Splashing through bog and stream

Orienteering

This weekend Husband, Audun and I ran 3 orienteering races, all of them on boggy ground after heavy rains. It was so wet that several times I sank right down to the thigh in mud, the brooks and streams so swollen that it was impossible to jump them - you had to just splash right through them.

Audun

Thursday was the club championship for 3 local clubs. I ran a 3,5 km A-level course, Husband ran a 4,5 km course and Audun accidentally ran a 6,5 km course. It was Auduns first time orienteering in 8 years so I was amazed that he finished in approximatly the same time as Husband did. It was a rainy afternoon. I was afraid I'd be out all night as I normally stay away from such long A-level courses but it went well. There was a strange bird that followed me for a bit. I never really caught sight of it, but it had an odd call. I wonder what it could have been.

Dancer

Saturday was the bog-sprint (myrsprinten), meaning lots and lots of controlls on a relatively short course. Here too I ran an A-level course (3 km). I started off running along a path in the wrong direction but discovered my mistake pretty quickly when I came to a bridge over a stream. Since there wasn't supposed to be a stream on the path I checked my compass and thats when I discovered that I was running north instead of south.

Between the 7th and 8th control I met up with Husband who was wondering where he was. I had just been trying to figure out the same thing, and so could enlighten him. He has this tendency to get carried away with running fast, forgetting to check the map and compass and thus gets lost. Anyway he finished second to last and was bummed out about that.
Anyway I only finished 12 minutes after the next to last contestant which for me, is doing well. Last time I competed on an A-level course I was 20 minutes behind the second to last.

Husband (in white with red+blue stripes)

Sunday for the bog-tramp (myrtrampen) Husband promised himself to slow down and concentrate on his orienteering skills and sure enough he finished second and brought home a prize. As for me, after starting in the wrong direction again but getting myself back on track after a few meters, I tramped along through the bogs and splashed over streams for 3 km again (but C-level this time). Once I saw a moose cow running along a ridge right in front of me. Thats what I like about orienteering: the cool flowers and wildlife that you see. The satisfaction of finding the controls. I wish I was faster. I tried running across some of the bogs but it is exhausting. To tell the truth everything hurt on monday after all 3 days of this. Audun did really great too. He had some incredibly long courses: 5-6 km both days. I am amazed at how he is able to keep up with the others in his class.


My course on Sunday. You can see how wet it was and where I saw the moose.

Fjord-O in Sogndal, July 13-18

Prolog:

We left home a day early in order to spend the night with MaryAnn and Nils Nøbben and have a proper visit. It was really great. MaryAnn's garden is amazing, the stone work and the flowers! It's different every year. Can't wait to see it when she gets the waterfall going. There is now a young man who wants to farm their land and even make use of the barn for his cows. Nils has been cultivating a field that had been lying fallow for years and years in order to use the manure in the manure cellar and sow grass to extend the hay field down by the lake.

Day 1:

Sogndal with campground

We drove the same route that Tor Idar biked less than a week ago so that I could see it. The Sognefjell is a fantastic area! Wild and untamed mountain, an eerie landscape that seems like another planet. Down in the valley, many hairpin curves later, the town of Sogndal nestles in a corner of the Sognefjord. We checked into the campground at 1 pm, where we had the good luck to get the one cabin that they have for rent. It lay at the top of a bank. 3 orienteering families from Haugesund camped below us in a little field. The rest of the campground was in an apple orchard with picknick tables, tents and campers parked under the apple trees.

Tor Idar and Lucy at our cabin

Days 1 and 2 were near the Sogndal airport. The assembly area was at the site of the reality show "Farmen" called Haukåsen, with a spectacular view over the fjord. The weather was bright and sunny, but of course we had forgotten to bring the camera.

"the farm" Haukåsen

We found a spot in the shade and out of the way for Lucy. Parking was at the airport, the assembly area a 30 minute walk from there, then another 30 minutes back along the other side of the airport to start. The course was basically in the woods and marshes on both sides of the airport, so that you could see the Widerø planes flying in low for landing right over your head while you were running.

Lucy

I started 20 - 30 minutes before Tor Idar on all days. Both of us running in the 17C class. The event got off to a good start with Tor Idar winning his class by over 3 minutes. I spent an hour on the 2,9 km course. Besides the camera we had forgotten to bring money. Luckily we had sandwiches so it wasn't so bad.

Day 2

View from Haukåsen

Day 2 was cloudy and a little rainy, but we had remembered both the camera and money for the barbeque plate after the race. There was a whole mobile sportsstore at the assembly area as wel and I bought myself a new pair of neoprene socks and a sweatband before the race. Tor Idar missed winning by 3 seconds. His main competition seems to be a 21-year-old russian kid.

Assembly area at Haukåsen

I should have worn a baseball cap to keep the rain off my glasses. It's hard to read the map with drops of rain on it, even if it's in plastic. Rain on the glasses makes things worse. I kept putting my glasses up on my head, just taking them down to read the map and half-way through the course got a twig caught in them which knocked out one of the lenses (luckily you can buy new lenses for O-glasses). There was a bit of a mix-up with the codes to the controls as well, since one of the controlls had been cancelled on the map, but was still printed on the loose controll slips. I got that all figured out only to find I had been disqualified for stamping the very first control wrong! I cannot believe it!

Day 3

Glacier Museum

This was a rest day. We went first to the glacier museum at the foot of the Jostedals glacier. It was an interesting museum with lots of interactive glacier related exhibits and an 18 minute film by Io Caprino where he had hung 5 video cameras under a helicopter creating a panorama. The theatre had 5 screens so that it was like flying in the panorama of the Jostedals glacier.

Solvorn seen from Urnes

Afterwards we decided to visit the Urnes Stave church. To get there you first leave the main road and follow a smaller winding road through farmland until you enter the village of Solvorn, with its boat houses on one side of the ferry dock and the sandy beach on the other. This sleepy little village has almost a mediterranean atmosphere. We had discovered it and it's fantastic cafe yesterday. Today, we parked in the square by the ferryboat dock and took the ferry over to the even smaller hamlet of Urnes on the other side of the fjord arm.

Ships dog

The ferry is tiny. It takes only a few cars. Most people just park in the square and walk on. Lucy does not like ferries. She finds them scary and on a car ferry prefers to stay in the safety of the car. I took her up to the top deck where she made the aquaintance of the ships dog, a border collie who came out fromt the steerhouse to investigate.

Urnes Stave Church

Urnes is basically a large farm and a few more houses. The road winds up from the ferry dock past strawberry and rasberry fields, until you get to the little stave church. The oldest in Norway, built 1150 on the site of 2 previous churches, Urnes Stave church is a Unesco heritage site. The girl who gave us the tour seemed very knowledgable about art history. Before going back down to the ferry, I bought a postcard. We were half-way back when my cell phone rings. It was the gift shop calling to let me know that I had left my wallet behind. With only 20 minutes until the ferry was due to leave I ran back up the hill to get the wallet and then all the way back down, arriving just as it was docking. On the way back it turned out that there was a ships cat as well. One of the crew was carrying a big tom around on his arm.

Hot chocolate and Turidmisu

Back in Solvorn we revisited the cafe for their delicious Turidmisu (tiramisu in Turid's version - Turid works there), snickers cake and hot chocolate, made with hot milk and melted chocolate. There we sat on the terrace. Other people were sitting nursing their coffees while reading a novel, the newspaper or surfing the net. Very laid back atmosphere!

Day 4

The River at Hodlekve

The last 2 days were at a different location, a ski center north of Sogndal. It was another sunny day, and again we forgot to bring the camera. We found a spot near the rushing river for Lucy. All runners had to cross the bridge to get to the finish on the first day, and both to start and finish on the second. It was a tough course going steeply up, up, up for the first 5 controls, through open land, brush and marsh and across several streams. The highest controll was in an area of summer cabins, where a whole family were basking in the sun watching us struggle up the steep hill. From there the course followed the river down, down, down. It was wonderful to get wet feet running through marsh in the hot sun. On both days I kept seeing these beautiful wild orchids. They are called Heath Spotted Orchid (Flekkmarihånd). 

Tor Idars knee had been bothering him since the last race. The russian started 3 minutes after him but caught up with him at the 3rd or 4th control after which they clung together for the rest of the race, Tor Idar trying unsuccessfully to shake him off. This put him in second place again.

Day 5

Assembly area in the rain

Tor Idar woke with a sore throat and feverish, not sure if he was even going to start. Not only that but it started pouring rain. He ended up running the course anyway, coming in 4th. It was my best race. I ran the 2,4 km course in 38 minutes. It wasn't actually pouring during the race, more like dripping so I didn't really have the problem with water on my glasses. I find it easier to run in the rain, since I don't get so hot and parched. 

There were prizes for total points from the best 3 races and Tor Idar won a second prize. All in all a great achievement to run 4 orienteering races within a week of the Tour de Jotunheimen bike race. No wonder his body was saying "stop!"

Tor Idar is tired. No more smiling.


We drove straight home after the race - a five hour drive but good to get back. Once again the girls had everything in great shape, and it was a pleasure to come home!

Styrkeprøven (endurance-test) and O-Festival

My first week of vacation started with the "Styrkeprøve" for Husband: a bike race from Lillehammer to Oslo: 190 km. Husband cycled with the Ottestad Second Bike team with the goal of finishing in under 6 hrs without leaving any members behind. They made it in 5 hrs and 40 minutes. The weather was mixed. Mostly sunny with some wind, and occasional rain showers, even a hail shower. I waited at the roadside in Ottestad (about 1/3) of the way with bottles of juice and water and food to fill his pockets: raisin buns, figs and bananas. Teamwork is the main goal for the Ottestad cycle club. They cykle using a chain technique where they constantly rotate who is at the front. Those who need to rest hang at the back of the chain. The captain organises the chain. When one of the cyclists slid on the rain-slick asphalt and flew off his bike, hitting the divider and breaking his collar bone, the team stopped to make sure he was okay and was picked up by a support car before continuing. When one of the members was almost too tired to keep up in the last long hill before entering Oslo, 3 or 4 teammembers took turns pushing her up the hill so that she would be able to finish with the team.


This weekend Husband and I packed the dogs into the car and went to the Orienteering Festival on the west edge of Oslo (Bærumsmarka). We had rented a cabin at a nearby camp ground. We had great weather: 80's - an unusual treat for Norway. Found some nice walks for the dogs near the camp ground. The races were fun. The world cup was going on simultaneously, and we could follow the commentary and watch the progress on a big screen in the Arena while waiting for our start times. On friday afternoon I ran an A-level course in the womens 50 class: 2,7km. It was a very difficult course. I spent as much time on just one controll as Husband (mens 40 A) had spent on his whole race. In the end though, I found all the controls, finishing in one and a half hours, 17 minutes behind the next to last contestant. However there were 3 that were either disqualified or had given up, and though I considered giving up, I'm glad I finished. Saturday I ran a C-level race, though this was 3,6 km. Though I finished in 50 minutes (nr 38 of 63) I felt I had run a bad race. It seems I should have been able to run faster. Most of the controls were along paths, and easy to find. Don't know why I was so slow. The heat maybe... It sure was great to put my head under the sprinkler at the finish.
The dogs were very good, lying in a shady place and waiting for us while we were out running.
Husband had his debut with A-level courses. In his age group they are much longer and though his placement was about 2/3 down the list still I feel he ran a good race. Friday he ran a 3,6 km course in 38 minutes, finishing nr 50 of 75, 13 minutes behind the winner. Saturday he ran the 4,8 km course in 1hr and 2 minutes, finishing nr 21 of 34, 21 minutes behind the winner.

Whitsun O-meet

Whitsun weekend. Lovely warm sunny weather with night-time lows in the 50's, and daytime highs in the 70's! Lilacs and Mountain Ash are blooming, the forrest floor is covered with Arctic Starflowers and violets, bright yellow dandelions dot the lawns. Birds flit to and fro on the business of raising their families and birdsong fills the air. On my morning walk with the dogs, we hear the cuckoo calling and we see a fox cub come out of the brush, and stop to look at us before dissapearing into the wood on the other side of the path...

Since the relative success of running an A-level course in my age group last fall when I managed to complete the course just before everyone had packed up and gone home, I thought I'd try again on saturday. Imagine how pleased I was that I not only completed the course, I was not even last to finish, but actually 3 minutes ahead of the last contestant. This is progress indeed, and I have now signed up to run the short distance A-level course at the orienteering festival at the end of June. Didn't do too badly in Sunday's C-level course coming in the best half (16th of 36) finishing the 3,5 km course in under en hour, and even better in monday's race where I completed the 3,4 km in 48 minutes, and finishing 20th of 39. Tor for his part won 2 4th place prizes over the weekend.

Lucy is a good orienteering dog. She has waited patiently in the finish area where she was tied up in the shade, with a chew bone and her water bowl, sleeping and watching the other people and dogs.

The kids are gone for the weekend. They have taken my car and gone to Oslo to plan their father's 60th birthday party. So Tor Idar and I are alone this weekend. Besides orienteering, I am slowly catching up with the garden, putting in seeds and planting flowers.

MAY

May has always been my favourite month, even though it is different in Norway, than in more temperate places I have lived. There, May was the month of lilacs and the first strawberries. Here in Norway, may is the month when the leaves come out on the trees, when daffodils and tulips bloom. When the woodlands are covered with white carpets of windflowers and blue anemones dot the moss. It has always been the month of my birthday, but in Norway May is punctuated with holidays. First comes May Day, which is the European equivalent of Labor Day; then there is the Norwegian National Holiday on May 17th. Also usually falling in May are the religious holidays of Ascension and Whitsun, both of which are observed with schools and businesses closed. Since ascension always comes on a Thursday, schools typically take a 4 day weekend. The following weekend, Whitsun, is observed as a long weekend with Monday off. And working on any of these holidays gives 133% overtime in Norway (hooray for social democracy!)


May Day this year has been a productive day for me. The rain that has been threatening for nearly a week finally began coming down in earnest. I spent some time out in the garden right after breakfast: planted a sweet cherry tree, and a rhododendron. Mulched the blueberries and the other rhododendron with the remaining sack of rhododendron soil, and raked the straw mulch off the iris’ that I had set in the fall. That was as far as I got before it started raining. Perfect weather for newly planted trees and bushes!


Husband and I and Topsy also went orienteering. It was a great course, not too easy, not too hard: 1.8 km with 10 controls! I love running through the woods, along paths or just by compass, stopping now and then to study the map. I’m really not very good. I just love the challenge, the exercise and the woods. This course took me 34 minutes.


I’m at work now. The rain continues to fall. It is quiet in the ER, but I have a patient coming in by ambulance in a little while. So I’m sure there will be some nursing challenges today also.

cooling my heels

Still not working. On Tuesday I called my doctor's office: no result on the mrsa test yet. On Wednesday, a week after I took it, I called both in the morning and in the afternoon. Still no results. So I got on the phone to the laboratory that is running the test, and guess what? They had received the test but it wasn't labeled. So now I have had to go and have it taken again. I was fuming! This means another whole week before I can start working. A week without income. "You don't have to pay anything this time" they said when I had retaken the test! I should think not. Their mistake has cost me a weeks wages!!!

The weather is still predominantly sunny, but cooler. Definitely with the feel of fall. While waiting for the mrsa results, I am cooling my heels at home. Meantime I am spending my time cooking, gardening and working out.

On Tuesday and Friday mornings I go to spinning followed by toning exercizes. Thursday afternoons is orienteering training, and last Saturday I orienteered in a competition. Came in last (by 20 minutes) cause I didn't realize that a ski trail was supposed to be the path marked on the map. Next week I'll finally start dancing again. Husband has agreed to go swing dancing with me. That will be Wednesday evenings.

Since Husband has stopped eating meat, I'd got one of Molly Katzen's cookbooks second hand on the commons in Ithaca. She's the lady who started the Moosewood restaurant, and I'm trying out some of her recipes. Unfortunately many of them use various wines and other alcoholic beverages, and as a non-drinking family we don't have that sort of thing in the house, and I can't bring myself to go out and buy it just to experiment with recipes which I might decide I didn't like...

In the garden Husband and I built supports for the raspberries - a storm had broken off all the branches full of nearly ripe fruit - and planted a new strawberry patch with the runners from the old patch.