Year end summary.

Team Calleva was growing up in 2009. Still long way to catch up our friends from the team Too Many Kids, but we are getting close. Here are our new heroes Danil and Leon:

We also have new racers joined the team in 2009. They got hooked up by Calleva races and are ready for longer and more serious events. It doesn't mean that Calleva race is "not serious". We are now known as the toughest sprint around:



We're starting the New Year with a traditional New Year DIET hosted by TeamHalfwayThere.com

Happy New Year and good results in 2010

Roaring Plains

Remember E-Fix 2007?... Via Ferrata, real white water, snow on the trekking... and night orienteering on the top of Roaring Plains. This year was the second Christmas we went through the E-Fix course, almost tradition already. It was at least foot of snow on the slops and snowshoes were the must to get up. Visibility was very limited due to the ice storm and it was very hard to follow trails. Roaring plains were... loud... like a jet plain. Now we know why no trees can survive up there: 60 mph wind with even stronger gusts keeps the plains bald. Here is the slideshow from the Flatrock creek waterfalls. To some we manage to get really close:

O-Marathon II report.

By Dima
Running is not my favorite discipline and once in a while (no, once in a WHILE) I force myself to run a competitive event. I cannot survive “just running” for more than 1 hour. Running with a map is a little better; my brain is busy analyzing something else beyond slow moving reality. Delaware Valley Orienteering Association created my perfect event: Orienteering Marathon. This year was the second time they host the event. The first one was in November 2007 and I got 3rd place in division. This time turnout was much better and I finished only 13th out of 21 (25th out of 71 overall). This is not very impressive result, taking into account that really strong runners were doing full marathon. Navigation this year was easier than in 2007, but it didn’t prevent me from getting lost around CP9. Thanks to Bill for telling me were I am. Total running distance for me was about 25-26 km, but between CP9 and CP16 I was doing a very conservative route choice. My finish time was 2:55:48 that is faster than my result in 2007. And of course it was nice to see old friend:

I took this photo 30 seconds before the start, sorry for quality, winter sun is crazy.

P.S. I started the O-Marathon II with strong symptoms of cold; they all gone after I finished. Running in chilly weather is the cure!

First day of snow updates

Posted by Dima

It was amazing white weekend. If you spent it in front of your computer updating your site or reading somebody's else news, you probably not a racer and reading this text by mistake :-). We spent both days outside with our running off-road stroller. Leon was happy to see his first ever snow and getting ready for West Virginia trip on Christmas.

Now updates:

1) Mark your calendar... January 24th, 2010 Quantico orienteering meeting at Great Falls, VA (scroll down to the 24th). Meet Director: Fedor Iskhakov; Course Setter: Marina Iskhakova. Yes, our guests from Red Fox will host this event. Don't miss your chance to test "Russian style" navigation. All levels (white to blue) will be presented.

2) Calleva Race 2010 is going to be a big surprise. We have the draft course ready and even the first working map is already printed. Now is the time to get all permits. We need 6 different permits from 5 different organizations. We got the first one this Friday. Official announcement of the race will be out this week!