When there was no orienteering, we swam at the beach every morning followed by coffee. Andy spent time at UWA working. I soaked up the Perth environs! We had numerous dinners out - with my parents and their friends; with friends and their parents and with just friends!! It was all very relaxing without our girls!
And back in Canberra Indi was kept entertained and worn out at Nadine and Sean's!
As far as I can tell, the ASOC relays is the best day for the girls. Crazy hair styles are embraced; zinc painted on in a variety of patterns and the general vibe is fantastic! Team morale was sky high.
Ella was in a team with Mia and Aoife. Mia ran first, followed by Ella and brought home by Aoife. Mia came in having a strong run; Ella had a great run catching a few minutes on several teams only to make a small mistake near the end resulting in them getting past her; Aoife kept her cool and ran well managing to keep ahead of the the other states. The girls finished 6th overall and made it onto the podium as 3rd Aussie state team.
Katy ran with Mira and Ari. In their team, Ari ran the first leg and came in hot on the heels of the NSW team. Katy was second leg. She had a solid run with a small mistake that allowed three other girls to sneak past. Mira pull the team up with a good run. The girls finished 3rd outright and 1st Aussie state team!
The second event for ASOC was the long distance at Frazzle Rock near Brookton and for the kids, it was a long drive and therefore very long days.
Under a bright sun, the courses were challenging with the hilly and thicker vegetation slowing competitors. The girls were exhausted after their race. Katy placed 9th (12mins down on first place) but was 6th Aussie and 1st ACT. Ella was 19th (22mins down), 11th Aussie and also 1st ACT.
Andy ran around the Mens B course placing 3rd. I joined Cath for a wander. We walked and talked around the course and laughing when we got monumentally stuck in a nice patch of green towards the end!!
The Schools Team were based together at Swan Valley Adventure Camp - the old Swanleigh boarding school that has been converted into a conference centre. An ideal spot. Prior to the first event - ASOC Sprint, the athletes have a presentation and start draw night.
ASOC Sprint was held at Aquinas College, which was (is) the brother school of the school I attended in Perth! Both of our girls were early starters - 10.06 and 10.13. The arena at the oval was well set out including a spectator control.
Ella said she had an ok run but is just not fast enough. She was 27th, 4 mins off the lead. Best of Ella's teammates was Katherine 13th and Aoife 18th.
Katy had a great race through to the spectator control before making a large 4-5min mistake in the final loop. She was really disappointed with her 32nd place. Her teammates ran well Ari 3rd, Alice 8th and Mira 13th!
First used in 1993 as part of Easter (my first Easter), we were looking forward to returning to running (or walking) on Peterdine, a beautiful area of open farmland scattered with granite boulders and bare rock surfaces. A double header weekend with the Australian Middle Distance Champs on the Saturday and the Australian Relay Championships on the Sunday.
Family results for the Middle Champs were good - Katy came 6th; Ella 10th; Andy 3rd and myself 12th.
As for results - Katy together with her teammates Mira and Sanda came 1st in W14; Ella together with her teammates Mia and Katherine came 1st in W16 and Andy together with his teammates Fedor and Andrew came 1st in M35!! ACT also won the Champion State Relay Trophy too.
Only downside was Andy came in with his hand covered in blood. Story goes that his hamstring was sore and her couldn't lift his legs well and trip on a rock falling with an outstretched arm and split open his palm. After being patched up on site by the St John's ambulance, he was informed that he needed to go to hospital to have the wound properly washed out and perhaps stitched!
So we left the event fairly quickly (missing the presentations unfortunately) to go to Northam Hospital A&E. We thought it would be faster than going to anywhere in Perth. Our eyebrows were raised when we saw the number plate of the car parked in the Dr's car space - Drgizmo! A&E at Northam had several people already waiting. It was about 4 hours later that we left, Andy's wound washed, steri stripped up (no stitcheds required as the wound was too ragged) and antibiotics in hand plus instructions to return to a medical facility to have it checked and re bandaged in a few days time. An eventful way to finish the weekend!
