Monday, September 28, 2009

iPod touch

Just set it up so I can post from the iPod touch! So maybe more updates this way! I know there are a ton of things I need to update on but haven't had time :( senior year is going well so far. College apps/ essays, homework,and cross country have been taking up my time lately. Better get off to finish my history work. Ciao!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

A long awaited update- yet not detailed

So i'm now in Scotland with my grandma. The rest of the trip has been great, just little time to get online.
I spent two days hiking in the Dolimites with Emily, Eric, Randy kemp and Angela. That was quite fun. Epic second day where there was quite a scary part going over the pass. The photos were great! we all got a bit burnt as well though, so not so good. Then afterwards we headed off to France. First night we spent in a hostle, then day on the beach in Nice and slept in the car. Then to Avignon and lyon. Then to Geneva and saw the UN.
Then flew to my cousins in Brighton. WE went around a trash power plant, and to his office. and i met his flatmate who is wonderful!
Then flew up to grans were i am now. Hill walked once. saw most of the family and went running. plus relaxed. Mom and heather come tomorrow (yay!) and dad on friday!!!!! Scottish 6-days start sunday and i can't wait! Then Denmark on the 7th!

Thats all i have time for now. More when i get a chance.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Quick update

we are about to leave Primero so quick update. Ran the middle final and Relay and went pretty well. will write more about that later. The Banquet was a blast!
The past two days i have been with the Kemps from Canada and we have been hiking around Primero. Great fun! WE did a short hike the first day and a longer harder hike the second. Great views!!! Will hopefully add photos when i get to my cousins.
We are now off to the south of france. Not sure the next time i'll be on so i guess you'll have to look for a big update at somepoint all about my adventures.
Ciao!

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Middle Qualification

So today i had to get up at 6am in order to get ready for my 7:15 bus to the start. I got to the start and it was quite cold. Got ready and ran the warm up contorls. I was feeling good but it was slow. I was the 3rd wave of girls to go out and i ran the number 3 heat. (there are 3 different heats and the top 20 in each go on to the A final then the next 20 to the B and the last to the C) It was a long run to the start control from when you get your map so planned the first big part of my course. The course went quite well i only bobbled a few controls i was just SUPER slow!!! It was hard to move with the tall grass, nettles, and rocks. You couldn't see where you were stepping and i did a lot of face planting. I messed up 8 and 11 but other than that it was very clean. I could have run faster because i wasn't tired but i couldn't get over things fast enough without falling or slipping. I actually didn't think i had gone as slow as i did, but oh well :/ I made the B final but that isn't very hard for the girls. I did seam to have a better race than Tori, Kelsey, and Anna. Anna's knee is bugging her though so i don't think she will run tomorrow sadly. That might mean i get to run on the official relay team though :)
So over all i'm happy with my races and feeling good about this JWOC. I really want to improve for next year though! Lots of training to do!!!!! Middle Final tomorrow!

Bus tour

On the rest day i spent the day with most of the parents on a great bus tour of the Dolimites! It was so beautiful! Although not happy about having to get up at 7:30 to catch the bus. WE were on the bus most of the day which was fine. You got some AMAZING views!!!! We also went up a big cable car and the senery took your breath away. I so wish i could post photos! I'll hopefully post some soon!
We then went and ate lunch at a resturant that looked over the hills. The food was great we got a mix of the traditional food. It was a nice sunny day as well! It was also funny watching Stan Borish run around with Steven who is 6 years old. We got most of us to go down this slide. And yes there are photos! Oh and on our drive back we stopped at a few places and one of them was to watch cows. One came right up to me so i got to pet it. Hannah you would be jealous! I have photos for you though.
Finally got back just in time for dinner. AND with clean clothes that sue kindly cleaned for Holly and I :) It was also great to spend the day with my dad!!!
Bye

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Two down, three to go!

So i have just finished the long race for JWOC. The sprint was yesterday
So the sprint. I was an early starter and started with one of the Italian guys so the start went crazy for him haha. I had a pretty clean run! maybe 1:40mins worth of error. i bobbled 4, messed up 15 which was the road crossing. I came down the wrong stairs, they pushed me to cross, then i had to cross back over to punch, and then go on to the last control. Then i messed up 17 a little bit but not horrible. I was feeling really strong which was good! Ended up about 95th place which im happy about. Tori made top 50!!!! GO TORI!!
The long was today. I was a little nervouse about this race :/ I went out in the middle of the field. I was slow to the first few controls and then i met up with two girls on the last bit to 4. I stayed with them up until about control 9ish and we agained other girls as well. Then the thunder and lightning started as i passed through the spectator control/coaches zone. The last loop was slow and i lost the pack. It was very muddly. I finished the course in about 1 hr and 15 mins and some seconds. Feeling very good about it! Although not sure totally how i got to some controls. I think iàm 57th right now.
Ahhh internet about to run out i guess that is all for now. Rest day tomorrow!

Friday, July 3, 2009

fri 3rd

At the JWOC internet point right now. People are playing ping pong and such. We did relay training today.

oh no about to lose internet will finish later ciao!

Sprint, Sprint, Sprint! (thurs july 2nd)

Today we got to sleep in :)
Then we went and did 4 loops of sprints. It was amazing!!!! The little towns are great with so many little streets and tunels and such. It was so much fun to run through and i didnt have that many mistakes either! Was feeling very good, which i like! Can't wait for the JWOC sprint!
After wards we went and had lunch at home and hung out until about 6. At six we played a game of soccer with some Swedes from Borris' club. That was great fun!!! We won 6-5 i believe. It was very rocky and slippery on the field so people were slipping all over the place. but we had many laughs. Then they joined us for dinner at the Hotel.
After dinner we had a team meeting and then played sherades. OH man was that a blast! Randy wins the prize of best acting. He got the song Taylor the Latte Boy and they acutally got it! It was so funny all the USA girls were rolling around laughing. I had to leave the room for a bit to clam down. We were tied so had to do a 5 min death round. In the end the Canadians won :/

A day in Venice! (wed. July 1st)

We had to get up at around 4am!!!! the bus left at 4:30. We then had a nice long drive down to just outside of Venice. I attempted to read my book but fell asleep. We then took the train into Venice and then a Boat to San Marco square. It was a nice and sunny day which was great. I could not stop taking photos of everything (i hope some of them are actually any good). All the little streets and everything were so cool!
At San Marco square we walked around for a little bit, but headed right into the palace for a tour. We did a "secrets of the palace" tour which was cool and we got to see many of the small rooms where most of the work went on and it was guided. Then we went off on our own and saw the rest and the prisons. It was a very grand place!!!
After we walked and sat down next to a canal to eat our lunch. Some gondalas came and was singing. I got blown a kiss :) Then we had about 6 hrs were we could just walk around. I walked with John G, Jeff, Nate, and Andrew (for a bit then he went off). We walked ALL OVER!!!! I think i saw almost everything in Venice to see haha. We went and saw the famous bridge with the shops on it, all the little streets and all the way down to the park. It was a grand andventure. We got more gelato and just took it easy. I also got some red flowers for the USA girls hair!
We decided to take the train back an hour early since our feet hurt and we wanted to get on the internet. We had an all you could eat buffet which wasn't as good as we hoped it would be.
Then a nice long bus ride back. When we got back though the USA girls surprized the Candaians. We had made a cake for them for Canada day! We made it in the shape of Canada and sprinkles in the shape of the flag. We were quite proud of our selves :)

Tuesday June 28th

We did two trainings again today. One was a long course with a big gorge in the middle so a lot of climb! It was crazy trying to get down the one side to get back to the finish. We then ate lunch at the side of the road and got to listen to all the cow bells. Ive never actually seen cows with cow bells on them it was such a funny thing! We also saw 4 of the Brits which was nice!
Our second training of the day was a short 2 person relay. However in between the relay and lunch it decided to start raining cold cold rain. So we all ran to the start and hid under trees while the first group went off. my partner was Eric Kemp. It was funny cus they started running and ran right through sheep and goats. Then gabe started to chase the sheep. I finally got to run and got caught in quite a few fences which was no good. We then got yelled at about being in the field just as i was finishing. OPS!!!
Afterwards we walked down into town. I got my first Gelato then :) it was very tasty!!!

Monday June 27th

We got in our first training today :) We are actually living on one of the maps so we ran the course on there. The girls cut it short though. I walked/ran it with Emily Kemp which was nice. It is quite hilly but im able to read most of the details quite well, which is good!
Afterwards we did another training of running one leg three different ways. So we ran 10 to 11 top route, straight route, and bottom route. I didnt get much out of this however since we ran it as a group.
We then went and had dinner at the hotel main building. It was very good pizza!

Monday, June 29, 2009

Arrival

Got to the airport and waited through a long line to check in. After said good bye to my wonderful parents and made my way through security. Once through got to the gate and met up with Greg, Nate, John G, and a surprize Jeff from the Canadian team.
It was a very long flight over. I got to sit next to Nate which was nice since i finally got to know him a bit better (he is a bit shy). We watched a movie and attempted to sleep. Greg sat a few rows ahead of us and was chatting away with an Italian guy in half spanish half english.
Once we arrived at the airport we got through customs and got our bags very quickly. We were hoping it would take a bit longer since we had a long time to wait. Once out we found one of the Canadian girls and sat around in the airport for a LONG time. Slowly people started joining us. We played cards and talked so it wasnt so bad. We also got everyone to sign a birthday card for Kelsey since it was her birthday. I made her an orienteering card with happy birthday written in conturs. WE gave it to her at dinner and sang. She had a candle that we stuck into a piece of bread!
Finally everyone was here and we got on the bus. It was a long and exciting ride to the place where we are staying. Big buses on small roads in amazing!
Once there we settled in. WE had a flag war to see who could put up the most flags. The girls totally won and the guys were jealous so started stealing them. The girls also did circuit, which was a blast! We did it listening to last years JWOC mix and laughing a ton!
We are now in the main town. We just did food shoping and had some time to look around. There are a ton of JWOC banners all over the place which is awesome!!! we are in the library writing this. This afternoon we get to go out on our first training!!!! I cant wait!!!!

(The keyboards here are different! Had a hard time finding the @ button haha)

Saturday, June 27, 2009

I'm On My Way...

Well everything is finally packed and ready to go! ...After about 3 tries. My pack seems like it is bigger than me haha. Hopefully I have not forgotten anything.
I'm getting very excited and there are little butterflies floating in my stomach. I still can't really believe that I have made the USA JWOC team and i'm off to JWOC!!! I guess it will start to set in when I'm at the airport. Can't wait to meet up with the rest of my team! I get to fly over with 3 of our guys; Greg Alhswede, Nate Lyons, and John Goodwin. So off to the airport now to meet up with them.

GO TEAM USA!!!
Ciao

How To Comment

So after having a few people seem to have a hard time figuring out how to comment I've decided to post an entry on how it all works. A step-by-step guide if you will.
  1. Click on the image of the stickies that says "Comments" under it.
  2. A screen with the post and whatever comments that have already been posted should come up
  3. Type your comment into the text box
  4. When done select your pick from the drop down menu titled "Comment as:"
    1. If you do not have any of the first options or only want to put your name select "Name/URL"
    2. Then type your name into the box that pops up (you don't have to put a URL)
  5. Hit "Post Comment" and Magic our comment is posted!
If there are still problems please let me know some how! Can't wait to read everyones thoughts!

Ciao

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Pre European Adventure

I'm getting ready right now for a big European adventure. I leave this Saturday for Italy to start it off!
In Italy I will be racing for the United States on our Junior Orienteering team in the Junior World Orienteering Championship (JWOC). This year JWOC is in Fiera di Primiro.

View Larger Map
There is a link to the official JWOC website to the right for more information, and results. We have a week of training though before the competition. It is going to be very hilly terrain, but I have heard very runnable. I'm greatly looking forward to JWOC! It has been my goal for a while to make the USA JWOC team.
After JWOC I'm off sightseeing with my friends Emily and Eric from the Canadian team, before flying to see my cousin in England. There I will be job shadowing him. He works with alternative energy which is the field I want to go into. From there I go up to visit my Grandmother in Scotland.
Once in Scotland I have time to see family and then I'm competing in the Scottish 6-days (link is also to the right). I will be racing for the first 4 days of competition. I'm looking forward to it since it was such a blast two years ago! I get to see all of my British orienteering friends as well. I have to miss the last two days though to go to a conference in Denmark.
The Franklin Institute has nominated me for the Bright Green Youth conference in Sønderborg, Denmark.

View Larger Map
There are 500 students partaking in this conference from all over the world. I'm greatly looking forward to meeting so many people with the same passion as I have. The link to the conference website is to the right.

Sounds like a busy summer to me! And let me tell you it is hard to pack for all of this. Packing take 2 must happen today!
Ciao!

Welcome!

Welcome to The AC Race! I've decided to set this blog up so that my family and friends can stay in touch and up to date on what I'm up to. At first it was going to just be for this summer between Junior and Senior year of high school, but if it is going well I might just keep it up.
Through this blog you will be able to hear about how my orienteering competitions are going, about my passion- the environment, see photos when I get the chance to upload some, funny stories about my adventures, and links to other important pages.

I hope you enjoy it! and please leave comments :)