Hi my name is Lizzie...

and I like long walks runs on in the beach mountains. Followed by candle headtorch lit dinners potlucks accompanied by a bottle of wine vitasport and good company.

Before I jump into posts about my current day adventures, trainings, races and thoughts, I thought it would only be polite to give an introduction of who I am, where I've come from, and where I'd like to see myself going. Agree? Ok.

First up, I'm a 24 year old kiwi girl, living and training in Canberra, Australia. Primarily I'm in Canberra to study towards my PhD in paleomagnetism at the ANU. Paleomagwhat?! Put in normal words, I study the Earth's magnetic field, what it's done in the past, and what it might do in the future. It's exciting stuff - how else would you know which way your compass points?!
But really that's more of a past time. First and foremost I'm an orienteer. At a local level I run for the Abominable O-men club when in Australia, and Wellington OC in NZ. Nationally I run for the Canberra Cockatoos in the Australian National League, and the Central Scorchers in the New Zealand Super Series. Internationally I run for New Zealand. Not Australia. Not now, not ever. Sorry! :)

NZ

Wellington

Cockies

Scorchers

After competing in 4 Junior World Champs, without any spectacular results, I made my World Champs debut in France, 2011. There I surprised a few people, and myself, with three top 20 results in the sprint, middle and long distances, and coming back in 6th place after the first leg of the relay (that'll teach them to not put gps tracking on the NZ team!). I didn't quite back up those results at WOC 2012, Switzerland, but managed to win my heat in the sprint distance, and placed 9th in the final - a NZ best.
In January 2013, World Cup Orienteering came to New Zealand for the first time in nearly 20 years. Truly a once in a career experience for a Kiwi elite, these were the races I'd been building towards since early 2011. I'm sure to write a detailed post about the races in the not so distant future. Suffice to say for now that making the podium in the Sprint race, in my home city, in front of the family and friends who got me where I am, is something I will never forget.

Next goal - two steps up the podium!

There's a lot more to the story prior to WOC 2011, and hopefully a lot more to the story post World Cups in NZ. But I've promised myself to keep posts short, so I'll stop here for now, and finish off the brief history of me, and my future goals in my next post.

Plus, given my family's propensity for face plants, it's worth checking this page just for the pics...

Probably not the best situation to rip out my breakdancing skills