Athletics weekend

We were at athletics competitions on both Saturday and Sunday.

First up, on Saturday we had the regular McKinnon Shield competition.  Mulan and Miya both competed, while I decided to have a rest day.  The results are here.

Miya cleared 1.35m in the high jump

and just missed 1.40m:

Mulan got a new wind-assisted PB of 4.59m in the long jump:

Both girls jumped well enough to get onto the latest Auckland ranking lists.  Miya's 1.35m is on the Women's Under 14 high jump list, while Mulan's fourth best jump of the day (4.29m) had a legal wind and got on the Women's Under 16 long jump list.

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Then on Sunday Miya competed at the CNW (Central-North-West Auckland) children's interclub relay competition.

Our club, Takapuna, has a lot of competitive girls in Miya's grade (12), and Miya didn't make the team.  But we don't have many Grade 14 girls, so Miya was offered a spot to make up the numbers in a fun team.

They competed in the 4x100m relay, 4x400m relay and field relay.  Miya did the shot put section of the field relay, getting a new PB of 6.88m.  And since there were only three clubs competing in the grade, Miya's team came away with three bronze medals!

Dick Quax athletics comp

On Saturday, once again Mulan, Miya and I competed together at athletics.  This time it was the Dick Quax Memorial Meet.

The results are here.

Miya ran her first ever hurdles race -- first time over hurdles on rubber and first time completing a full 80m!  For her first race it went pretty well.  The big thing for her to work on is getting familiar with the stride lengths between the hurdles.  About halfway through the race she had to chop a stride very short to get over a hurdle, and consequently on the next hurdle she was off balance and fell.  But she quickly picked herself up and still managed to finish well.

Delightfully, immediately after that Miya got a new PB in the high jump, clearing 1.37m and getting very close to 1.40m.  She's also adjusting well to throwing a heavier shot put this season (3kg up from 2kg), and got it out to a solid 6.56m.

Mulan is de-rusting well, getting very pleasing results in her first long jump (4.39m) and hurdles (15.27sec) competitions of the season.  What was especially good about the hurdles was that it was into a strong head wind (2.4m/s) yet she kept the momentum going and mostly didn't need to add an extra stride between hurdles.

Finally, I did an okay-ish long jump of 4.88m.  The main thing is that I'm still doing something to keep fit, though it's a bit sad to feel the body getting slower and flatter each season.  One of the big pleasures of athletics is the feel of speed, and aging takes that away incrementally every year.

First athletics comp of the season

Yesterday was a day of firsts for us.

It was our first interclub athletics competition of the season.  (Though we've been having clubnights for a few weeks now.)

It was also the first time that 12-year-old Miya has ever competed at a senior competition, not to mention her first proper triple jump competition.

It was also the first time that Mulan, Miya and I have all competed together in the same event and at the same time.

This was the McKinnon Shield competition, and we all signed up for the triple jump.

Miya is newly competing in the "Women Under 14" grade.  She had a great start, jumping both well and consistently to get three of her six jumps over 8.70m and a best of 8.76m.

Miya will be in the Under 14 grade until the end of 2023, and if she continues to improve in the triple jump she'll put pressure on the Auckland record of 9.32m (currently held by someone by the name of Mulan Riseborough!).

Mulan was feeling a bit under the weather all day yesterday, but thought she'd have a jump anyway.  She was looking very flat and couldn't get much bounce going, only getting 9.02m.

I was also feeling flat (and old), and only managed 9.90m.  Really hope I can do better this season and it's not permanent old age deterioration!

The results for all of us are here.

Dance

Mulan and Miya's dance school, Mainly Dance Studios, had their end-of-year show last night.

It was a great chance to see some of the other dance styles in action, since often we don't see those other classes.  Alongside Mulan and Miya's ballet and contemporary dance, we also saw jazz, tap, hip-hop and musical theatre.

Miya was in two dances (ballet and contemporary), while Mulan was in three (solo contemporary, ballet, and neo-classical).

Finally, each style of dance had three awards presented.  Mulan was recognised for most dedicated contemporary dancer, while Miya was recognised for most improved contemporary dancer.

Several weeks ago the girls also did their usual yearly dance exams.

Mulan:

• RAD Advanced 1 Ballet, High Merit (67)
• (Still waiting for NZAMD Contemporary 6 results)

Miya:

• RAD Grade 5 Ballet, High Merit (73)
• NZAMD Contemporary 2, High Honours (90-94)

Yellow climb

Here's Miya doing a new yellow climb yesterday:

School prizegiving

Classes have now finished for Mulan at school.  She's on study break, with NCEA exams happening over the next few weeks.

But first it's been prizegiving season.

Last week the music department had a semi-formal prizegiving dinner at McHugh's.  It was an enjoyable night out for the combined boys and girls schools, and Mulan got a new dress for the occasion.

Along with a yummy dinner, Mulan received a certificate and badge recognising her involvement in the school orchestra.

And then on Wednesday night we attended the senior academic prizegiving.

Mulan was there for two reasons.  First, she was again playing in the school orchestra (she's front right).

And then she was called up onstage for Distinction in Accounting.

We're still not quite sure what "Distinction" means in the language of Westlake Girls' awards.  But at least in this case there seemed to be three girls out of five-ish classes recognised for their accounting skills.

The funny thing is that Mulan had earlier been planning to drop Accounting for next year.  Back in August she'd even booked it in as just her backup subject.  But a few weeks ago, after talking about it some more, she'd decided to change her 2023 choices, continuing Accounting and dropping Biology instead.

We're now (semi-)joking that Mulan should be an accountant when she grows up, sitting in an office all day.

Skiing and snowboarding

Way back, a couple of months ago, we planned a skiing holiday at Mt Ruapehu for the recently-passed school holidays.  We'd booked our accommodation and everything.

This would've been my first time skiing in over a quarter of a century, and the first time ever for everyone else in the family.

But unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate, and the ski fields ran out of snow.  Apparently, the managers of the ski field decided to not maintain any beginner slopes during the school holidays, and only maintain intermediate and above.  (No idea why they didn't try to get the school holiday kids business.)

So, with no slopes suitable for us we had to cancel our holiday trip.

Instead we decided to try out indoor skiing much closer to home, at Snowplanet.

Three weeks ago today, during the school holidays, we had an evening of skiing.  Mulan and Miya skied for four hours, while Mama and I had two hours.  (Cost: $41 each, including equipment.)

We'd watched a few YouTube videos introducing how to ski, so we knew what to do.  Very quickly, Mulan and Miya took off on their own on the beginner slope, while I stuck with Mama helping her.  Towards the end of my two-hour session I tried out the steeper intermediate zone, and after a while Mulan came up with me too (though she fell over lots!).

After a half-time bite to eat, Mama and I relaxed and watched the girls keep going on their own.  Here's a couple of videos of the girls:

It was well worth it, and the time on the slope was about right for us beginners.

But then we heard that the homeschoolers were organising ski lessons during school term time, again at Snowplanet.  $28 each, including gear, for two hours.

Miya and I jumped at the opportunity, while Mulan was grumpy that she missed out and had to be stuck at school.

I thought I may as well try out snowboarding (first time ever), and Miya got another ski session.

By the end of last Tuesday's session Miya was much steadier on her skis and was going up beyond the beginner slope and into the intermediate zone.

Meanwhile, I was getting slightly steady-ish on my snowboard on the beginner slope.  I found my introductory lessons (alongside the homeschool kids) really useful to get me started.

My verdict?  I enjoyed snowboarding, and it was great to try it out, but I prefer skiing.  If we ever go skiing/snowboarding again, I'll probably opt for the skis rather than the board.