Whats been going on??

Well that is a very good question!! I have moved flat, im loosing my job, canceled a wedding and done a few random orienteering races!!! All in about a month. So first thing first, the wedding is off! Not cos I do not like Piret but more because of the lack of funds!!! This is from two reasons, one im loosing my job and then the other is because of the economy, it seems like UK is falling apart all these big business are just using this economic climate as a excuse to fire people and yeah im going to be one of them. I loose my job 1st May so still have a bit of time to find another one but yeah all a bit shit. But can’t really do much but hope to get another one soon!! Also another reason as to why we have decided to can it is because the exchange rate isn’t the best, Estonia is no longer cheap!!! No more 5-cent custard slices!!! The cheapest accommodation I have found is still around 80nz a night, so we have put the whole thing on hold until further notice. We are rather gutted not to have been having it as we have already sorted so many things out Pirets dress is getting made so that’s going to have to go into storage, but luckily that’s the only thing we will have to pay for as the rest of the places never asked for any money.

Anyway on a brighter side we have moved!! Finally we are back to having a place just for ourselves which is bloody good, so I can now walk around in my undies again oohhh baby yeah!!! Its just above Pirets work so it means that it only takes her 2min to get there, its also much better for me (well while im am working at the station) as it is a 15min walk so all up we are saving like 120pounds a month on not having to go on busses so its rather nice. The place is brand new and was furnished so we just had to get the basics like a toaster and a jug it did cost a bit to set up but we are sooooo much happier now!!! We also have an airbed so if anyone wants to come and stay feel free!!!



We went to Leeds the other day for a 5km running race which was quite fun we were only there for a few hours as I had to get back for work but was nice to get out of Sheffield, The 5km race was around some park which ended up to be a bit steeper than I thought it was going to be so meant our times were a little bit slower, I still did 16.42 which isn’t to far off a PB but if it was flat im sure I would have been low 16 so that is good news. Im entering the Sheffield half marathon on April 26th so that will be another good test hopefully can do something fast there.

We had an orienteering event on the weekend which was in Sherwood forest I didn’t see Robin hood so that was rather disappointing. It was a qualifier for the club champs which we won last year, but most of our best runners were in Denmark for a race over there so there was a bit of pressure on the B team (the likes of me). I didn’t do to bad, the map was really just a runners course so it suited me but I had a few small mistakes which cost me the win. My running speed was not to bad even thou I felt like throwing up before I started so I think my training must be starting to pay off. I was fourth 30sec down on 2nd and then 4min behind winner I can easily see that time if I was clean but its one of these things I guess. The club got through to the next round, which was good too. I have found a new program to play with so I can now have more fun with my GPS watch. It lets me plot my run onto the map so can see my change in speed as I go, would be a bit better if I could scan the map but yeah cant afford a scanner so will just have to get taking photos.
You can see where I lost my time, a few of my mistakes were really stupid but I also wonder how good the mapping was in a few areas as it really just didn’t make any sense when I was there and lost time cos of that. I should point out that most of the white really wasnt white and thats preaty much why i never went into it!!



In few weeks I have my last trail race for the World champs team, Its the JK which is being held in UK up in Newcastle so should be interesting to go and do some oing there, will also be fun as Ross is coming over so will be good to compare with him as to how fit I am. He is arriving a few days before so have a day off work so we can have a good catch up. After that weekend we are going and helping at the first adventure race of the year, that’s also in Newcastle well kind of close to it, so we are heading there on Friday morning and then come back on Sunday night, have to tent so that could be interesting might be a bit cold I think!!!

I have also put a few photos up on the net not many but a couple.

Portugal part 2

After the final event of the Portugal O meet, Piret and I parted ways from Neil and then travelled to our next location which was at a place called Pataias, which was about 2 hours drive, after a few wrong turns we finally got there. We were staying in a beach side town called São Pedro de Moel it was only about 15km from the event centre. Our hotel was a easy 2min walk to the beach so that was rather nice and the smell off the sea felt like we were on a summer hoilday!! Well if only it was a hoilday we had organised a couple of days training before the races started again on the Saturday so didnt really get to much time to relax.

I found our trainings really worthwhile as it gave us more time running with maps and also not to have pressures of a races on us. We did two trainings most days, one in the morning then one in the afternoon too. On the Friday we decided that we should try and get to both model events finished early so we could do some sightseeing in the afternoon. We didn’t really know anything to do in the area so we just headed for the closest big town which was a place called Leiria. It was rather fun trying to drive through the City centre but luckily we just decided to park in a car park building and be done with it. The city wasn’t really anything special but there was quite a cool castle on the hill so we walked up there and had a look around was quite cool as you could walk anywhere you wanted which I don’t think you could get in many old castles these days. I think we spent about an hour walking around Piret got a bit bored after a while but ohh well. We then headed back towards our hotel but stopped off at some place where they did glass blowing. It was pretty crazy to watch the guys shape the glass which such ease. The stuff they were making was sooo cool would love to have brought some but the 200euro price tag was just a bit too much for me.

On the way home we stopped off at this lookout point which was overlooking the beach and had a bit of a picnic which was just rolls, cheese and chips rather exciting really. They did taste rather nice all together thou. After a late lunch it was time for a bit of exploring on the rocks above the sea you could get a wicked view down the cliff, we found this safe place to look down and was watching the surf smash into the rocks below us, I told P to wait and we would get a cool photo when the surf smashes up and the water splashes kind of close to us, so we waited and waited and the finally this wave looked like a goodie and man was it. The wave smashed into the rocks then completely covered me in water, P had more sense and saw it coming so she bolted!! But yeah that was the end of our sightseeing as I had to go and get some dry clothes on. The dumbest thing was the photo didn’t even get the wave ohh well next time maybe!


For the first time in the time we had been in Portugal it started to rain just in time for the races!! I guess It was trying to get as ready for going home to UK. I have to say it was a bit nicer to run in than the heat which we had in training. The first of the races we were doing was the most important of the two, it was a Middle distance event which was a WRE. I once again had a later start so had to wait around for a while. I didn’t start off to bad in till number 4, well I was going ok heading to the control then saw somebody going over this hill I told myself not to look at them and keep going which is what I did well kind of, I then took off to the right when I should have been going left running through this open area then looping back on myself so really I just did this pointless circle. I have no idea what I was thinking and just couldn’t work out why I had done it!! I think I lost 6min on this mistake which is shocking considering it was just soo stupid. After the first Pivot control I kept loosing concentration and loosing where I was on the map which then meant I would have to stop and figure it out!! Not to sure why I was doing this as I didn’t feel tired I mainly think it was cos I was trying to run to fast to make up for my mistake. I made a silly little mistake on 19 and also 24 so all and all my run was just filled with stupid mistakes!!!

After the race we went back to the hotel with the plan to head to the night sprint later on that night but in the end we not going as we were just too tired and also it was quite a long drive from our hotel to the event.

Sunday we packed our stuff and headed to the last race, both hoping for some good runs to make up for the others that weren’t so good. We had quite a long race with 16km on a rather sandy map, I started of shit, throughout the middle I was shit and then well finished rather shit!!! Quite a dumb way to finish the week!!! At least Piret did a bit better than me she was 4th I think so she was kind of happy with that!!! We then had a nice drive back to Lisbon where we had to drive to drop off our rental car then went back into Lisbon for a night. We spent most of our time walking from our hotel into town then going and getting some dinner then just on the underground back home again so we didn’t really see too much would have been nicer to get a bit more time and have a decent explore as it looked like a cool little city. All and all we had a great time in Portugal and hope to return next year for the same events.


Heaps of pics are up too, still gotta try and sort out maps some time soon