WUOC - Long Distance

Finish

I raced the long distance today. It was held on the map Pantano de Tibi, which is North West of Alicante.  It was 1:15000 with 5m contours. It was mountainous terrain where the slopes just crumbled under you. Also there was the battle of how early could you start before it really heated up.  The girls course was 6.8km with 19 controls and 400 meters of climb, I ran the B- butterfly.

I got the 7:00am bus after sleeping through the alarm and being very grateful that Keith came banging on the door to wake us up! We finally got the the start and was faced with a nice climb up the road right from the start! The pre-start area wasn't even really set up when we got there and there was a HUGE dog running around named Hugo.He was an event organizers 120 pound brown Great Dane. However, according to Toni (UK coach) "That isn't a dog, that's a horse!" He liked the Hungarians a lot but was finally led out of the start area after protest from some of the coaches.

I was quite nervous at the start about this race. I got stung/bit yesterday at the model and it wasn't reacting well :/ Then the way to the start we had a -20min call up which was weird. You had 17 mins on the warm up map between the first call up and the -3min call up. I only went to visit half of the controls before making my way to the start and was glad I did. It was nice to stand at the start for a bit, pour some water over me, and gather my thoughts.

My Map

I had a decent run for me as lost time really only in route choices and the first crossing point. I took the start of the course slow to get into the map and I think that paid off. I had a bobble at 1 as I started looking for the control too soon as thought the spur was going straight too long. This however I think helped me get a feel for the scale, so although time was lost maybe time was gained? I was feeling really strong in the  middle/butterfly section. Controls were just showing up exactly where I was expecting them to. Anne from the UK was with me, but she wasn't leading the whole time. We were leading each other into controls and that was a huge confidence booster for me! Normally although navigating myself the UK girls lead, so this was a nice change from past JWOCs! Then I got to control 14, drank water and made for the crossing point. This crossing point though I feel was unfair and should have been streamered. You either were lucky and hit the trail or got stuck and could lose loads of time! I was unlucky in this case being one of the first out, I got stuck. Probably lost about 5mins making my way down the reveen, trying to get through brambles, and up the other side. Pulled a Chinese guy out of the brambles and then he had to help me up the far side once we crossed, too short :( . It wasn't orienteering and it wasn't fun! Then after that experience didn't pick the optimal route to 15, but clean navigation. I ran up to the small trail in the flat, then up to the road, and cut up the reentrant where the road Us to the top of the hill and dropped down. The faster route was to go all the way along the first trail to the road and then attack from the smaller trail. I just never saw that when out there. The rest of the course was fine. Came back with two holes in my new pants, a lot of cuts, and hot! But thats where the stories come from right?

Here is a Link to the results

 I'm now excited for the middle with how the short legs of this went. But on to the Sprint tomorrow!

Out towards the course

They made shade for us!

The finish - must have been sponsored by coke

Please don't forget about my Chip-in!

WUOC 2012 - Opening Ceremony

Getting to represent the USA for the 5th time at a World Championship! This is my second WUOC and I'm looking forward to making the USA and Heriot-Watt Proud!

Us with one of the Swiss girls at the opening

 

 There are 5 of us on the WUOC team this year, Myself, John Hensley Williams, McKenzie Hudgins, Keith Andersen, and Charles Whitaker. The other four are from West Point, so I am the solo non-army representative just to keep some balance :p There has already been a lot of banter between us!

 

Yesterday was the Opening Ceremony to kick off the competition. We were lead to a public park not far from the hotel and lined up. We picked Keith to carry the flag since he is the eldest and is doing a great job at being both a competitor and our team leader. We were filled into an Open-air Theater to enjoy the welcoming speeches promises by the athletes and judges to abide by the rule, and a performance. The performance consisted of a dance routine with fire and ribbon dancers. At first I  found the performance a bit odd but once it started to build, it was actually quite cool! The only thing I didn't enjoy was sitting in the direct sun for the whole of it and having a hole in my tummy from not having dinner before. It was a late night because of that since we had to have dinner after the ceremony. 

Bring on the races! First up the Long!

Please don't forget about my Chip-in! Being a student means limited funds sadly :(

WUOC - Training

Now arrived in Alicante for the World University Orienteering Championships! The last two days the team has spent training and trying to stay cool (VERY HOT OUT!)

The first day we were lucky enough that the swiss had sorted transportation to a local event. The event was on the lower part of the middle map and so excellent training! It was over 6km long though so I decided to cut it shorter and just take it slow and get into the mapping style. Even doing that though I managed to run off the map into a parallel reentrant. OPS! The ground is also very rocky underfoot, so debating what shoes to wear. I ended up skipping 6 to 9 and then 10 to 15. Was getting hot and I had been out for a while anyway.

 

Map of the Local event.

Today we got up early and went to the model event. Again it was Middle/relay relevant, however I'm not fully sure it was. The controls were a bit easy after you sorted out the vegetation and the map seemed a lot more simplified than the one of the Middle/relay. However it was nice to get out and tested some routes so i know not to go straight now when there is a trail even if you have to drop down to the trail and then back up to the control. Also still VERY rocky underfoot! so slow going in some places. The rock features were distinct which is nice as i was a bit worried it was just going to be contours and green.

Model Map

On the social side of things :)

It was the Euro Cup final last night. Spain vs. Italy. Some of the team went into Alicante to watch it but I was tired and didn't want to get back late so stayed and watched it in canteen. However that meant we had both the Spanish and Italian team there watching. Not quite as much banter as we would have liked though. Still you could hear the fireworks after Spain had won from the hotel.

View from Hotel Window

Then after the model event today we all went 100m to the beach to go swimming :) The water was nice and blue and just the right temperature for an after run swim. It was very salty water though!


Tonight is the Opening Ceremony and then the Competition starts tomorrow with the Long Distance.

Please don't forget my Chip-In on the right hand side of this blog. Any help would be greatly appreciated and I hope to keep posting here through out the week so that everyone hears how am doing.

Running with 1200 others? - it's the Venla relay!

This last weekend I got the chance to run in one of the largest orienteering relays in the world! Venla is the women's relay run before Jukola. On a side note, I learnt the background story from my amazing host family the Raitanens. There is a finish story written in the 1800s about the 7 Jukola brothers which is why there are 7 legs and it's called Jukola. The Jukola brothers had a sister and her name was Venla.


I ran the first leg for DVOAs team. It was crazy at the start. You went in to the warm up area, got your emit brick cleared and checked and then the size of the event hit you. The warm up area was huge! there was a long wooden fence built for the map exchange and not signs of every 10 numbers like in the states if we had this but by the 100s! Then while warming up you noticed all the cameras placed around the arena. Video cameras on long arms to get right over the runners like at big sports events. But that's when I realized - this is a big sports event! This was going to be shown on tv in Finland and Sweden. I started to get a bit nervous then, my starting position was in the sixth row! 6 out of around 52!

We all got to the start line and the countdown (in two languages) began. At 1 minute to go we got our maps handed to us. At 30 seconds to go you heard hundreds of garmin watches being started "bleep bleep bleep". By 15 seconds to go you could really feel the energy of everyone wanting to go, like race horses in there box before a big race. Then... BAM the gun to start everything off. I was told it was loud and sounded like a cannon going off, on the start line the loud sound was ignored after the first hint of the sound, the focus had already turned to "get to the start triangle first". Which considering it was ~1km just to the start that would be a challenge. It seemed to go on forever! Felt like a cross-country race in a way. Tons of girls, elbows flying, everyone jostling for position and two nice hills. And the real race hadn't even begun! Here is a Link to Wyatt's Video of the start of the race

Leg 1 - My quickroute

By the start I had lost my 157th place but I wasn't worried. I was worried when I hit bare rock before my control though! Some how I had gotten pulled off my line and the sinking feeling of "I have no idea where I am" came. But there were LOADS of others just the same. People forming groups once they realized they were looking for the same control. You just hard "72? 72?" "31? 31?". Eventually after quite a bit of sweep searching and almost turning to go back to the start I found 72, my first control. I knew now it was going to be the hard task of keeping focused, pushing the first control out of my mind, and resisting the urge to just run to make up places.

The second control I over shot but was fairly quick to recover. But at that point I knew I had to push the race out of my mind and focus on the task of one control at a time or I would keep over running. The rest of the course went much better. Few bobbles, so far from a clean run, but respectable after my disaster of one. And for the first time ever it was not my speed or my navigation that was fully holding me back, it was the line of people going to each control! Now having the line there helped my confidence in navigation, so helped a lot. But found myself trying just as hard to pass people and move ahead. I apparently passes over 300 teams from 1 to the finish. Now one might be thinking "why run with so many people? What's the fun of that? There is no challenge of navigating" well I'm going to disagree. It was a new challenge of making sure you were picking the right line of people to follow, picking which trails where made by orienteers and which were on the map, and the main thing to not get panicky with so many people out there and just run your own race. Plus it was pretty cool to drop out of the woods and on to the bridge into the finish with so many people around.

I passed off to Sandy F who had a very clean run gaining us more places. Then it was Dasha's turn to go out of leg 3, who gained even more places and came back with a smile on her face. Then the stormer of a run came from Zan to land the team in 543 place. GO DVOA!!!

After having a great time racing Venla it was time to stay up all night to watch JUKOLA! CRAZY!!! So many lights.

Now the count down to WUOC! Off to Ireland to train before hand. Arriving in Spain on the 29th for the model events. Please don't forget about my ChipIn on the right hand side of this page. I want to thank everyone who has already supported me!

DVOA Goes to Jukola

After 5 years DVOA is again returning to Jukola! Sending a full male and female team.

This year Jukola and Venla are being held just 10km away from the Helsinki-Vantaa airport. This is the home area of Alisa Raitanen who was an exchange student last year outside Philadelphia and joined DVOA. I am arriving on the 14th of June and getting a chance to stay with Alisa and hopefully get some training in. I will be peaking her brains for some local knowledge tips! It will be nice to arrive to a friendly face and catch up with her before racing. Easier to keep your cool about starting a huge relay event when your around friends!

So a little bit about Jukola for those who are unsure what it actually is. This year is the 64th Jukola Relay and the 35th Venla Relay,  and is taking place the 16th and 17th of June. They are always in Finland and the largest relay events held in the world.
Venla is run first and is a womens’ relay competition with four legs. Venla is run fully in the daylight with legs this year ranging from 5.9km to 8.5km with an expected winning time of 2 hr 54 mins (these girls are moving!) DVOA's team this year is Me on first leg (mass start at 2pm), Sandy Fillebrown running 2nd, Dasha Babushok running 3rd, and Suzanne Armstrong bringing us home. I'm excited about starting us off and also a little nervous because there are so many teams! And by many teams try ~1258 just for Venla! It is going to take a lot of concentration and making sure I check my control codes. With that many teams out the whole event is forked (not everyone runs exactly the same course but comparable), probably many forks.

Start of Jukola

 Having done some reading they are changing the start procedure this year though. Instead of the maps being up on wire like the photo above they are going to be handed out minutes before the relay starts by officials. So at least I don't have to worry about not being able to reach my map and getting trampled! only have to make sure i'm standing at the right band on the ground to get the right map.



Jukola is a men's relay competition (although some women will run in it) with seven legs for teams from orienteering clubs and associations. Jukola starts at 10:30pm which is daylight/dusk in finland and run through the night, with around 2-3 legs running in the dark. Jukola legs this year range from 7.8km and ending with a 15km leg. The expected winning time for this year is 7 hrs 58 mins (these guys are not hanging around!) DVOA's team is Vadim Masalkov, Clem McGrath, Greg Balter, Sergei Zhyk, Nate Orwaschel, Eddie Bergeron, and Wyatt Riley. They are racing agents ~1663 other teams!

Looking at the maps of the area it looks technical like you would expect in Finland. Smaller hills with lots of bare rock on them and the low flat areas generally marsh. I'm hoping to find out in training if the marshes are fast or shoe sucking. I think contours are going to be key and knowing when to slow down a bit even though there are loads of other orienteers around. From the website "The scale is 1:10 000, contour interval 5 m, six colours, in accordance with the IOF standards and will be printed in March 2012. The maps are in plastic map cases. The map is drawn by Pekka Rytkönen (2010–2011). The electronic punching system (Emit) will be in use." Emit should be interesting to use again. I have only used the Emit bricks at the JWOC in Denmark and I didn't particularly like them as they have to fit into the control box exactly the right way. However,  for an event like this I can understand why they use them since a piece of paper is also attached to your brick and is pin punched at each control at the same time.

So we have 25 days left of training and lot of map geeking to do before the big event! I hope people will wish us luck and watch from home! GO DVOA!

DVOA Venla Team 2007 (photo: Karl Ahlswede)

DVOA Jukola Team 2007 (photo: Sandy Ahlswede)

Please don't forget that I have a chipin going on the right hand side of my blog. Any donations are greatly appreciated as I prepare for Venla and WUOC this summer!

First Year at Heriot-Watt Finished!

I am now finished with my first year here at Heriot-Watt and its flown by! I can't believe its over already. Looking back though it has been a hard year, with quite a few ups and downs. That being said I am very happy I'm here and enjoying the course!

This year I took 8 modules. The 4 in the first semester were Principles of Chemistry, Process Industries A, EPS Maths 1, and Foundations of Engineering A (ie Physics). I have to say I was very glad first semester I had done the year in Boulder. The pace material was presented was quick and it took a few weeks to get used to the system. For example in maths who puts a . at the bottom of a number like a decimal point but actually mean multiplication and then in the middle of the number be a decimal! That messed with my head for a while before I worked out what was going on. Also some of the equations in physics had different variables then I was taught with. But first semester went well academically for the most part. In Process Industries we had a site visit to INEOS. It was exciting to be able to see right from the start how we could apply the things we were learning in the future.
The second semester consisted of a continuation of Chemistry, Process Industries B, EPS Maths 2, and Foundations of Engineering B (ie. Biology). Second semester involved a lot more new material but I had figured things out so that was fine. I struggled with understanding Organic Chemistry, but very glad to have helpful understanding course mates. I was able to then give back in Biology as I had really enjoyed my course in Colorado. The one here had the disadvantage of being the first year it was taught, and our professor liked to use the work "Ok", even in the middle of a sentence. The first year Chem Eng class became quite close in the past few weeks as we studied for our two 3 hr exams in Chemistry and Process Industries, and then two 2hr exams in Maths and Biology. Many hours were spent notes spread across the long tables in the canteen trying hard to memorize endless formulas and working through as many past papers as we could get our hands on.

I was able to have time this year for things other than academics as well which was nice. I joined Heriot-Watts Athletics club and met many people in higher years through that which was nice. Great to walk around the halls and have people randomly say hi to you. But the BEST part was to have people to train with! To be able to have people waiting for a training session on a Monday night and then a coach on Wednesday afternoons was wonderful. Almost like high school cross country. We are also a small club here. However hopefully I can help that to change as I have been elected as Vice President of the club for next year! A guy named Ross is our President and the two of us have big plans to improve the club. YOU WATT!!!!
I was also able to join Edinburgh University's Orienteering Club (EUOC) since Heriot-Watt doesn't have one. Its been such a change to live near so many maps and orienteers! I didn't train with the club as much as I would have liked or should have, but hopefully that will change next year. I was living on campus this year and was harder to get places being on the outskirts of the city. Next year however, I'm going to be living just out of the city center in a flat with my friend Ashleigh from athletics. I cannot wait! I cannot wait to live with Ashleigh and off campus, to be able to cook my own food, and most of all be closer to things in the city like EUOC training in the meadows.

Now though it is on to summer and all the fun events that I'm planning. First up Vennala!
(also please don't forget my chipin on the right. I'm trying to raise $750 to pay for my WUOC entry fees)

WUOC 2012 Here We Come!

Despite this being a late post (silly exams!), I am very excited to say I have been selected on to the USA 2012 WUOC team! The World University Orienteering Championships are being held in Alicante, Spain from the 30th of June to the 7th of July. That gives me 8 weeks and 3 days to finish preparing.



A bit about Alicante from research online: 

 Alicante is located on the East coast of Spain.
It has a very mountainous landscape in the north and west regions, however the south is fairly flat, with the Segura River flowing eastwards through the area.

It can get as hot as 40C (or 104F) in August, so glad we are racing earlier in the summer, as July is only 30C (86F). a bit cooler!

Alicante is the 8th largest city in Spain, and quite a large tourist destination.

 

Now a bit about WUOC its self:

 The scheduled of Events is as follows:

The Long area is new and is said to be very uneven rocky ground, speed, and semi-open pine forest. It looks to possibly be a new sprint area as well. It is said to be an urban area with a network of city roads and paved bicycle paths. There are however maps of the middle and relay areas. It is called Santa Pola and many copies of them can be found on World of O. They all look to be quite green, very steep, and detailed. Concentration, planing, and fitness are going to be key!

The actual course distances that are published now are:

 I am still refining my goals for the event. The focus however is going to be on process. Process, Process, PROCESS! I have been learning a lot training in Scotland. I have learned from racing on new terrain and speaking to the top athletes that having a plan, sticking to the plan, and just focusing on the process is the key to success. I'm still working on making sure I do that and breaking my habit of thinking about the outcome. I want to thank Colm personally for putting up with me and helping me as I learn this. 

So the next 8weeks will be spent perfecting a process that works for me and just boosting my general fitness.

I'm going to use this opportunity to ask some help from my supporters. In order for me to go to the World University Orienteering Championships I have to pay the $750 entry and accommodation fee, plus airfare. Being a student studying chemical engineering at Heriot-Watt University I have been extremely busy studying and training. I would be very grateful to anyone who donated even $1 to my chipin to support my efforts. In return I promise to keep my blog up to date as quickly. Thank you for any support!

Petitions and the Importance of Goals

As many people know the USA 2012 WOC team was announced last weekend after the USA Individual Championships held in Georgia, which acted as the Team Trials. Some people may have noticed that my name didn't show up on any lists even though I had been saying I was going to petition to be on the team. And that was the plan... Up until the JK where afterwards I had to make a hard decision.

Although making it on to the Senior team this year being a first year W21 was a long shot in itself, I had always planned on putting in a petition anyway. I had thought "why not! at least to just to see where I might stand." After the British Sprint and Middle championships thought I noticed that I was lacking any clear goals (this was slightly apparent before but became pretty much "deer in the headlights" after). I had gone into the championships with the "I'll see where I fall and get an idea of the standard here" mind set. Which being my first major race in the UK as a senior was probably not a bad plan. Afterwards though I had a better idea of where I stood and I think started making unsaid goals without really realising it. Then came the JK and I wasn't anywhere near where I was hoping. I was upset with myself. I had no proper goals.

After the JK I spent quite a few days going in circles of why I wanted to compete at this level. I talked to many people to get there input on a few thoughts. Thought a lot about where I wanted to go with the sport, goals, and training. But it then came down to the night I had to put in my WOC petition. I was there until almost midnight frantically typing and gathering data for the petition. It was all ready to send in. I had one more conversation and than made the hardest decision I've had to in a while.

I decided I wasn't ready for WOC and that putting in a petition for the USA team even if it was just to "see where I stood" was not what I needed mentally at this moment in time. Being first year W21, I realize that I am not yet at my peak physically to challenge to make a WOC Final. So have decided I want to focus solely on WUOC and aim for WOC in the coming year. This gives me more time to make a plan, some goals and integrate/progress a long side those that partake in the elite performance center here in Edinburgh. I feel waiting a year before challenging for WOC will give me a chance to close the gap physically that currently exists between me and those that have already established themselves as World Class athletes, both here in the UK and across the rest of Europe where the standard is unforgiving.

I have been exposed to a whole new competition field here in the UK and have yet to find my way around, although figuring it out. There is much more depth here than in the states which I'm slowly getting used to. And then the JK attracted elites from other countries as well, many more than I was expecting. I am glad to have this exposure to a larger competition field on a more regular basis. It is nice to be able to see what is truly possible and have that reality check during events that are not World Championships. Also, after racing with EUOC more I have gotten a better idea of where I stand with the girls and it is nice to see that with some hard work I could be up with them as well. The key is going to be to have goals though and believe in them. I have been swimming around a bit with no clear direction in training. Being in Edinburgh has opened my eyes up to so many more possibilities and I think I have stopped settling for mediocre results just because "I'm from the states". Nope I can be as good as them! and I will be with some consistent, focused training.

So we wait now to see the results from the Intercollegiate Championships and the naming of the USA WUOC team. I hope I am given the chance to represent USA in Spain this July!

My First JK

So a bit late on posting about the JK, but better late than never right? And a visit from my Mum to keep me busy I believe is a good excuse!  The Jan Kjellstrom - or JK to most - is an event held annually over Easter weekend and is the premier UK event attracting top competitors from various countries. This year its base was around Perth, Scotland. The event is comprised of 4 days of racing with a Sprint (Friday), Middle (Saturday), Long (Sunday) and Relay (Monday). I raced in the W21e category which meant our Middle was a WRE (world ranking event). I had a few ideas on how well I was wanting to do this weekend, but I wouldn't say it was clear enough to be a goal. This might be where some of my issues were, but more on that later. The Sprint was in Livingston so comprised of mostly an urban race with a little bit in a more "forested" area. I had quite an early start and for some reason unknown to me that meant I arrived way early for my start. So jogged around and did a lot of stretching, but mostly tried to get my head in the game. Finally my start time rolled around and Beep, Beep, Beep,Beep... BEEP.... I was off on my first JK sprint. Poor route choice to one but went with it, fine to two, and boy was three a tricky one! there was a lot of talk about out of bounds leading up to the event and so I automatically went under the underpass and ruled out the main road knowing it was out of bounds. However quickly figured out that wasn't right and stood around scratching my head thinking "there is no legal way to this control!". Not what you want to do when your supposed to be "elite". finally worked out that I was allowed on what they were calling a Curb and got 3. After that had no real problems (other than 17 which i ran passed) other than a few bobbles and looking back not ideal routes but was starting to feel like an "elite". Came to the end of my course and I had caught up Olivia from NI and it was a sprint into the finish to try and beat her in. A sprint that I might add Colm never noticed as he didn't realise it was me with Olivia. I guess that serves my right for wearing a plan blue top!

Sprint Map

 

Olivia and I coming into the "GO" control

I didn't do as well in the Sprint as I would have liked which meant I really wasn't in a good and confident mind frame for the Middle on Dunalastair the next day. Running the warm up map on the way to the start also didn't help things. Nothing was fitting! I got to the starting line and managed to calm myself enough to be yawning, which I was taking as a good sign. Right from the start though the map was still not making sense. The green around control 1 I couldn't make heads nor tales of. Then control 3 I kept stopping short from the fact that there was a distinct vegetation change almost at it which wasn't on the map. By this time the Swede that started behind me had caught me and we both struggled to 4. It was nice to know at that point I wasn't the only one having troubles. After control 5 however things went pretty smoothly. I didn't even notice that I went past a "spectator" section near the water. I had found a zone, and it was nice to have the Swede there with us both pushing the pace. We both made a slight parallel mistake going to control 16 however I caught it quite quickly and took off determined to make up a bit of time on her, but made sure to keep making plans and sticking on the map.

Middle Course with Route

Day three brought us the long on one of the most difficult areas in Scotland I have been told - Craig a Barns. and if the journey to the start didn't give away that it was going to be physically challenging I don't know what would! It was a VERY steep climb the last bit, so it was the one day I was glad I got to the start super early so that I could fully recover! I was in a better mental state starting this course which I liked. However, control one didn't really help that. I managed to hit a rock wall at about 90degrees off from what I wanted. I'm proud though of the fact that I managed to instantly realise that! A major improvement from the USA team trails last year. So really it was a confidence boost in disguise once I worked it out. The next few controls went well apart from struggling around and over fallen trees which made up the green on the map in this area. Control 5 however I was lucky. I didn't really have a plan for this leg and decided to just run for the near trail and decide as I went. It worked out but not a good idea on my part! I knew I lost time as the very end of the leg I was caught by the same Swede. Again it was a battle round, flip flopping who was reading well. The green by 6-9 I found very hard to navigate in. I'm actually really glad Ruairi came along and lead me into 9 or I feel I could have been bashing around for a bit. Was getting a bit tired but pushed on. Was hitting things fairly well until 14- 16 in which i was glad there were quite a few people around. I felt like I was having such a hard time telling which bush was which and not wanting to lose too much height. Again it was a sprint into the finish against me and the Swede.

I wasn't about to let her beat me in!

 

 

 

Long map with route 

 

 

 

 

Last race - The relay at Newtyle. This was my first relay running for EUOC, and I was excited! I got to run the first leg of our 3rd team. The buzz at the starting line was exciting and a bit nerve wreaking. But once the whistle blew and we were off I felt good. Right up the hill for the first controls. Felt slow but the leaders weren't getting away as quickly as I first thought which was nice. Right to the top of the hill for 2-3. This whole course felt much easier navigation after the Long! A few bobbles in places but mostly just felt tired. However could see Kirstin who was on EUOC 2nd team ahead of me which pushed me on from wanting to be finishing close to her. I was with another girl from about 4 onwards and we were going to all the same controls until the last one. I had a wee panic, triple checked my control codes and kept going. The run in felt like it went on for ages! But handed off to Isla who was running 2nd leg in 14th place, only ~4mins behind the leaders and ~2 behind kirstin. Quite happy with this run which was the first time I had felt that all weekend.

Relay map with route

So although I didn't do as well as I wanted. And there were a few tears and a lot of doubt. Looking back it was a very good learning experience for me. And I didn't really race as badly as I thought. Full results for the whole event can be found here.

JK Training

We have just had a gorgeous week in Edinburgh. So who wanted to stay in doors when one could be enjoying the sunshine and preparing for the JK? I have to say not me!

Monday after the BOC event I took as a rest day. Had a lovely cycle into town to meet up with Lauren though and went for a walk around Blackford Hill in the nice weather!

Reminded me why I love Edinburgh so much!

 
Tuesday brought another nice day and it was down to the meadows for EUOC intervals. My legs were still feeling dead however and still wasn't feeling 100% better from my cold so had a steady run around Arthur's Seat with Lauren and Cat. It was so nice to be running with people again and it was nice to have a chat with them about training and recovering from races.

Wednesday I met up with Rona and Kirsten for some training at Bonaly. I cycled there and oh my was the hill up a killer! I felt like I could have run there quicker! But it was such a nice day out that I didn't really mind and the way I took back a long the Water of Leith was nice. So for training I ran the FwtN long course that I missed. However, I ran it only a few controls at a time. Every 3-4 controls I put my map down walked back and practiced restarting a course. I think it really helped. Also there were quite a few groups out and about having BBQs or mountain biking and having them watch me helped me remember I need to ignore others while out. I found the map a bit odd in a few places but was thoroughly enjoying be outside in the sun. I also learned from this my legs were still feeling dead and I should do a few more runs on the trails around there and get in some heather running. Hard work!

Map! skipped out 20 and 21 as running out of time.

Thursday was meant to be an easy lap of campus but decided I would bike out to Portabello bench to join EUOC for a BBQ there and that the ~35km ride would be enough for the day. It was a lovely day although a bit cooler than previous. We even went swimming in the sea! and the BBQ was great even with all the sand :)

Friday brought another lovely day and the start of Easter Holidays, which I started with a run around campus. And it is a "morning" run (ie 10am) that I actually enjoyed greatly! After that it was on the train to come stay with my Aunt, Uncle and cousin in Falkirk. Great to be around family and not stuck in empty halls. And it is really nice to be around family I haven't really gotten a chance to know all that well other than in the summers when I grew up.

Saturday was my cousins birthday so we had cake and played with the baby Thomas. I was feeling tired and legs just had no energy so the training for today was spending a bit of time looking at old maps. Need to be doing some more geeking in the coming week though.

Especially as Sunday brought an EUOC trip to Livingston to run the training courses for the JK. I ran both of the Urban sprints focusing on A) the start, so tried to replicate a race start as much as I could by putting the map down on the ground unfolded and such. I think that is really helping and I'm gaining more of a habit/routine out of it. and B) making sure I had a plan for the next control going into the previous. I was trying to have the whole plan and not just which way I was exiting as in the housing developments the route really does determine how you leave and was trying hard to practice looking for traps. After the two urban sprints I decided to run a few controls in Calder Woods. They didn't go as well. I was confused by the map. thankfully though I was quickly running out of time so bailed before my mental aditude from this training day turned bad. Was so glad to be out with EUOC people so much this week!

British Sprint and Middle Championships

March 24th and 25th brought the British Spring and Middle Championships in York. There was a bit of a panic over accommodation and transport to start with as EUOC was not going as a club. But that all got sorted...eventually.

After a long car ride down to york and a night sleeping in a tent, we woke up to it being quite foggy out as we made our way to the Bus for the sprint. The sprint was help at York University and consisted of heats in the morning and finals in the afternoon. I ran the Women's C heat in the morning. It was a course of 2.4km, 20m climb, 19 controls with 28 women racing, but only the top 6 would make it into the final.


I made such a muck up coming out of the start. I had not mentally gotten into the task at hand and just was worried about running fast and having a good run. Not the way you want to start your first British champs event! After punching the first control though I was able to sort of restart my thought process and really got into the map afterwards. Was feeling much better! Flow was back and a bit of speed and was planning pretty well. Over all I wanted to be happy about this race but knew I needed to change how i dealt with the start that afternoon. Here are the results W21-C, and as you can see there was a very strong field won by Linnea Gustafsson current World Champion.

Running into the GO control!

After some food and a pep talk from Colm it was time to race again. Racing in the B final took some pressure off me but was still nervous about the start. Got there in loads of time and just played through my head what i talked to Colm about. when I heard the long beep of my start I was ready to kick butt. I had a fairly clean race with only a few hesitations and it landed me in 12th in the final. Feeling thats not to bad considering I was sick all week. And it was my first WRE run!


The Sunday brought the Middle Championships at Strensall Common. It started off being a VERY foggy morning as we drove to the event, but just as we were turning into the park the sun came out and the fog burnt off giving us a lovely day! The warm up map to the start I think was key today! The map was flatter than I have ever seen, which was emphasized by the fact that the course climb was 0m, yes zero! never seen that before! However, the warm up map also showed that it was going to be tough underfoot with all the ground being fairly tuskety and full of pits. I was having a hard time putting things together on the warm up to the start. I tired my best to again run through my head what Colm had said yesterday and it worked for getting me to the first control, even if it was slow. I still wasn't feeling fully in the race though. I had hit the first two controls ok and my mind switched over to thinking about outcome and how I needed to race well today. What frustrated me the most was I knew when on the course I needed to switch my train of thought, that in order to do well I needed to have a clean process based run. I finally was able to switch over after control 7 and have a good run. I ended up placing 22nd in W21E



I think the thing I learned the most this weekend is that I have actually put in time to train and that I am actually at a higher standard than I first thought I was. I was a bit intimidated by running against the elite Brits. But that is gone and I'm looking forward to bringing my A game to the JK and being up there in the mix.

British Univeristy Champs (BUCS)

The weekend of may 17th and 18th I boarded the mini buses with EUOC for our road trip down to the lake district. Cambridge University Orienteering Club was holding BUCS and it was guaranteed to be a good weekend.

We stayed at a travellodge friday night, not fair from Saturdays event. The weather forecast for the day was promising snow and rain so we were bundled up for the worst. However when we arrived at ambelside the sun was shinning, however the muddy ground reminded us that could quickly change. The map we were running on was Loughrigg, which featured open moorland. It was fast and great visibility so key was to keep looking up. I ran the Women's A Course which was 4.9km with 12 controls.

I was expecting things to be a lot more technical and small mistakes to be punished quickly. However, I actually found this course to be quite easy and the slip up I had on control 9 was a mental block which I was able to easily find the root of after finishing and sort out since. I did have the luxury of starting 1 minute in front of Jessica Orr which meant the two of us were pushing each other around the course flip flopping who was leading. She got away when I slipped up on my compass coming out of 8, but I had a solid run afterwards as well which is nice to see that I can keep that pace even without someone around me. And I was able to finish just before the rain started!

The race wasn't over though! It was quickly off to the mini buses and winding our way through the country side on the hunt for showers and race to get dressed for the social that evening. The ceildh theme was "university city" and so in true EUOC style we topped every one showing up as Pandas in Kilts:


The Sunday was the relay. It took place at Bigland, open rolling fields with many rock walls and a quite technical section in the woods. Great for an exciting relay! Sadly because I was the only one from heriot-watt it was slightly less exciting but had a brilliant adhoc (no competitive) relay. I was tagged of by Laura Ramstein (she has run JWOC for Austria) into a lead of around 30seconds over the second Adhoc team. I had a generally clean run on the second leg:

Slight bobble going to control 2 just was too far left and had to come back at it. But once I got into the woods i was feeling on fire. Was just moving quite well, had a plan and was only hesitant in a few places. It was such a nice confidence booster to have a good run in a more technical area. And to come storming through the finish to tag off to peter G (old EUOC member who likes to think he is still a student :p). Peter G had a great run and like the EUOC girls we managed to beat the second Adhoc team by a few seconds. In the end EUOC girls swept the relay, the boys were 1st and 3rd (after a bit of drama over hoping uncrossable walls, KEY lesson: READ THE FINAL DETAILS!), and the adhoc team made it a clean sweep as really we were all EUOC.

It was a lovely weekend spent with EUOC and i'm not hungry for next year. And I already have another runner from heriot-watt!