Those of you who know me only through orienteering (which is probably the majority of those reading this part of my blog) are probably under the impression that I only have one son.  In fact I have two sons and one daughter.  Bethany long ago got fed up with being dragged around the country - around the world - from orienteering event to orienteering event and has refused to have anything to do with it.  She'll be staying home with Grandma when the rest of the family tour the southern North Island these Christmas holidays.  David has just been uninterested but was presented with an ultimatum a couple of months ago: choose a sport to play this summer, you are not spending the whole time moping inside.  After some deliberation he decided that he would take up the offer of orienteering, probably more as the least worst option and certainly because it was the one that required the least effort to get organised.  Part of this agreement was that I would accompany him on a number of Summer Series courses and help him to gain skills and confidence before we set him loose in the forest at Oceania.  Hence the reason that there is a Course 3 map at the top of this blog post and not the Course 1 that you may have been expecting.

The weather has definitely been improving recently but the real sign that summer is approaching is always the first Summer Series event.  Traditionally (where tradition goes back at least two years, possibly more), the first event is held at Auckland Domain.  This map is of some significance to the orienteering community and mid 1970s version even features in the Alexander Turnbull Library's book of 80 important New Zealand maps.  Despite this long and proud history of using the Domain for orienteering, and even the fact that the Domain featured prominently in Auckland City's bid for the 2017 World Masters Games (which we won), the Council were less than helpful in giving permission for this event with final approval only coming through on the day itself and featuring the bizarre condition that we were not allowed to stick any controls in the ground but must lie them down instead.  This is apparently to avoid offending Maori sensibilities regarding items piercing the ground.  What made this restriction seem all the more ridiculous on the day was the fact that the event centre was in the Cricket Grandstand and in plain sight of multiple games of football, all of which had various advertising banners and club signs with pegs hammered into the ground.  The club is, of course, being responsible about this and several skilled and sensitive members are working with the Council to ensure that we comply with all their requirements while making sure that they understand our sport, the benefits that accrue from it and the practicalities of running it as a volunteer organisation.  I, on the other hand, as an ordinary club member who doesn't sit on the club's organising committee or have any other position of responsibility can call it as I see it.  And I don't like what I see.  The requirements the Council have chosen to inflict on us are bureaucratic, anachronistic and unneccesary.  They pay lip service to values of health, activity and increasing use of public parks but then act as if the parks are private sanctuaries that can only survive by keeping people out at all costs.  Here ends my rant; normal service is now resumed.

I was working in the City and at the end of the working day enjoyed the pleasant walk up through the Domain to the Grandstand where I met the rest of the family who had driven in.  Jonty took off on Course 1 while David and I headed to the start with a Course 3 map.  The idea was that he would navigate and I would tag along and ask him questions about what he was doing and give helpful suggestions like "orient your map" and "what feature are you looking for?".  Linda would also run Course 3, starting a few minutes after us.

From the start he strode off confidently in the correct direction, using the road on his left hand to make sure he knew where he was going.  We reached the pond quickly enough and David started looking around for the control.  It wasn't as obvious as it could have been as it was lying down on the grass rather than sticking up out of it but the delay in finding it was more about David's reading of the features in the circle.  However, it didn't fool him for long and we were soon striding around the pond to the second control.  We exited from that control in a great hurry as, glancing across the pond, we had seen Linda arriving in the vicinity of the first control and David was determined not to let Mummy catch up.

The third leg was one of the more difficult legs on this course but David coped with it admirably, simplifying his route choice by simply following the road around until he was very close to the control.  From here a longer leg headed down the hill to Control 4.  David got a little confused as to which path he should follow once he had crossed the road and an unexpected and unnecessary trip into the hospital grounds ensued but this error was soon spotted and he was back and heading down the correct path.  Once again, he navigated quickly to the control circle but then bumbled around a bit, crossing the water course several times, before finding the control. 

A steady stream of people in and out of Control 5 made the track into this control easy to find and then we had another more difficult leg.  We found the right entrance into the bush and the track network and at the first junction David wanted to go right but I corrected him and took us left.  Only, he had the map and I was going from memory and we'd entered the bush at the second more southerly entrance so he was right and I was wrong.  This mistake allowed Linda to get ahead of us but we then made good time to the location of Control 6.  Which wasn't there.  A number of other people were milling around looking lost so I retrieved the map from David and discovered that we were at the wrong track junction.  We ran another 100m along the track and found the control there.

Controls 7 and 8 were both located near the track that I walk along most lunchtimes.  Control 8 was out of sight of the track up a watercourse and Linda would later complain that it was difficult to find but David had no problems.  We exited the control up into the open and then took the slightly longer route choice of following the road and tracks to Control 9.  The pond in front of the control had been emptied for maintenance which changed the look of the area somewhat and there was no shortage of distinctive trees in the area but we found the control anyway.  By now David was feeling tired so we walked the next couple of legs.

We crossed the road and passed the Band Rotunda and found Control 10.  We now felt we were on the home stretch.  We chose to go around the right hand side of the Museum on our way to Control 11.  On the leg to the 12th control we passed a group of people doing some sort of organised fitness class (with, I noticed, a flag prominently inserted into the ground).  As we left the control they commenced a "bullrush" type run down the hill towards us.  We sped up quickly to avoid being run over although it turned out we were never in any danger as they stopped halfway down the hill and turned and sped back up it.  At least we were now jogging again and the sight of Linda jogging up the hill in front of us spurred us on even faster.  There was no need to pause for Control 13 at the top of the hill; we had been informed at the start that not only was this control not stuck in the ground, it was in fact completely absent.  Down the other side we went and sprinted off to the finish.

Results can be found on the Auckland Club website here.  You will notice that Linda just managed to pip David; that state of affairs may not last long!

Well, the Auckland Champs may have come and gone but the OY season was not quite over with one last race still to be run on the Kohekohe map just north of Waiuku.  Regular readers of this blog may recall that this map was used last year for the Auckland Middle Distance Champs and we drove out to the map wondering whether there had been extra mapping done in the last year or whether the courses would be shorter than normal - we didn't believe it was possible to set a 10km+ Red Long course here.  However it turned out that it was possible to set a long course, it just required a map change and three loops around the farm.

It was a fine morning as we drove out and the views were spectacular.  I let Jonty get the first start and intended following him out onto the course just a few minutes behind but by the time I had finished chatting to Linda, Wendy and Simona over 20 minutes had passed.  Never mind, I'd just have to run faster to try and make up some of the deficit.  The start was on the track at the edge of the forest block.  There is little to no undergrowth in this forest and the sand underfoot makes for great running.  The trees were now a year older and easier to run beneath making this a small but enjoyable block.  The first two controls were in the forest and it was easy to follow the terrain features to them.

The first big challenge came on the leg to the third control.  You'll notice that outside the small forest block the rest of the map is all open but is mapped in two different colours.  The bright orange indicates paddocks that are actively managed as farmland with cattle present in some of them and conditions underfoot firm and fast.  The more dull browny orange paddocks are not grazed and are covered in some kind of tussock grass that reaches above knee height and is impossible to run through.  The best strategy in this area is to find some sort of track heading in roughly the direction you want to go and stick to it.  The next best strategy is a continuous series of exagerrated leaps that will quickly wear you out but will eventually get you across the area.  The third leg included a long traverse, the first of seven in this area, across the tussock grass to the farmland beyond.  I crossed the fence on the forest boundary and quickly picked up the marked track heading south west.  I followed this down to where it intersected with the wandering fence and then cut across country from there to the farmland, taking the shortest route and minimising my distance in this terrain rather than aiming directly for the control.

The visibility was good on the leg from Control 3 to Control 4 and I was able to spy a number of controls in the distance and tentatively identify them as controls that I would visit in loops to come.  I completed this loop around the farmland through Controls 5 and 6 and then faced my second traverse of the tussock grass.  Again, I was able to make some use of the track in the middle of this area but this traverse was much longer and got less benefit from the track.  The energy required to cross this area was sapping my strength and there was still 24 controls to go!  An uphill crossing of a paddock well populated with cattle led to another smaller area of ungrazed paddock but Control 7 was just over a small hill and was easily found.

The first loop was completed with a control just inside the south western corner of the forest block but we didn't linger, instead heading straight off for the third traverse of the tussock.  This time there was to be no obvious track to follow and so I chose to aim for the fence in the middle of the area, thinking that there may be a well worn track in its vicinity.  It appeared a lot of people had this idea as I was in a positive crowd as we bashed our way through the tussock but we weren't leaving tracks behind and there was no sign of any that earlier starters may have created.  Eventually I found myself crossing the boundary fence back into the farm paddocks and the better running they provided.  The best line appeared to be to the right and I ran up the sand dune near Control 19 before cutting back left across the bigger sand drift to find the control.

From here I chose to avoid more tussock running by taking the track that ran along the northern boundary of the map.  This was a good plan but I spoiled it somewhat when I got to the old abandoned house marked on the map just below the contour interval information when I decided to leave the track and head right, contouring around to meet the vehicle track rather than following the track I was on down to it.  This saved me ten or fifteen metres of descent and climb but cost me a lot of time as I crossed back into a tussock area and had to fight rather than run across.  Once back on the vehicle track I followed it around to Control 10, nipped into the forest briefly to spike the control, and then returned to the track to run back up through the car park and start area on my way to Control 11.

This time around, there were three controls in the forest block with only Control 13 causing any problems - and even this was just a minor issue of running up the wrong side of a spur.  After this we faced a visit to the eastern tussock block, with four controls in this area.  Runnability in this area was somewhat better than in the western tussock block but this is relative and it was still difficult and energy sapping to cross.  Control 14 was at the bottom of a fairly large slope and, although it didn't come into view until the last minute, the contour features were clear enough to reassure me that I was going the right way throughout the leg.

From here another track made for good running in the direction of Control15 with the trick being to leave the track at the right spot to minimise the struggling through undergrowth and climbing of the sand dune between the track and the control.  I got this pretty much right; Jonty, not so much.  By now I was half way round the course, at least when you measure by controls.  The leg to Control 16 was probably one of the hardest, if not the hardest, legs on the course, physically.  It started with a long slog up the hill to the plateau at the top.  By crossing the fence on my left I was able to get into slightly easier terrain but with the sun beating down I was fairly tired by the time I got to the top.  A series of elephant tracks then tempted me across the plateau, each one fading out just as it was looking promising, only for another to appear a few metres ahead or to one side.  Eventually, they lead me out onto the open sandstone in the vicintiy of Control 16 and the control was found at the second attempt.  A last foray into the tussock around a small hill to Control 17 and then it was time to leave this patch of tussock behind and head off on a long leg back into the farmland on the far side of the map. 

I maximised my use of farmland by passing along the southern boundary of the forest block and then crossed the western tussock block using roughly the same route I had employed on the ninth leg.  This leg took longer than I would have liked due to my lack of energy by this stage of the race but Controls 18 and 19 came and went quickly as both had been spied at a distance on an earlier loop of this part of the farm.  I headed off to the map change, exchanging greetings with Allan as I passed him and hoping that the time he was reporting was either exaggerated or not indicative of the time I had left to run.  As I crossed the northern part of the tussock I passed within 20m of Jonty who was now well into his second map but, bizarrely, he didn't see me at all.

The map change at Control 20 coincided with a water drop and I took a long break here to rehydrate well and consider the last 10 controls still to come.

This last loop started with another two controls down the centre of the forest before taking us back into the tussock to Control 23, which was where I had seen Jonty earlier.  The control wasn't technically difficult but forcing my way through the tussock seemed to be the most physically exhausting yet.  From that control I returned to the track and followed it all the way down to its end, from where Control 24 could be found by sidling around the hillside.

This left four controls in the farm to find.  The first two were uphill most of the way but the contour features were clear and neither caused any problems.  I was following James into and out of Control 26 but he was well clear by the time I had navigated across to Control 27.  The leg to 28 was mostly downhill and I enjoyed one last burst of speed before the last tussock crossing back into the forest.  I was searching the map intently trying to identify some crossing of this area that might have previously escaped me but in the end decided that there wasn't any better way than the reverse of what I had done on legs nine and eighteen.  I was plodding along slowly but surely until the last small climb before the forest when suddenly first my right and then my left leg cramped up.  I was reduced to crawling for a while and was in absolute agony.  The fence into the forest eventually appeared and I crossed it with great relief knowing that the end was in sight.

By the time I had walked to Control 29 I had recovered somewhat and so I set off with renewed confidence to the last control.  i was pleased to be jogging again and I was navigating well, so I thought.  I got to what I thought was the vicinity of the control and, sure enough, saw a flag.  I ran up to it and was about to punch when I noticed that it was control number 34 and I was looking for control number 30.  I ran out to the track and relocated off the track bend.  Back to pesky number 34 again.  I looped around in the forest, keeping the obvious escarpment on my right and coming up a reentrant and over the spur to where 30 should be - once again, I found myself at control number 34.  Was it possible, I asked myself, that they had got the control number wrong?  As a last resort I glanced again at my control descriptions and the truth finally penetrated my consciousness - this was my 30th control but the control number was 34.  I had visited the correct control three times without realising it.  At least my faith in my navigation, even after over two hours of exhausting running, was restored.  All that remained was a short sharp sprint downhill to the finish.

And here the awful truth was revealed. My time was only one minute slower than Jonty and I had wasted at least twice that unneccesarily on the last control.  It would have been my first victory over him since February.

The results can be found on the Counties Manukau website here.  Winsplits are also available.

This was the last OY of the season for 2012.  I came second in M40 and Jonty won M18.  Other than Jonty, Auckland Club had to rely on the Greenwood family to provide us with champions with Jeff beating me in M40 and Matthew and Rebecca taking out M10 and W10 respectively.  The points table can be found on the AOA OY website here.

As we left the motel to head to the map for the Auckland Long Distance Champs, the weather was a carbon copy of the day before with rain making it a less than enjoyable drive.  Just like yesterday, it cleared up once we reached the map and, apart from a few drops, the walk up the farm track to the barn that served as an event centre was dry.  Jonty had an early start again while I hung around for nearly and hour before mine.

From the start we ran out of the stock pens along a sort of farm track to the start triangle.  This track was ankle deep in mud and, as a later starter, I didn't even have the option of running around it so I started the race with heavy, slippery muddy shoes. Once past the start triangle the farmland was surprisingly firm underfoot and the memories of mud were soon lost.  I took it fairly easy to the first control, trying to get in touch with the map without a lot of success initially so I ended up too high and had to descend once I saw the control in the middle distance.

The second and third controls were found by sidling along the hillside, enjoying the view of streams, waterfalls and patches of bush.  I got my height wrong on the third control as well, coming in too low this time.  I wasted a bit of time at the fourth control when I misread the control description as a stream junction instead of a vegetation boundary corner.  I nabigated to the circle easily and wasted some time looking at both stream junctions before rechecking my control descriptions and realising my mistake.  I glanced up through the bush on the far side of the stream and caught a glimpse of something orange.  Up the hillside I went and there was the control.  This was a totally avoidable mistake that probably cost me a couple of minutes.

From here we left the farmland behind and plunged into the forest.  I sidled around the hillside keeping the stream on my left and then used the track to descend to and across the stream.  From here it was a matter of following animal tracks just above the stream and keeping in touch with the map.  Ross caught me up and passed me on this section and I was able to speed up and follow in his footprints for a while, allowing his experience to pick the best routes and solid footfalls.  Approaching the last ridge before the control, Ross dashed off to the left to his control but by then I was only metres away and I strode confidently over the hill and spiked the control.  I was feeling pleased with myself for the speed I had been able to negotiate this control.  This feeling lasted about three seconds until Paul turned up.  I knew he had started at least six minutes after me so it was a bit discouraging to be caught this early in the race.  The discouragement faded as Ross arrived as well, his early dash to the left showing that even our top elites have minor brain fades from time to time.  I had already punched and was briefly examining the long leg I now faced; Ross showed me his - it looked about twice as long.

The long leg offered a classic left or right decision.  Heading to the left offered a track from the water drop up onto a ridge that could then be followed most of the way to the control while going right and climbing a spur would get me out onto the farmland and the options of cutting back into the forest where the boundary between farm and forest made a right hand turn or continuing on the farm a little further and making use of the track near Control 7.  I, along with most people, chose the ridge to the left and this appeared to be the quickest option although Dwayne went right and didn't lose as much time as I would have expected.  It was a fairly wet and muddy slog along the ridgeline but it was easy to navigate with a fence or track to follow most of the way.  The descent down the reentrant to Control 6 was longer than I was expecting and I lost a bit of time making sure that I didn't overshoot it.  I eventually saw it below me and descended down a little further. 

The route to Control 7 meant that I then had to reclimb back up to the track I had just left.  I made the climb in the company of Brent and Imogene with Brent being the fastest climber and getting about a 100m head start on the track running section.  The track was extremely muddy on the descent down towards the farmland and it was a relief to finally abandon it and head down the hillside in search of the control.  Brent was still just ahead of me and appeared to be running too far to the right.  I veered to the left and found the control in a litlle reentrant as Brent ran on unaware.

I sidled around the hillside, meeting the track where it entered the open and crossed back into the farmland.  The pond was an obvious feature and I crossed just below it and headed directly to the control.  The water stop here was greatly appreciated.  However, if you've studied the control descriptions on the map you'll notice that there was water at both the eighth and ninth controls.  I don't know whether this was what confused me but after a short pause to rehydrate well, I set off across the farmland towards the forest and Control 10.  It took me a couple of hundred metres to recognise that the ground din't match the map and then to realise that I'd only got to Control 8 not Control 9.  I stopped and returned back past Control 8, watching Brent run off ahead of me once more.  From the vicinity of the control I struck out for the road and headed up it 50 metres or so before figuring it wasn't worth the drop and subsequent regain of elevation just for the sake of a firmer running surface.  I headed back onto the farmland over the large spur and descended into Control 9 just as Dwayne was climbing out of it.

Dwayne followed the stream down to the forest boundary but I chose the more direct route down the spur, frighteniing a flock of turkeys en route by shouting "Christmas is coming" at them, arriving at the fence into the forest slightly before him.  This leg then was a repeat of the leg to the fifth control with a succession of animal tracks allowing fairly brisk progress along the side of the stream.  Counting the side streams it was then a fairly arduous climb up towards the control with the vegetation getting thicker all the time.  I wasn't entirely confident about picking the correct watercourse as I neared the control so I ascended the spur between the two I thought most likely and descended into the stream once I spotted the control.  As I headed off towards Control 11 I crossed paths with Dwayne who must have had similar problems with watercourse picking and was one further over again.

I was now virtually on the home stretch but I still had a couple of fairly major hills in front of me.  From Control 11 I ran slightly to the left of the direct route intending to try and climb out of the stream on the one spur that was mapped as white rather than green stripe.  However, as I neared the stream bed it became obvious that there was no easy route up the opposite hillside so, picking a line that seemed somewhat less impossible than most, I attacked the hill directly and spent quite a bit of time pulling myself up to the ridgeline.  Reaching the ridgeline I used the track to gain some more height and the vegetation boundaries to locate myself exactly and then enjoyed the fast running descent of the far hillside.  I didn't get my angles quite right and ran too far to the right, missing the control and having to relocate off the dark green overgrown marsh behind it.

The leg to the last control offered a route choice and I ran confidently off on what would turn out to be the wrong choice.  The best route in retrospect was to follow the stream counting off the side streams before ascending the obvious spur to the control.  Instead I ascended immediately aiming to get above the side streams and sidle across to the control.  I ended up crossing a couple of these valleys and they were the steepest and slowest terrain I'd faced in this race - although they didn't seem to bother Marquita who ran past me and quickly disappeared out of sight ahead.  Eventually, however, I was out of them and sidling around to the control with the very obvious finish banner providing an obvious reference to my left.  A short zip up an elephant track and I was finished.  It had been a very enjoyable race through several completely different types of terrain and, while it was physically demanding as you would expect from a Long Distance event, it wasn't so demanding that I ran out of energy and enthusiasm early on.

The results of this race can be found on the event website here.  Winsplits are also available as is Route Gadget.  Don't forget to check out Dwayne and Linda's Picasa album for photos.

Auckland Club members who placed in the top three in this event were:

M10A Matthew 1st
M12A Ben 3rd
M16A Tommy 3rd
M20A Kieran 2nd
M21AS Roger 1st
M21B Sam 2nd
M40A Jeff 1st
W10A Rebecca 1st
W12A Lucy 1st, Tessa 3rd
W14A Hayley 1st, Anna P 3rd - well done, Hayley, all three titles this weekend!
W21AS Alina 1st
W40A Vanessa 3rd
W40AS Iryna 2nd
W60A Joanna 2nd

After the Middle Distance Champs in the morning we drove back to Whangarei and stopped at the first Hot Bread Shop we found to enjoy a pleasant, if somewhat expensive by Auckland standards, lunch.  Then it was back up the road a kilometre or so to Barge Park, the venue for the Auckland Sprint Champs.  I have to say that I had been a bit doubtful about using Barge Park.  An old map had been put up on the event website and at first glance it didn't strike me as particularly suitable for a sprint event.  Matters weren't helped by Allan, who was controlling this event, making regular trips up north to keep an eye on preparations and returning with less than ideal reports about the map and mapping.  Of course, Allan being Allan, it was entirely possible that he was having us all on. We were about to find out.

After the dodgy weather this morning, the skies had cleared up and it was a wonderful hot day.  Jonty had an early start - actually he was in the first set of people to be sent away - while I was not heading off until nearly an hour later so I walked up to the start with him and saw him safely off up the hill and into the scattered trees.  The walk to the start had been advertised as 10 minutes but was actually only about three minutes.  A leisurely stroll back  therefore saw me at the finish ages before Jonty or anyone else was even close to finishing.  From the top of the small hill where the finish was located we could see across the valley and a small group of us kept our eyes open for runners on the far slope; mostly without success.  Eventually we spotted people running on the far side of the field and then, much later than we had expected, Jeff burst into view near the marsh at the bottom of the hill and then ran up the hill to be the first finisher for the event.  Jonty was next, going to a different last control from Jeff, and then the other M20A runners finished over the next few minutes.  I tried not to overhear too much of what they were saying so as not to spoil my run but I couldn't help hearing that all four of them agreed that the mapping in one section of the map was a bit dodgy.

More finishers started arriving and soon it was time for me to get ready and head back to the start.  I was starting late; not the last starter but within five minutes of them.  I warmed up in the paddock below the start and was ready to go when my name was called.  The actual start was just inside the scattered trees to the east of the start triangle and the tape roughly followed the fence up to the triangle.  As I ran up the hill I gave the overall map a quick glance and then concentrated on the first couple of legs.  From the start triangle there was a short first leg that just required going the correct way around the first building.  I got that right and then weaved my way through a few more small buildings to Controls 2 and 3.

The fourth leg was a longer leg and involved crossing both of the railway tracks that Barge Park is known for.  One is a small gauge model railway while the other is standard gauge but is only a display track and isn't connected to the main line.  We had been assured neither track had trains running today.  Getting over the tracks themselves was not an issue but the surrounding areas had been extensively landscaped to cater for the tracks and I found myself descending a retaining wall that, under normal circumstances, I would have preferred to walk around.  From the bottom of the wall, I ran along the side of the buildings to the end, then around them and into the control.

Apart from the railway tracks, Barge Park is also known for its old unmortared stone walls.  There was a prime example of this on my way to Control 5.  There was an obvious crossing point and over I went, with a few stones wobbling beneath me.  Across the watercourse and up the other side and I came back out of the bush right in front of the control.  Confident now, I immediately headed off at 90 degrees to my intended route, heading north instead of west.  I knew I was wrong when the building went past my left hand rather than my right and ran around the building to get back on track.  I entered the forest just before the small building and used a brief glimpse of Control 7 on my right to confirm my position as I headed across the track and up the hill towards Control 6.  I was beginning to regret my decision not to carry a compass but the broken stone wall came into sight and I navigated quickly to the control.  Back down the hill to where Control 7 had been when I had last seen it - somehow I was 20 or 30m off - and then I ran the track through the forest out into the open.  Over the conveniently placed stile and up the hill leaving the first set of buildings to my right and then it was down the small path and onto the paved area with Control 8 visible ahead.

I noted the long building blocking the direct route to Control 9 and chose to run right, following the track past Control 3 and then crossing the railway tracks again.  I ran to the north of the buildings and ran along the reasonably muddy grass until I came to the open hillside where I could descend to the control.  From here I suspect I made a sub-optimal route choice.  I crossed the stone wall and contoured across to the next stone wall and the forested area beyond.  I suspect that I would have been better to run up the path to where I had crossed on the fifth leg, thus doing all my climb on a paved track.  Splits seem to suggest that this was not a fatal error.  However, I did struggle to gain height quickly once I emerged into the cow paddock on the far side of the forest.  It was also difficult to know exactly where on the ridge to aim for although a sight of Dwayne crossing the fence heading away from the control gave me an indication of the route out of the control and this helped.

My route to Control 11 took me down the tracks past Control 13.  There was a bit of long grass to slow me down as I headed into the control and then the entire leg to Control 12 was similarly blessed with knee high vegetation.  This is where the advantages of starting late came into play.  It was easy enough to run straight down the elephant track that fifty odd earlier starters on my course had carved out of the undergrowth.

If you look very carefully at the southern vegetation boundary to the east of Control 12 you may notice, if you use a magnifying glass and a little imagination, that there is a track marked leading to a crossing of the stream.  My initial plan had been to cross the stream directly but as soon as I was out in the open it was obvious that this would only be accomplished by swimming and my desire to do well in this event was great but not that great.  Luckily, the aforementioned track was also obvious and, as I ran along it, the crossing hove into view as well.  This was good news and I ran up the hill to Control 13 knowing that I had a long field run to come.  

I'd been running flat out for around 2km now and normally my enthusiasm would drop somewhat on a long, flat, straight leg like this and take my speed with it.  This, however, was different.  There, 100m ahead of me running flat out, was Dwayne.  Well, this was a challenge I couldn't resist.  I stuck my head down, marshalled all my remaining reserves and set off in pursuit.  Across the field we went, through the gate and along the tracks, reaching the final control by the pond with me now only ten metres behind him.  We punched and  headed up the hill.  The finish was visible at the top of the hill but it took Dwayne a few seconds to spot it, seconds during which he was heading in slightly the wrong direction.  This allowed me to catch up another couple of metres and then it was a drag race to the top.  Near the beginning of this account I mentioned being at the finish and referred to this leg as a "small hill".  Running up it I changed my mind; it was longer and steeper than it had appeared from above.  Slowly I drew level with Dwayne and then pulled ahead, punching the finish an entire second before him.  We both collapsed on the ground from exhaustion.  It had been worth it though, the duel with Dwayne had pulled me up into third place, a very respectable finish after this morning's disaster.

The results of this race can be found on the event website here.  Winsplits are also available as is Route Gadget.  Don't forget to check out Dwayne and Linda's Picasa album for photos.

Auckland Club members who placed in the top three in this event were:

M10 Hayden 1st, Matthew 2nd
M12 Patrick 1st, Ben 3rd
M20 Jonty 2nd
M21A Roger 3rd
M40 Steve 3rd
M60 Tom 2nd
W10 Anna 1st, Rebecca 3rd
W12 Tessa 2nd, Lucy 3rd
W14 Hayley 1st, Anna P 2nd, Anna C 3rd - a clean sweep of all three placings for AOC!
W21A Alina 1st
W50 Annette 2nd
W60 Joanna 2nd, Jill 3rd

Well done, everyone.

So this was something new - the Auckland Champs not actually in Auckland!  It was North West's turn to host the Champs and they decided to hold them on new maps near Whangarei as part of their efforts to encourage and develop the Whangarei Orienteering Club that has been fairly dormant these last few years.  Predictably, numbers were down a bit on last year but it was a good plan, good execution and full credit to North West for doing it.

Having written that last sentence I figured I had better do a bit of research and back it up.  This turned out to be harder than it sounds as the website set up for last year's event has disappeared into the ether somewhere in the last twelve months but luckily the splits still exist on WinSplits.  From that I can see that last year there were 189 entries in the Long Distance; this year 169.  So numbers were actually only down about 10%.

Roger, Jonty and I car pooled up on Saturday morning.  The weather forecast had been bleak but it didn't actually start raining until we neared Whangarei.  When it did start raining, it poured.  The temperature dropped as well and we pulled into the event centre discussing what cold and wet weather gear we had brought with us.  In my case the answer was none.  This was a bit of a concern as my start time was fast approaching while Roger and Jonty both had a good 45 minutes up their sleeves.  I got changed in the back of the van and, as I did so, the rain stopped.  By the time I had got all my gear on and ventured outside there was even blue sky to be seen.  I set off at a jog for the start - I wasn't late but I didn't have a huge amount of time to spare.  The track up to the start was wet and muddy, a sign of things to come.

Of the three disciplines we would be contesting this weekend I felt I was likely to do best in the Sprint with the Middle close behind but the Long trailing well back.  I warmed up as best I could, turned on the GPS on my watch and waited for my start.  As it happens the GPS didn't get a lock onto sufficient satellites until the fifth control so there is no Quick Route track for you to enjoy on the map above.

As I ran to the start triangle I examined the map.  I already knew that there were only nine controls and so, with an average distance of nearly 300m per leg, this was not going to be a stereotypical Middle Distance.  Two things jumped out at me as I headed up the track, contours and green stripe.  This was going to be an interesting race.

Luckily we had a short leg to start with.  Unluckily I stuffed it up completely.  I knew I had to exit the clearing by the start triangle on its long side and climb to the left.  This seemed so obvious that, although I took a compass bearing, I didn't bother to check it as I turned the track corner at the triangle and headed up into the forest.  Yes, I had headed off at 90 degrees.  Maybe the clearing was not as rectangular as it seemed, maybe it was but I refused to recognise it, either way I could have saved myself several minutes if I'd bothered to glance at my compass at that point.  But I didn't and I ran up the hill full of enthusiasm.  Soon the open land ahead came into sight but the control didn't.  At this point I looked at my compass and realised something was very very wrong.  It still took me ten or fifteen seconds before I was prepared to accept what I had done.  At this point I turned and ran parallel to the fence in the direction of Control 1.  I was too high, however, and managed to run above the control without spotting it in the bracken.  Again, I knew something was wrong as the anomalous bit of forest on the far side of the fence came and went.  Back I went, down the hill a bit and there was the control.  I had taken over four minutes for this leg and had probably lost two and a half minutes already.

I settled down a lot on the next two legs.  The second leg was a nice sidle on a bearing, using the pond as an attack point to locate the control.  The third leg involved a long slog up the hill and, although I probably ended up climbing too high on the direct route when a route slightly to the left with less climb would have been preferable, I don't think I lost too much time.  Back up the hill again and then another long sidle, this time with the intention of picking up the track along and down the hill on my way to Control 4.  I did find the track in the end but far later than I had expected and just at the point where it veered right and I headed down the hill to the left and the control.

I made my second major error on the leg from 4 to 5.  If you look at the map you will notice a lovely route choice up the eastern side of the pond, along a track to the open and then up the stream to Control 5 - a route that involves minimal climb.  I noticed this route, yes, but only when I was high above it having rounded the south western end of the pond and climbed the spur behind it.  I could have kicked myself for not noticing it earlier although later the splits would show that there wasn't as much difference between the two options as you would have thought.

A quick sidle around the hillside found Control 6 easily although a number of people, notably Dwayne and Brent, had difficulty on this leg through getting on the wrong side of the patch of green early on.  The leg to Control 7 was long and included another couple of climbs but again the presence of a pond allowed me to locate exactly and if my counting of the reentrants above the pond wasn't perfect, it was at least good enough to allow me to locate the control quickly.

The last long leg of the race remained.  Once again I was destined to stuff this up completely although not as completely, it must be said, as Jeff and Paul.  That would be no comfort, however.  My plan was good.  I would climb out of the control onto the ridge and follow it in an easterly direction.  There was an area a couple of hundred metres before Control 8 where I would need to be careful that I went the correct way where the ridge split but even if I got that wrong it should be recoverable.  Off I went up onto the ridge and, taking advantage of the good running conditions, along and down it.  Down it?  The ridge undulated, sure, but it shouldn't descend that far.  And what was that clearing coming up ahead of me?  There shouldn't be a clearing on this route.  As I got closer I could see that the clearing had a pond at the far end.  Yep, another 90 degree error and I had descended the spur to the north rather than the heading east along the ridge.  Luckily there was a ready made alternative available to me - I would run up the side of the pond to the road (like I should have done on the leg to Control 5) and then run down the road to the vicinity of Control 8.  I couldn't even get that right.  I ran up the northern side of the pond, dodging in and out of reentrants, using cattle tracks that climbed and dipped, all the while admiring the view of the flat, gently sloping, fast running forest that I could see on the southern shore.  Eventually I reached the end of the pond.  A traverse of the flats to the road involved ankle deep mud all the way but soon I was onto the road and I was able to pick up a bit of speed.  I located the stream leading up to the control and clambered my way up the spur behind it.  The control was higher than I was expecting and was out of sight until the last minute but I was confident I was in the right stream and continued to climb until I saw it.

I sidled around and down to Control 9 and then sped to the finish, encouraged on by a crowd who had gathered to enjoy the spectacle of orienteers negotiating a final ditch just before the end - a ditch that many a runner would trip headfirst into in their enthusiasm to reach the finish.  I ended up finishing in tenth place, a miserable result compared to my hopes before the race but I consoled myself with the thought that it had been a good warmup for the Sprint this afternoon.

Results can be found on the event website here.  Winsplits are also available.  A good set of photos courtesy of Linda and Dwayne can be found on their Picasa site.

Placings for Auckland Club members were:
M10 Matthew 1st, Hayden 2nd
M12 Ben 1st
M20 Jonty 2nd, Kieran 3rd
M21AS Roger 1st
M21B Stephen 1st
M60 Alistair 1st, Tom 3rd
W10 Rebecca 2nd
W12 Tessa 2nd, Lucy 3rd
W14 Hayley 1st, Anna 3rd
W21AS Alina 1st
W21B Karen 3rd
W21C Jill 2nd
W50 Annette 3rd
W60 Joanna 1st

Congratulations to all of you!

A week before this event I had been as sick as a dog, suffering from my annual bout of man-flu.  That was a week in the past but I hadn't had a lot of time to recover and had only been jogging twice in the last ten days or so.  I was tempted to drop down a course and run Red 2 for a change but in the end I figured that as I was staying on to help with pack up afterwards, I was under no time pressure and so I should just jog or stroll for as long as I could and be prepared to DNF if necessary.

Jonty got started first as it was obvious that he would be much faster than me today (actually I haven't beaten him since February so he would have been faster even if I was well prepared for the event).  The first control was a delight, a nice simple short leg to get us into the map and provide encouragement with fast running forest.  The second control was similar with just one crucial difference: it was uphill.  Count those contours, ten of them, 25m of climb on a leg less than 300m long.  I managed to jog the first half of the leg but as I wasn't racing today I was happy to walk for the second half.

Despite my slower pace, I still managed to stuff up Control 3.  I followed the small track north west to the bigger track and discovered that, although not mapped, it continued on the other side.  As it was heading down in the direction I wanted to go, I followed it all the way down to the major depression just before the control.  I left the track and headed down on to the small ridge on the far side of the depression.  Easy from there, huh? Just turn right and there it is.  I turned left (no, I don't know why).  I continued to follow the ridge along the south of the depression and eventually the start area came into sight.  This shouted out to me that something was wrong.  I ground to a halt, looked at my map and saw quite clearly what I had done.  I swung around 180 degrees and ran straight to where the control had been all along, a few metres beyond where I had been originally.

The next leg was the first of several longer legs on the course.  I made my way through the green stripe north of Mushroom Rd making use of the network of small tracks.  From the road I set my compass and ran through to the open ground.  This was slowish as there were a lot of cuttings on the ground but it was still runnable.  As I descended to Inland Rd, I was the track ahead and to my right so I diverted down to it to take advantage of the quicker running.  The track bend just before the small clearing made a great attack point.  Does that small clearing look familiar to you?  It did to me.  This was the area that I lost nearly half an hour in two or three OYs ago as I made mistake after mistake.  I knew from that experience that the small ridge on my right would lead me straight into the control so I navigated confidently into the circle, and out the other side, and 100m or more beyond it without once spotting the control.  Not again!  I eventually reached the small track that was nicely placed as a catching feature.  I circled around anti-clockwise and approached the small ridge again, this time from the back.  As I ran over the ridge I identified the clearing, adjusted my angle and ran straight to the control.  It was between a couple of knolls and I had run to the east of the controls and missed it by around five metres the first time round.  One day I'll have a leg in this area of forest and have a perfect run.  One day.

With this, I set my compass again and headed north towards Control 5.  I drifted a bit to the left as I ran and after several hundred metres I could see Restall Rd on my left.  I ran to it and made the most of the easier running conditions and made sure to positively identify the clearing with the water tank (actually a common or garden variety bathtub) after my problems with mis-identifying these clearings a few months earlier and then ran the track until very close to the control.  Jonty had trouble finding this control but I ran straight to it although I did think it was closer to the track than it appeared on the map.

Control 6 was a nice, short, straightforward leg which of course took me three attempts to get right.  I missed the clearing the first time and mucked around up on the ridge for a while before spotting that I was near the track.  I headed back down and passed the clearing on my left, turning right immediately but not spotting the control.  I returned to the clearing and ran in again and this time the control behaved itself and appeared in between the knoll and the small hill.  On the leg to the seventh control I mainly followed the tracks although I was aware that this hadn't worked too well for me in this area a few weeks ago.  This time, however, I knew which tracks I was on and didn't get confused with similar tracks elsewhere.  I found the control without problems.

Another reasonably long leg followed.  My time on this leg was not award winning but, rather than being the result of navigational errors, it was due to me taking my time once in the sand dunes to identify the spur leading into the control and walking, rather than running, down it.  My confidence in my ability to read the map in this area of the dunes restored, I then had a much better run to Control 9 although I still managed to pass it on my right and had to double back.  I knew what was happening as it was happening so I only lost a bit of time to extra distance and none to scratching my head.

With the potentially difficult controls in the sand dunes behind me, I followed the finger of open, and the animal tracks down it, into the forest.  I crossed Coast Rd and located Control 10 easily.  Now came the longest leg of the race.  I set my compass and ran straight through the forest, reaching Inland Rd just before the first of the two water stops.  The sun was beating down and the water was in its full glare so I ran on to the second water stop and rehydrated there while planning the rest of this leg and the next couple.  I continued down Inland Rd another 300m or so, leaving it with a left hand turn where the track joined from the right.  I ran through to the track heading north east and used this to more easily climb the hill before cutting off into the forest and navigating to Control 11.  From here I circled the largish hill in an anti-clockwise direction to Control 12 and then took a fairly successful compass bearing to 13.

I was feeling fairly tired by now so I took advantage of the water stop near Control 13 for another bout of hydration before using Inland Rd and the track up to yet another water stop.  The water cache I left unmolested but it did provide a very handy attack point for heading into the forest and up the hill to Control 14.  All that remained now was a series of short legs in an area of complex contour detail and it was starting to look as though I wouldn't be out for much over two hours.

I set my compass and ran in the general direction of Control 15.  I topped the ridge on which it was located without a sight of it but I did catch up to Peter who had made a similar mistake.  We both figured it would be to our right and, sure enough, there it was although it was a good 100m along the ridge; my bearing must have been very poor indeed.  Controls 16 and 17 were both found easily by counting off the features as I ran.

An unmarked track near to Control 17 was headed in the general direction of 18 so I took advantage of the easier running it provided but tried to keep in touch with the ground features as I passed them, well aware that the track could easily bend subtly and take me well off my course.  It didn't though and once I was confident that I was close to the control I veered left over a small rise and there was the control five metres ahead of me.

Controls 19 and 20 were both found easily with a combination of a compass bearing and counting off the features and then I ran on the forest floor at the bottom of the ridge leading to Control 21.  Where the ridge turned right I climbed onto it when I really should have stayed down for another 50m or so.  At the top I had a good view of the finish and promptly confused the clearing the finish was in with the clearing to the west of Control 21, causing me to stop and try and work out what was wrong.  I wanted to run towards the clearing as the control would be just before it but something was telling me this was not correct.  I must have stood there for 20 to 30 seconds before the contradiction resolved itself and I was then able to run confidently to the control.  I elected to use the track to the finish and discovered that my strategy of not running flat out had paid dividends - for the first time in this year's OY series I had completed Red 1 in less than two hours.

Bring on next week and the Auckland Champs!

Results can be found on the Auckland Club website here.  Winsplits are also available.  The AOA OY website is also a good source of information including points tables.