Enjoy Your Soundtrack

I run in the early morning these days, by myself. This is one of the outcomes of starting a family, and like most of these outcomes can be unexpectedly wonderful. This morning I was on top of Makara Peak after 45minutes of tempo runnning with a thick sweat and a view to die for. The cyclone was far out to sea to the west and it had left the sky wrung out. What clouds there were left were creased and frayed and lit by a fiery morning sun. The familiar folds of the land were all lit different shades of grey and green. From Kapiti to the Orongorongas the day was coming quickly and below me near the harbour the city was starting to wake up.

I know when I am fit, both physically and mentally when I can truly enjoy running. When I can both build a sweat and let my mind wander and traverse new ground. When the soundtrack is soaring and varied, rather than a tired repetitive burp...mulling over work, or relationships, or whatever. Don't dwell on shit.

I have a poem that comes back to me at times when I am particularly at one with the trail, and with my surrounds. It is a lesser known poem by James K Baxter.

Getting Stoned on the Night Air

The long night fills the streets with fog
And the garages are wind-blown tombs

Under the leaves of the plane trees where I run
Lifting and dropping my arms like a bird

This mad night - so peaceful, so dark and so open,
That the sea might easily flow over the land

Or the hills crumble like sand into the river
Since the town is a bed where the young and the old sleep

In the sweetness of being - man, I don't need any
LSD to open the gate in the head

That leads into a land where men are birds
And Tanemahuta plays games with his children

I have even been known to raise my arms and soar down a hill when thinking about this poem. And  it is often followed  by a period shaking out  the legs and listening to my memory of Bob Dylans version of Knocking on Heavens Door and then maybe I will run hard up a hill just thinking about using my core muscles and then with an empty and clear mind perhaps something interesting will pop up for me to think about, or I will just think about how great it will be to get home and see my daughter who is always so stoked to see us after a long nights sleep.

Enjoy your soundtrack people. It is all too easy sometimes to let other stuff creep in there.

Beautiful Hills

Just noticed this lovely looking session from Gene and Matt on Facebook. Love the passion. But, really, there is LIDAR data right, when is someone going to map Beautiful Hills properly. One of the best native bush areas in NZ, close to NZ's biggest population, but unrevised since the 1990's. Come on!!!!

Urban Enduro

Preparation is going well for the Urban Enduro.  The new Wellington City map which will eventually see the entire ampitheatre of Wellington mapped to International Sprint Specifications is growing by the day. The latest addition is a remap of Victoria University of Wellington by Nick Hann which includes some highly intricate areas brand new to orienteering. The exciting possibility of linking this area to the downtown maps will be realised in Urban Enduro 2014.

Check out the latest developments on the Urban Orienteering website

Oxford Odyssey

I was out of the loop when this happened, an annihilation of a couple of New Zealands best mountain runners by a couple of the orienteering boys.

The Oxford Odyssey is a new event on a great bit of terrain that was one of my favourite runs when I lived in Christchurch. One to put in your calenders for early February.

It is a good gauge of the fitness of the National Squad when you see names pop up all the time in the wider endurance sport world. With Godzone currently, Avalanche Peak and a couple of the older squad members getting around the Tararua Mountain race in good shape at the weekend things are shaping up for some swift competition at the races ahead.

Coles Bay

The Tasmania World Cup organisers have posted the old map of Coles Bay (the terrain for the middle distance) to the website. This is a fantastic part of the world, I suspect though that the forest will not be as runnable as one might suspect at first glance. You will definitely want to be terrain fit for this challenge.

Check out the local area on Google Earth and familiarise yourself with what to expect. Print this map off and keep a copy on your wall, draw a middle distance course on it and make plans for how you would approach each leg and what you would expect to read.

Anatomy of a race - early candidate for course of the year?

Is this the best sprint course and map in New Zealand since at least the World Cups?  Given the wonderful course on Ferrymead at the Nationals and the stunning Queenstown Botanic Gardens maps it's a tough competition.

I think it deserves a breakdown to look at some of the more interesting legs involved.  As Jamie Stewart pointed out the first six in the top left are fantastic.

The genius of the first 6 is the high technical map reading required in order to determine the optimum route choice.  There are some dead ends and opportunities well hidden and Ross has made the most of a small area.  Just getting to number one there are a few options.  Going left, right or through the guts.  I'd probably go for the gap in the fence the staircase by 3 and come round the southern side of the building. 1 to 2 is not so easy given the uncrossable wall.  I'd be inclined to run the eastern side to give myself map reading time.  The next 4 require fine map reading to stay on top and without smooth technique it is possible to lose significant time.

We can see from the splits for this section that only Matt came close to nailing it.  I think though it's important to note the need for smoothness through the controls as is evident by Matt's running.  But as is evident by the gaps in the finish time - this part of the race wasn't the place where it was won or lost.

We now move onto the first route choice leg:  6 to 7.  Straight off the bat there's a choice of either left or right.  Left is more direct and steeper but with a technical exit from 6 to the road.  Right is open but longer.  Chance to read ahead?  Once at halfway there's another split.  Left will take you to either the gap in the fence to try to cut through by 9 or to run wide down the road past 10.  There appears to be an easier entry into the control by taking the latter.  Going right at halfway takes you on a long road run - although you need to be aware at the control to look for the tunnel under the road.

I'm not sure of the best route choice here but Chris and Shamus lose a good minute here and fall out of contention.  I'm guessing it is a case of pick a route and good hard.  Personally, although less enjoyable, I'd probably go right both times.  Matt meanwhile has lost 12 seconds to Tim on the long leg and is about to lose a further 21 seconds on 9 to 10.  Nick Hann is staying consistent and still in the hunt at this point.  The key to Tim's race is he now has the smoothness that Matt had at the start of the race.

 Below is the lovely little technical section at Napier Girls' High School.  I particularly like 7 to 8.

I want to focus on two last legs, 17 to 18 where Nick Hann makes his mistake and, after almost getting back into the race, falls out of contention. And secondly, 20 to 21 here Tim asserts himself on the race and recovers his small lead at a point in the race where Matt was chipping away at Tim's lead.

17 to 18 looks benign enough but it does have an interesting flavour.  It's a great little left or right route choice just after some fast running and just at the turn to home point in the course.  The return home can be point where your mind slips slightly.  It thinks ahead and loses concentration on the now.

The last little segment is a doozy with the now famous waterfall scene at 22.  Tim still has a 14 second lead at 20 but pushes it into number 21 gaining a valuable 5 seconds on Matt for safety over the last few technical controls.  To me this is what is so exciting about Tim as a sprinter.  He grasps the importance of certain legs and pushes through above what his competitors are achieving.

So finally, looking at the race as a whole, winsplits gives us a lovely little graph to show us where time is lost compared to the leader.  I think it shows the need to focus on a good clean run and the ability to just step it up a notch now and then.  As Nathan Fa'avae says, in adventure racing, when he's hurting he knows his competition will be hurting too if not more, he uses this to go harder to widen the gap on his opposition.

So well done to Ross on this one.  Excellent work.  I particularly love how the course was set to challenge a full range of skills for competitors and created some fantastic route choices.

Fireside Chat: Darren Ashmore

This is the first in what may become an irregular feature. The premise is simple, an orienteering friend comes to stay and we talk into the night about orienteering. They may or may not be world famous in New Zealand orienteering.

The first friend fits in the famous category. He is arguably the dominant domestic orienteer of the last two decades. A man who  let his navigation  dictate his speed and reaped the rewards. Having eased out of elite competition over the last few years he is now most easily found playing with his daughter in the forests of Rotorua. Lets have a chat to Darren Ashmore....

Darren, thanks for passing by, its good to have you by the fire.

A pleasure Jamie, a pleasure, always good to sit down and talk about the world of orienteering with you, among other things

Where have you been?

You mean recently, or in life?

We’ll get to life later..

Down south running the Get2Go series for my employer the Outdoor Pursuits Centre. It is year number seven of that project, its going well. (the Get2Go) is a junior version of the Hillary Challenge another of Darrens initiatives.

Lets talk O, I was thinking the other day about your first WOC...1993 USA correct?

Yeah if I did make the team this year it would be 21 years since my first WOC…although it would be quite different running in a "sprint team".

USA must have been quiet a memorable WOC?

America is just like it looks on TV, the terrain was quite different, we had short (middle) and classic, no sprint. Alistair Landel, Rob Jessop, Greg Barbour,  Dave Farquhar and Me. Katie Fettes, Tania Robinson, Marquita Gelderman, Janine Brown and Alison Stone. It was a bit of an eye opener…lots of donuts, MTV (we never had that back then in NZ). Dave and I would train twice a  day, watch mtv, eat donuts, freshly squeezed orange juice. Prior to WOC we had a “summer camp” for a week or so. I remember it was illegal to swim in the lakes because there were no life guards on duty.

That’s right, you and Dave F were the young guns, for Dave it turned out to be his last WOC, for you it was the first of many, how many?

5: USA, Germany, Norway, Scotland, Japan

Interesting the way things turn out.

Yeah interesting

1993 was also the first year you won Nationals in Woodhill..

Yeah that was after WOC, Nationals were at Woodhill at Labour Weekend, Kaipara Knolls. The main competition was Greg Barbour and  Dave Farquhar

What was happening at that time, were you training to be a teacher..

Yeah, that would have been my last year. I took a year off to go to JWOC in 1992. (Finland)…that was the first real taste of it all, that was a three month trip, most of it in a ford transit van with Jenni Adams, Rolf Boswell, Al Landels…we basically drove from Borlange to Hungary, Italy, France and back to Sweden, O-Ringen etc.I had a stress fracture in my shin so couldn’t run most of the time. I remember the 3^rd day of O-Ringen I forgot my shoes. I took it as a sign that I should take 3 months off running.

I was only 20, and I was in Europe and there were lots of hot orienteering chicks to look at, so I didn’t mind that much. When you are that young you can also learn a lot from observation. I also remember Al running really well in the World Cup races…that showed what can be done. Al was a phonemonal runner, easily the best NZ elite that we had ever had up to that point.

So following 1993...

I never went teaching fulltime, a lot of relieving , it filled the gaps between orienteering and teaching orienteering. I think I always knew a class of 30 kids inside a small room wasn’t going to work for me. It needed to be bigger…outside basically.

In 1994, we had the World Cup in NZ, how did that go for you?

I was 27^th from memory. I was pretty satisfied. I knew a small part of the area, it wasn’t your typical woodhill. The event was bloody long and tough, the map was dodgy as. There were corridors mapped by the planners (Wayne and Trish). We all got around by the skin of our teeth. The next week we went on to a World Cup in Australia, Ballarat..

Any moments that stick in your mind?

I guess back in those days we didn’t have the same knowledge of the European Scene. We looked at the pictures of Skoggsport (we couldn’t read it). It was pretty cool going to events and having conversations with Mortennson/Salmi etc. There was a bit more mystery, these days the stars seem more boring, its almost like we know everything about them. All you heard back then was how hard these guys used to train.

Then you came back to NZ, How did NZ compare then to how it does now?

Ahh, now we seem to be relatively comparable to the rest of the world in our use of technology, back then the sport felt very small. Now it seems less small, but I wonder if that’s because we are more competitive now. We were definitely a B nation in the 90’s, now we are more advanced.

Really? Except for perhaps this year?

Ha, yeah, I guess you are always going to have bad years. Although our success is probably due to individuals, we are still not doing enough collectively…

You had a few good rivals though, during that mid 90’s period?

Yeah, it was a shame that Al moved to Sweden, as he was the guy that was setting the standard. After that it became easier to win races. I remember him telling me he judged his performance by how much he won by. He was judging himself against the best in the world, rather than against the best kiwi. 

We always had the older guys. Dave Melrose and Rob Garden. Rob Jessop was always tough, others included Greg Barbour, Bruce McLeod. Shaun Collins, Phil Wood, even Aidan Boswell started coming into it.

So of the next 4 WOCs, does anything stand out?

Japan, it’s the most recent, the best team, it was great fun. The terrain wasn;t too much to write home about but it was my best results at WOC.

 I remember racing the Scotland middle qualifier, I was having a perfect race. I was as fit as I had ever been. I was flowing through the race perfectly. Then I had a complete meltdown on one control (seven minutes worth). I only missed qualification by seconds. It would have been cool to qualify high, but I blew it. I think from memory I just got distracted by other runners. You can see your potential, but yeah you just can’t grab it.

You lived in Sweden for a while, you and Rebecca (Darren's long term partner is orienteer Rebecca Smith)

Yeah that was 1998, we did the World Cups that European Summer, that was a great European tour, the World Cups were fun back then: UK, Slovakia, Estonia, Poland, Finland. We stayed until after the World Champs in Scotland.

Scotland, that would have been an interesting year, on paper probably the strongest NZ team ever on realtively neutral terrain.

I think the difference back then, with WOC every two years, most people could make themselves available every time. We always got a strong team. Now its just too hard financially, and you end up with “substandard runners” going, people who can afford to go…and I don’t think its helped our presence internationally, and hasn’t helped our elite level grow. It sends a message you don’t have to beat the World, you just have to have the money.

You had a big greak between 1999 – 2005….

To be honest, it was a conscious break. I came home in 99 and had too much debt on the credit card. I had spent the 1990’s as an orienteering junkie. I decided that I wasn’t going to get in debt for orienteering. It’s the coolest sport in the world but it doesn’t pay the bills. My chosen career path wasn't that lucrative, but I didn’t/don’t work for money.

Japan was close to home, and well supported. Likewisethe world games 2009. It was bloody hard sitting at home every year and watching the guys go off to WOC, knowing that I could have been in the team. But that is life and part of being involved in a small amateur sport at the bottom of the world.

And you watched a few other guys come through, the likes of Chris Forne…

Yeah, Chris, Ross. Yeah its cool to see people going through and going hard, putting in more effort and getting the results.

Do you think Chris has surpassed Al Landels with his results?

No. The World Cup series in the 90’s was really important. You focused on it for the year. They were like World Champs races. Al performed really well in those. I also think Al was a faster runner. Chris can do well when he focuses on Orienteering, he has achieved a lot outside of orienteering, but not to my mind yet inside orienteering compared to Al. I think if you put Chris and Al together in their prime Al would probably just have it...there wouldn’t be much in it.

How about the girls, you got a pretty good view of Tania Robinsons career?

She was dominant for years in New Zealand. Its hard to say whether she lived up to her potential internationally. Given our circumstances, yes she did amazing, if she was Scandinavian, then probably not. It is hard to imagine anyone in NZ orienteering ever reaching their true potential in NZ given our resources.

Any really talented NZ orienteers that never quite got where you thought they might?

Phil Wood, never ran a World Champs, he was there at a time when there was good depth. Dave Farquhar was a great navigator, so was Bruce McLeod. Who knows why it didn’t happen for them, it would have been good to see them go on and do more. Jason Markham was a huge talent as well.

So post 2005, it was really just a case of priorities, economic priorities?

Yeah pretty much, getting mortgages, doing some work, not dreaming about orienteering all the time.

Anything you’d do different?

I would have focused more on physical training, cross country, road, etc. In hindsight I would have trained more like a runner. Having started orienteering when I was 9 and coming up through the system I had a good technical grounding, and in NZ we have a good variety of terrain types to get a good spead of navigation skills.

Maybe in hindsight I would have invested in the Garden sports betting empire. Then maybe I could have afforded to do a few more trips to Europe. Also the Akld property market in the 90’s….

Apart from your competition, any character that stick in your mind in orienteering, people that have helped you on the way and inspired you.

Garden, he has helped so many, and is such a positive, encouraging force.

How about maps in New Zealand, where have you loved orienteering?

Anywhere that’s not boring rolling farmland. Sand dunes, Wood hill, Waitarere, the more complex the better. It’s a shame the epic areas aren’t around anymore; Tyger Country, Ngamotu, Crater Block, Mamaku.

Whats your plan now, you seem to hve got your head around running a bit of veterans

Ha, its just a recognition of the lack of training I have been doing. I don’t feel the need to kill myself in elite races anymore, but I will still be running elites races, it is still fun to beat you and Brent. I think we will be seeing more people in their 40’s win National titles.  Its almost becoming the norm, even sprint distance. (that needs the luck of the Irish...Ed)

How about these new guys coming through, how good are they?

They are certainly getting the results. They certainly have the potential to help lift us up another level as a nation. I expect they might head off overseas, if so, they may achieve great things as individuals but that won’t necessarily help the overall elite standard.

Any advice to the likes of Matt, Nick, Tim, etc…

Figure out a way to work 8 months of the year in NZ, and race 4 months in Europe. Matt has proven you don’t have to live in Europe to be a World Champion. Lizzie has shown that you can achieve at a really high level while living in NZ as well. The young guys are running better than anyone ever has for their age in New Zealand this is a tribute to their commitment, the system, the opportunities they’ve had and the people that have supported them. I would like to Mention Nick and Matt have both experienced the Hillary Challenge, that’s why they are so tough.

We seem to have a lot of depth at the moment…

Yeah well we definitely have numbers, and there are potentially more winners..its a good thing. The sport at the junior level has been doing well.

Any big ideas?

Nothing new, we need to keep focusing on how to develop a strong domestic competition and improving our transtasman competition. Certainly in the past the very top Australians were close to World Class in their own terrain, this meant we can get a World Class race without going all the way to Europe. We need to get tougher on WOC selection, but this may naturally happen with the new rules.

We need to keep on growing numbers in schools. We need to be innovative. There is no reason why there couldn’t be 10,000 orienteers doing urban races every week - without the expectation of doing OY’s. forest races etc. We have never encouraged people to do orienteering just for the love of it, in areas that are close to home and accessible.

The End of Summer

Geez its been a good summer. The OSquad have been going hard around the place, training for orienteering or getting into some wider outdooors activity. See Tane's previous post about the impressive line-up of the crew that are turning out for Godzone.

And good on Tane for not rubbing in his honourable 13minute victory over Tom in the longest day. But bad on Tane for softing out on Avalanche Peak, all the other South Islanders were there. Nick Smith beats Chris Forne to the summit, Chris Forne beats Nick Smith to the finish.

Back on planet orienteering though, the focused guys have been seeking perfection. Check out part of a recent Nick Hann training on Waitarere. 26.5km of epic map reading anyone?

A team led by Matt Ogden and Greg Flynn have been picking the eyes out of Riverhead Forest to bring us TONIC. A tense and challenging long weekend at the end of this month. JWOC Trials and a pre-nationals showdown. Get your entries in. TONIC along with the Canterbury Champs the previous week and the Nationals at the end of April make-up the newly announced Autumn Tour. An opportunity to get your big orienteering year off to a big start.

Also look out for a good training week after Nationals. Wellington Orienteering Club is arranging the opportunity to train on the Nationals maps on the Tues-Thurs following the event. Marked control sites provided. And then a three day epic sprint event, the Urban Enduro, running from Fri-Sun.

And why are we doing all this training, well there is Nationals, there is JWOC and in January there is of course the World Cup and Oceania in Tasmania. Lizzie is thinking about it already.