Meeting the terrain for JWOC in Wejherowo

It is nice that the team is here now. They had a bit of hectic travel but are mostly recovered from the flight now I think.

It was great having Simon to take Nick, Krystal and Jim out training the first few days in Wejherowo (veyherovo). Jim had a bit of advice too. Utilising the ridgetops. The Bliza hotel was comfy, looks old on outside but was nice inside. It was close to town and there were even fridges in the rooms which we dont have here at Hotel Victoria. We ate out at different places each night. The local dishes are interesting and food is quite cheap. We had pizza one night too. The Victoria is nice though. I am sharing with Kate and Laura. The food here is classy restaurant style. Cooked lunches and various soups and mains for dinner. All quite fine. We are buying water now as it the water in this hotel is a bit odd. Got a 6litre bottle pretty cheap.

We had the most summery day so far today. The forest is so nice. I feel like I am getting quite used to the terrain style now after almost a week training here. I have been to heaps of the training maps now. Most of the terrain is hilly spur gully style but you still have to be very accurate with compass to get exact direction. There are other training areas we have been to which are much more vague and flat. These maps give you a chance to make sure your navigation is on spot without tiring yourself out. I have been happy with my training so far.

A new bulletin was released today which is interesting. No spectator control for you guys in the forest events which is boring. The butterfly loop may be fun, girls have never had that before at JWOC. The idea is that we all have to be in a quarantine from 8.45am on the race days. This means a very long wait outside for the later starters. /-:

We tried out the hotel swimming pool this afternoon which was fun. Slide was soo slow. There is a steam room with ice and a sauna so we enjoyed swapping between the pool and hot rooms. (-: Even a cold shower afterwards which was nice.

The Australian and Japanese team are also at the Hotel Victoria now (-: Toby and Laura did their exams this afternoon with James watching. Bit strange. The permethrin works well I think. Havent had any ticks on me yet.

In Gdansk

Yay! Finally made it to Poland. Long wait in Munich airport then a short flight to Gdansk.

Flying in to Gdansk the region is typical european and looks quite similar to Denmark last year. Lots of fields for crops with patches of forest in between. I was lucky enough to sit next to mayor of Gydnia on the plane and he gave be a bit of info about the citys. The 3 cities have population of about 1million all together. And Gydnia is 50% forest which makes it nice for living. You can easily go in the forests after work etc, perfect. I found the bus to the main Gdansk station. We drove about 40min through suburbs with huge housing blocks and through some really open forest areas. Looks super open just like those photos we have seen. Didnt really believe it until I got here. Cant wait to run in it. Smooth rolling gullys and only leaf litter on the ground. Already identified what would be green, leafy srubs like in Denmark. Should be ok to run through just make sure to keep direction as lower vis.

From the station it was about 15min walk to Hostel Zappio. The buildings are really old and some amazing carvings and paintings. Also neat park areas in between. Amazing location for the hostel. Next door to a very old church, so much so that it is on a lean in one end! The hostel is a tall skinny building with spiral staircase and 5 levels! 50m from river and 200m from the Old Street where all the historic builings and archways are.

Went for a short 35min run through the town along the river, people fishing. Good quick way to see the place (-: on the other side of train tracks I found a patch on forested road to run up which was nice. Not so open here but it was nice. Good to run again after such long time travelling.

Tried traditional bogart? and potatoes for dinner in a cafe on the street with rugs for you to keep warm. Reasonable temp for shorts this morning but wasnt very warm in evening and very windy in places.

Off to find a train to Wejherowo (said Veherovo). Hopefully its not too hard. It is difficult in shops because I cant really communicate. Some places speak a little English but not much. Yay will be great to get to Wejherowo now.

On the way!

Exams all done. What a great feeling. All went pretty well although plenty of last minute study was used. Hopefully it will pay off though as I was pretty happy with them in general. Very similar to the previous years papers I had studied. Biochem and ecology were best. Didnt really like the management one. And soils was ok as well.

Finished Biochem at 5.30pm and then grabbed my gear and headed off to Auckland. Sad to say

goodbye to everyone but will see some of you soon. (-:

A long night on the plane but I managed to get maybe 5hrs of sleep, in short sections. Why do they try to serve dinner at 1am? Haha everyone just wanted to sleep.

Now I have 12 hours to wait in Hong Kong airport. Such a long time. But I have a shower and massage so its all good. Kankles building up! watch out everyone (-: 2XU tights and plane soxs supposed to help but they cant stop it. Looks nice outside here today. Not too hot even which is great. I have walked right around the airport terminal and it did actually take me most

of an hour which was great (-: (and not even

stopping at shops). Maybe Ill do another loop later. Would they think Im mad if I run (-: haha So it is a huge airport. Lots different planes too. Amazing location for a city. Huge apartment blocks like 40 stories high right below steep mountains, quite a contrast.

Really looking forward to getting to the forest in Poland. Half way there!

Can watch Jukola videos now. Such a cool race to do one day.

Closer and closer!

Heading to Poland this Saturday! I am ready to see what the terrain is really like now. Planning to spend the first few days in Wejherowo checking out the different types of green vegetation and comparing route choice options. Three more exams and then I can go! (-:

Australia NZ test match and SuperSeries finale, Queens Birthday Weekend

The Queens Birthday events provided an excellent opportunity for a intense technical final orienteering practise before leaving for Poland next week. The pressure was on running five events in three days in a large elite field including the team of Australians. Woodhill forest proved that it is always a challenge deserving respect.

Day 1 am. Telephone track.
Took a bit to get used to Woodhill again. Started off hesitantly, on compass bearing to #1. Almost ran too far north but distance judgement proved I was near so stopped and found it. This shaky start taught me to have more definate plan for following legs. Up till #5 I was quite smooth with good compass direction and super fast open pine forest to run through. I lost almost 6minutes on leg #6 by not being confident enough with compass. So when at 'attack point' I was not sure which way to go. Would have been helpful to go out to road and come back in. #7 was good but I lost confidence and focus when I saw the Australian who had passed me on leg 6, lost 3min here and was caught by Kate (NZ). !! What a shocker with 4min start intervals no one should be being caught. Ran with Kate, alternating the lead, for legs until spectator control. I made bad mistake with compass and misinterpretting detail near #19 and she got away. Frustrating! Suprised to catch her again at #22 by a few fast clean final legs. The top places were taken by Kate Belinda and Imogene. I came 4th. See http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/default.asp?page=table&databaseId=17404&categoryId=0

pm. The Auckland JWOCers organised an awesome sprint race around Massey Uni campus in Albany. An A5 double sided map ensured tight navigation was required for the short legs. I made this extra challenging for myself by forgetting my compass! The wooden walkways were also super slippery due to the drizzly rain. Never raced sprint without one. But it made me focus more and worked ok, care needed to make sure the regular square buildings correctly lined up. I won womens race in 15min closely followed by Belinda.

Day 2 am. Whites Line
I was aiming for a cleaner run today. There were 5 long legs for fast running. These were good for me. However again I was distracted by an Australian runner, this time one I had caught. I lost focus and was too hurried leaving #4. With lack of definate plan and only compass bearing I found myself confused and too far west for the control. Wasted too much time again thinking I was right, should have gone out to road to check earlier. http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/default.asp?page=table&databaseId=17416&categoryId=0

pm.
The Auckland JWOCers organised another special event, a 2 man relay on the most technical section of Mushroom Road map. Mass stert straight up 40m hill was a mission then a long way along hill tops to first control, split the starters up a little, but it was not until #4 that we really split up. I focused on maintaining close map contact and compass direction for the short legs rather than too much speed. This worked well. It required stoping often to check direction then firing over one or two ridges into control. (-: While it can feel like you are taking a long time to check nd you can sense others catching you it is actually only 2-3 seconds to check and this time is invested. You do not loose time checking and then doing it right, you loose time by not checking, running hard then being confused and just hoping to be near enough. I was suprised as it seemed to get quiet. I expected the others must be on separate splits, however when I reached the spectator control I was ahead! Contined this careful method for the next half and managed to stay ahead. Tagged on to Northerners and Pinestars team mate Tom for second leg Ross and came in a clos 2nd place.

Day 3.
Much better navigation today. Got speed control sorted. Recognising the detailed areas and stopping to invest time to be accurate when in these areas. Fast running on solid compass in between was possible. Leppin at half way may have helped me to maintain focus for the detailed final controls. I did not win all legs but no major mistakes means you can achieve much better. First womens elite in 57min.
http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/default.asp?page=table&databaseId=17434&categoryId=0

The points for the weekend were accumulated and NZ won over Australia. Look forward to the rematch in NSW, in October. Will be interesting to see who is in the teams as many of the NZers may be financially unavailable and have to stay in NZ for Uni study.

I also managed to retain the Super Series title for 2011. Well done to everyone for such a close season.