The Aftermatch Northern Orienteering Carnival was an idea created by Northwest Orienteering Club and implemented by Matthew Ogden. The money raised will go towards supporting juniors from our club by easing travel and other costs. It also encouraged competitors from NZ Champs last weekend to stay on for a second set of races and make use of the training opportunities in between.
My recovery from Nationals wasn’t great and I’m not overly surprised given my preparation before Nationals. I made the most of the training organised by the National Squad coaches which was great, but left me pretty tired come Saturday. The races at ANOC were going to be hilly and require aggression through the rough terrain. I knew I was going to be too tired to perform my best so instead set goals relating to my navigation.
Day one featured 2 middle distance style races held on a cool piece of New Zealand farmland near Helensville. An old 1:15,000 map of this area was made in 1988 by the Auckland Orienteering Club with the north end named Paehoka and the south end named Kiwitahi. The new map, made by Northwest Orienteering Club, is relatively small but offers more forested areas and more detail as it is drawn at 1:10,000. It is still a relatively easy area but was a refreshing change to sand dunes and the well-set courses kept me thinking.
The morning race was also my first race with my Garmin forerunner 610 and below is a snippet from QuickRoute. This is a look at some shorter legs where it was important to choose good routes based on the combination of contours and vegetation. 3 to 6 was a part of the course where I avoided the vegetation as much as possible. It was great to see some younger members of my club learning to set the courses and Lauren Holmes should be proud of her great job.
I finished in 5th place with a time of 26:39. I felt pretty shattered but had enjoyed the race especially since it was on a map I had never used before.
Saturday’s second race a bit more technical and my body finally gave up. I was haemorrhaging time in the second half of the course and every fence was a major obstacle. I found it funny how little co-ordination I had while on the course and I was glad to see the finish. Here is the course set by talented youngster Helena Barnes. I finished in a very tired 37:08 for 8th place
