House before driving back to Sydney. Meanwhile Grant and Shannon took Malin on the Sunday-long-run-then-cafe-breakfast Canberra tradition and to The Runners Shop and DFO (Direct Factory Outlet) before sending her on her way back to us by coach.
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Back with the boys at Aust Champs
Monday, 4 October 2010
We reunited with our boys at the airport and I got a nice running cuddle from Kari, who had probably just given up on ever seeing his mum again. Poor sausage had been crawling down to the front door on the first 2 nights crying “mummy, mummy”. Mind you, on the fourth night he managed to do the unprecedented and sleep all night in his bed – which is now in Tiia and Jamie’s room.
To keep the big boy happy we headed straight to IKEA for breakfast, then I wanted to show them the Belair National Park, so we went back there and also to the koala spotting loco (we just saw 2 that day). We had fish and chips for dinner at Grange Beach.
On the Friday it was the Aust Sprint Champs, and we didn’t do anything special there. 10th place, I think. I can’t sprint unless I do my intervals. We set the string course that Tiia and I had made during the week. We headed to a pool near our hotel that afternoon, which was good fun but Jamie has been sick and coughing ever since. We headed to the Barossa Valley the next day for the main race – the Australian Long Champs. I came 6th, as I seem to come in most Nationals at the moment. Paul was 2nd in M40s. The next day's Relays were miles away over the Adelaide Hills in more desert-like spur gully terrain. We ran, said our farewells, then drove back into town for an IKEA dinner before flying home. We're not addicted really, it's just that it's next to the airport.
Pascal came for a visit the next day - a public holiday Monday thankfully. This was especially appreciated since we had nothing in the fridge and he brought lunch.
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Girl Time in Adelaide
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
It's school holidays and Tiia have had the chance to have 5 days of girl time in Adelaide - heading down for an orienteering carnival, before the boys would join us for the main weekend of races. Paul stayed in Sydney to work and wean Kari, with him and Jamie being cared by Possums' Corner during the day. I raced in the Australian Middle Champs (coming 6th) and Tiia did too – I shadowed her and her friend Brooke Stansfield, Jean and Basil Baldwin’s grand daughter. Tiia refused to actually look at the map, and she damaged my SI stick, but there was some good terrain running efforts by the girls who would race each once in sight of each control. The next day I ran in the SA Long Champs and came third, which I was pretty happy with.
We stayed the first few nights at Jenny Casanova’s in Daw Park and hitched rides with Blair who stayed there too. Tiia drove Jenny nuts by taking over her stereo with Michael Jackson music, but otherwise it went well. We went into Norwood on the Saturday night to see Bridget Anderson’s paintings in a youth arts exhibition and had dinner out with a bunch of orienteers. Tiia and I caught a bus into town on Monday and caught up with mum. Jenny organised a pizza party that night where we got to catch up with Susanne Casanova and meet Jenny’s rogaine partner Zara and her family. It was a fun night and Tiia performed to Thriller at the end.
The next day Mum and Dad picked us up and we drove to Belair National Park to catch up with Cathy, Zali and Jett. We walked around a little lake then up to the adventure playground. I managed a run from there. A very nice forest and it looks beautiful there at the moment as there had been so much rain. All the grass on the forest floor looked so green and there were flowers all through it. Cathy had some inside knowledge from her Adelaide cousin, who knew where you could spot koalas. So we headed on to Mitcham Park and were not disappointed, spotting three.
The next couple of nights Tiia and I joined mum and dad at their hotel in Melbourne St, North Adelaide. We ate out on the street, visited playgrounds and Tiia and I caught up with Heather & co on the Wednesday. We met her and her 3 girls plus a friend of Francesca’s at the zoo and impressively Heather got there by bike. Her surprise 40th birthday present was a “Christiana” bike. She transported 1 on the back and 3 in the front, including her 10-month old baby in a child’s car-seat, and the stroller she used inside the zoo!
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NSW Champs
Thursday, 16 September 2010
It was the NSW Champs on the weekend, just past Lithgow. I wasn't too well and ran ordinarily on Saturday (came 4th) and didn't run on Sunday because of sinus-headaches, so it was Paul's job to fly the family flag. He did that well with a first in the Middle Distance and 2nd in the Long in the M40s. For me the best part of the trip was staying at a Farmhouse near Hartley, and also dropping in on the Freemans in Blackheath on the way home.
At the farmhouse we stayed with our family, Mum and Dad and the Iskhakov family from Russia. I met Marina Iskhakova just before WOC 2001 in Finland, and her husband Fedor is doing a post-doctorate at a the University of Technology, Sydney. With their 14-month old daughter they are here for 3 years. It was nice to share a place with them and chat and watch the kids interact. Kari was most excited about having another "gaga" (baby) around.
As for the Freemans, we hadn't seen their new place in Blackheath before. It is a gorgeous cottage with an beautiful English country-style extension out the back, and the garden is huge and full of potential. Vanessa is preferring gardening to orienteering at the moment, so we are looking forward to seeing how it will develop.
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The World Masters
Friday, 6 August 2010
I wasn't convinced that I would, but I had the most fabulous week running World Masters. There were lots of people I knew and used from racing a lot in Europe, parents of friends I'd stayed with in Denmark, parents of a family I’d nannied for in Finland, etc. It was really nice to see where life has taken friends, who I often last knew as students, and meet their kids and partners. We had our Big Foot flag where we would tee up with the extended Simpson family and also the Keys and the Jorgensens. The kids would amuse themselves dancing to music, drawing building cubbies, doing kids courses, etc. Some were also booked into the creche, but ours weren't as Kari is too young.
As for the orienteering, the races were a lot of fun - Sprints in the town of Neuchatel and La Chaux Fonds, and Long races in an unusually flat area for Switzerland and in a very technical area that was used for the WOC Relay in '81. I navigated well and ended up 12th in Sprint (6 sec out of the top ten) and then 8th in the Long. Stix was happy to make the A-final in the Long and come 60th. I really enjoyed the camaraderie there. We would hang out at the finish line after our finals races and chat and check all our times to see where we might place. It was an eye-opener running part of the Long final with Hanna Palm, who was 2nd on the day and had won W35s at O-ringen. She would tear down the rockiest slopes and wouldn't even slow down to punch a control and plan her way to the next one....I remember orienteering like that! I sprained an ankle trying to keep up.
We were crossing borders daily (not once being stopped) and staying at a caravan park on Lake Saint-Point in France with the Keys. The town was called Malbuisson, recommended by Eddie Wymer who live a 1.5 hours drive away (for now). The Keys and our cabins were side to side and the kids loved mucking in together and enjoying the campsites facilities and activities like waterslides and a disco under a bubble machine!
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Dubbo
Thursday, 17 June 2010
We spent the Queens Birthday long weekend orienteering in Dubbo - there was a Saturday afternoon "sprint", that was more of a plod for me, with my legs not having recovered from the weekend before's 15km Great NOSH footrace (which I won by the way) and possibly the 5-hour drive. Then we raced on the top granite JWOC 2007 maps for the next two days. Stix and I were on the same course and I have to admit a 2-1 defeat!
The highlight of the trip for the kids was the ride in and out of the event on the back on a ute (past the bogged cars!), the zoo and dinner with lots of Little Feet. The zoo was tiring after our 70-something min race but great fun. We hired bikes with Tiia pedalling on a trailer bike attached to mine, and Paul towing the boys in their buggy (He's more bike fit!).
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Racing around again near Cooma
Sunday, 11 April 2010
On Fri morning I flew, yes flew, to Canberra to set off to make it to that day's Sprint race near Cooma. I managed another solo weekend away to represent NSW in 3 National Leagues. The rest of the family were originally going to come, but pulled out as the McCombs were visiting, and the Swans were having a home game.
 I left nothing organised until the night before, but it all worked out. I'd never taken the 25 min flight to Canberra before. Jenny Casanova and Blair Trewin looked after me from there and I was lucky enough to stay at Blair's parent's holiday apartment in Jindabyne, that was very nice and had a great view of the lake. Dennis and Annette shouted us dinner and cooked for us too. A Danish orienteering friend Johan Fegar who I have known since we were juniors also got to stay. As we are now both veterans and have common friends we had a lot of gossip to catch up on. We also shared stories with Blair, his parents and the Casanova sisters who joined us on a sightsee up to Thredbo on the Saturday.
The races went quite respectably, though my lack of training showed a bit more than at Easter. The 5-hour drive back made for interesting orienteering discussions with Johan and Boris (an American-orienteer). Dare I say it, it was much more relaxing than the previous weekend's drive back on the Federal and Hume Highway with the kids.
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Easter Twenty10
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
We spent the Easter long weekend orienteering as we always do over Easter. The “Easter Twenty10” carnival was based in Canberra with races in the Defence Force Academy grounds, in Namadgi National Park, Kowen Forest and near Collector. We stayed at the Canberra Motor Village with half of Big Foot plus our ex-Big Foot friends. Most tented it though we stayed in the luxury of a cabin. We love how Easter brings lots of orienteers out of hibernation. Julie came along with her boys and big belly (bubs no 3. is on its way) and we even got to see Kirsty on Day 2. The kids loved mucking in together, doing the “Blue Sparks” kids activities at the events, playing at the Village playground, having Zali and Jett for sleepovers and of course eating lots Easter eggs. Our “night out” was a BBQ at Black Mountain Peninsula as an early dinner after Day 1 with a big Easter Egg Hunt for the kids. There was a great turn out.
I failed to go to 2 controls on the first day, which put me out of the competition, but otherwise I ran really well. Paul was happy to fight his way into the M40 placings on the last day. He has been training more than usual - riding his bike a lot to and from work a lot plus doing some runs home with Andy and his “secret training” (as 4th placed Scott Simson put it) has paid off.
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Camping and O'ing near Clandulla.
Monday, 15 March 2010
On the weekend we went orienteering near Clandulla (between Lithgow and Mudgee). They'd had the long distance World Masters races there last year in nice sandstone terrain. We camped with quite a few other orienteers at Dunns Swamp. A beautiful spot to camp among the rocks on the edge of the Wollemi National Park. It could be a bit nerve wracking when the kids are scaling the pagodas (sometimes with your camera - photo to follow). We managed a swim, and enjoyed our camp dinner then some campfire mingling. Our night's sleep went better than expected considering there was 5 of us in a 3-man tent.
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My weekend away in Vic
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
I had a fabulous weekend in Victoria on the weekend, sort of reliving old times as a budget-travelling independent elite orienteer. I left Stix with all the kids for the first time to go and race in the Eureka Challenge - 3 races in two days. 4 if you count the two relay legs. My races went better as they went, and I bagsed a win in the Mixed Relay thanks to being paired up with Australia's best male orienteer, Julian Dent. Still I had to run well enough to set him out not too long after Grant and Shannon who we ended up beating by 14 seconds.
I flew down after work on Friday with Ezy Meyer. We were well looked after, having dinner at Suse and Owen's on Friday night, even scoring a lift from the airport since Owen happened to be our flight. Blair joined us for dinner, drove us back to his apartment where we slept the night and then rode with him to and to Saturday’s race near Chewton. From there Jenny Casanova looked after me and we drove threw bucketing rain and hail to Hepburn where I bunked out in the SA's guesthouse 5 minutes away from Sunday's races. I thought that sounded better than being cramped into cabins miles away with the NSW team. I had a great afternoon with those quirky South Australians, chatting and playing get to know each other games and over cups of tea and lot of snacks. For dinner we headed to "The Old Macaroni Factory" in Daylesford - a beautiful old Italian restaurant run by the generations of the same family since the Goldrush Era. The night ended up quite an experience – we were gathered to hear the full history of the family and restaurant and then passed around songbooks for a group rendition of Amore. To share myself around further, I got a lift with Tony and Matthew Hill lift back to Melbourne airport after Sunday’s races.
Stix fared well with the kids and sent very reassuring picture messages of our smiling baby each morning. Now he is working on making Kari less of a mummy's boy, taking on the role of getting him to sleep each night.
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"Racing"in Canberra
Sunday, 17 May 2009
We spent the weekend in Canberra for some National League races. Apart from not being back to elite speed, the trouble with the trip was getting stuck in damn Sydney traffic getting there. We left at 4pm and got their at 9pm, forgotting our vows of how to generally approach weekends away - Either leave Sydney Friday lunch time or to set off after dinner and sleep over somewhere on the way. My legs were cramping from all the clutch changes through the traffic jams.
It was great to stay with the Prosser/ Plunkett-Coles who recently moved from Wollongong to snaffle some Green Jobs. Tiia skipped most of the orienteering preferring to hang out with Ivy and Roy - even getting to join in their soccer matches and see the kitchen gardens at their school. Jamie and Milla Key joint forces at the orienteering.
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