British Univeristy Champsionships - YOU WATT!

February 22nd and 23rd was the British University Orienteering Championships (BUCS) down near Leeds, UK. I was lucky enough to have 4 others from Heriot Watt joining me at BUCS this year!


The trip started with a long mini bus journey down to just north of Leeds with some of the guys from EUOC. We ended at Jack Woods house where his parents kindly let us sleep on their living room floor. There the buzz of BUCS started and people were starting to discuss their plans for the individual the next day. Then the Glasgow team joined us late that night bringing along our last team member for Heriot Watt. We finally got to bed and I was quite comfortable in my sleeping bag when at about 5am the alarm in the house went off. We had been warned that the burglar alarm was acting up but gosh that gave me a fright. Had a bit of a hard time getting back to sleep after that but managed to get a good enough nights sleep :)

Got up fairly early, had a champions breakfast and set off to the Individual event. The Individual event was being held on Ilkley Moor. Despite all the rain at night it was slowly clearing up which was nice. I was fearing having to navigate the moor land in the fog. By the time I got to the start though the sun was out and it was perfect running weather! This year I had a fairly late start time. Only about 4 or 5 girls starting behind me. But tried hard not to think about people who were starting near me or placing or anything. I had been worried all week about placing and was I going to mange the top ten result that I wanted or not. So the warm up to the start and everything was focused on warming my legs up, what the technical things people had told me about the map and trying hard to just visualise running smoothly through the terrain and no hesitations. I was ready to start :)

 

I had a great run! I was a bit hesitant or at least a bit slower than I maybe should have been at the start of the course but was hitting things fine. Had my first real bobble on control 5 where I had just come out of the 4th control too far to the north and hit the bottom instead of the top of the rock wall I wanted. Then it was back up into the moor land where I started to find out that I could easily navigate faster than I could run. So looks like there needs to be some more pentland runs (or at least hills) in my training. But managed fine. The next challenge though was the monster of a long leg! I really should have looked at it a bit more climbing the hill up to 8. But I think overall I picked not too bad of a route. Was able to pretty much stay on tracks the whole way. Was able to keep moving and not feel like I was totally out of contact with where I was along the leg. Wasn't able to follow the path that well through the detailed rock, lost it quite a few times. But always had my eyes on the forest ahead and was able to get through it. Then had a bobble on control 11 I think just because I thought "oh this is short I can easily do this!" and just wasn't paying as much attention as before. I'll then be honest I'm not 100% sure how i did controls 14-16. They just kinda worked and things were popping up just where I was wanting them to and the controls just were there! It was a great feeling. Came back and downloaded and found out I was 3rd on the course! So went for a cool down and waited for the other girls to come in. 

In the final results I ended up in 8th place. So very happy about that as hit my top ten goal and up from 13th place from last year. Also was nice as I'm 8th place out of the girls that are competing for the British WUOC team and not that far behind them! Heriot Watt as a team also came 8th in the overall points after day one!

taken by P.Y. Photographic

The sunday was then the relay. As I didn't have 3 girls at the event Lauren and I teamed up with our EUOC teammate Rachel and ran the Adhoc relay. We did however have 3 guys so they ran in the mens relay and gave it a great fight!

I ran the 1st leg in the Adhoc relay. was nice and battled it out with Sophie from Imperial. Had a bobble at control 4 thinking it was on the further bush clump then it was and had to come back at it. Think there were more clumps then on the map. Then was doing well and just ahead of Sophie before messing up control 7. Went too far again, never seeing the big boulder at the top of the clearing like i was wanting and ended up getting sucked into sophie's control on a boulder just past the field :/ Stupid mistake! Then another bobble on control 10 was too far west but wanted to be west anyway just not that far. Got to the control and saw there was a path basically built to it not on the map :/ Then had the longer last gaffle then sophie at the end. So ended up coming in about 30secs behind her passing off to Lauren.

So bit to relaxed in a few places but not at bad run.

Girls came 2nd in the Adhoc relay and the guys were 20th. That put us in 9th place overall! our best result so far! 

WOC Long Quali

Well I can now say I've been to a WOC race! It was fun to watch but actually not as big a thing as I was thinking it would be. However, It was only a qualification so that is probably why. The big dogs were taking it easy knowing they were going to qualify so just running to make sure that happens and the rest... running flat out trying to have clean runs hoping to make the cut off!





It was fun to be able to cheer for many countries today and have loads of friends and teammates running! The USA did quite well having strong runs and Ali making the final. Ireland were loud and cheery as normal with many of them also having strong runs, with Nick making the final and Neil just on the cut off but not quite making it. Then came the excitement of watching/hearing that Cat Taylor from GB had caught Minna Kauppi by the 3 mins that had separated them at the start. It was a nail biting and adrenaline rushing time waiting for them to finish. But Cat managed to hold on to the lead and came back to win the heat! Very exciting! Was cool to have all the GPS tracking to watch and video footage from the forest. Made me really want to get out on the long terrain it looks amazing! 
Here is a video from the car drive there which kinda gives you a taste as to what it is like: 

Sprint Prep!

Today was the sprint models! 
 I am running the sprint as my race here at WOC. It will take place on Monday July 8th at 08:00
For more information on the whole of WOC go to WorldofO: WOC 2013- all you need to know

Sprint Qualification
We were only allowed on the maps for 3hrs this morning before the embargo goes back on the area. 5 of us drove to the Qualification map first to check it out. We got there a little early so drove around to just look in on the map and see what we could of the arena.



Glad we got there early as was able to have a walk around and check things out before it really started pouring out! I walked around with Wyatt and went through how different trails where mapped (big ones were mapped more like roads), which rocks were mapped (looked like 1m+), and how hedges were mapped. Doesn't look like a terribly technical map and is going to be a very compass and run qualification. I think the biggest thing will be to make sure you know which buildings are around you and what side of hedges the controls are going to be on. That being said it doesn't look as if any of the hedges are actually out of bounds so one could crash through them (even some which are nice rose beds). The question will be is it worth it? Probably not but if you get stuck it was nice to know you could push through if you had to. Also it was nice to decide what to wear. Because of all the hedges and how easy the woods were to run through I'm going to wear fully leg cover and possibly even dobbs, as it did rain a lot today! Getting excited!

Sprint Final

We then drove about 15mins to Sotkamo where the sprint final and opening ceremony are going to take place. We managed to miss most of the heavy rain which was nice. I ran the course here in order as the officials said the out of bounds and taping they had done to demonstrate how it will be on the day were up for that direction of running (ie front not back of things as well). I didn't run it all out but was wanting to get another sense of things at a bit of speed. Think I did actually cross an out of bounds hedge going to 1 (if it is the darkest green on the map, generally used for hedges, you are not allowed to cross it in a sprint race). But then the distinct tree (green dot) next to the control was actually a play swing instead :/
No other real troubles while running the course. Was glad to have streamers up around some of the olive green though! Olive green is another out of bounds color, generally used for gardens around buildings and other flower beds. It is again illegal to go through them.
I then walked back out towards 5 to check out the difference between the yellow and olive green on the north part of the map. In places it wasn't super obvious where the line was but we believe it will be streamered if a route goes near it. Wyatt then picked a few more places for controls for me and he shadowed/met me at most of them and then we chatted about it. Very useful! Other people were saying that fences were mostly uncrossable on the map (designated by a black line with two ticks coming off it, like control 5), yet were easily cross-able in reality. I didn't really notice this but I generally plane to not cross fences anyway with being short and not the best hurdler. We then managed to hop back in the car before it really started pouring with rain again!

Technical Model
This afternoon is going to be a rest up and get ready for racing! We did the "technical" model as well. This is where a starting line procedure is set up for us to walk through and a control or two and this time they had a drinks station as well so people running the longer distances could try the sports drink. On paper it seemed very confusing as have to get control descriptions and a GPS unit (if that race is getting them) and a map all during this time and three different lanes you have to make sure to go in the right one of. But yeah on the ground no problem!

Training and Model events

Started training as soon as I could to start getting used to maps here.
The first map that I ran on was a sprint map of Kajanni which is a town down the road from the event centre. I got a map off Ali/Alex

Wyatt came with me and really set up the start bit for me, giving me control descriptions first then a minute later the map as my start and having me stand a bit away to the start like the real race. This was a really fun sprint. The plan was to take the first part just under race pace to see what things were tripping me up and then ease off towards the end. Not sure I really eased off that much as was enjoying myself :)

I didn't really notice the route kinda backwards out of 1 until most of the way to 2 but thing I managed to just pick fast enough. However still think it was better going backwards out of the control so that is something I'm not going to remember to think about. Another thing was 3 I actually didn't go to the right wall corner. So on your descriptions there are many different columns to them. Here is a great breakdown of them from IOF:

And I noticed that on this sprint I wasn't really using the "G" column enough, the "location of the control flag". I had looked at it and saw it was the wall inner corner NW. However having my map reading it going south it matched up the control code and had there been a control there it would have been a "SH*T" moment. So will be studying these a bit more with the map in different orientations I think.


Some other things I had a little trouble with was a route from 5 to 6. I went left but after talking to wyatt I do think right is better now. As you would go through less of the woods which in this area was actually quite crappy! Which I also found out going to 7 and manage to actually over run as didn't really notice the clearing very well.

Most of the other controls went well and only had small bobbles when a fence was closed that I didn't realise was the opening I wanted and then an underpass was actually a closed on driveway. But it was cool to run around and even like go out to the little island with people picnicking and no one gave you weird looks! Everyone was pretty like oh yeah this is normal.

Local Event: Wyatt and I then drove to a local event to get some terrain running in. It was on a map called matinmakj-lentokentta and I decided to run the short 3.6ish course.

I had a bit of issues with the first control as didn't think I climbed as much as I had and then must not have gone far enough as hit a white patch which i thought was the one on the edge of the controls circle and it wasn't :/ Had to reattach from the trail. I realised that many of these controls could have been found going around on trails but decided to go straight as possible to figure out how things were mapped. only really had other issues with 7 as must have come out of the control lower than i thought and got caught up in the green stuff next to the trail. But overall was a fun course! However, goodness did you NOT want to hang around for too long not moving or the killer flies would start biting you!

Middle Model (July 5th)
Brenden, Cristina and I went to the middle model to check out that terrain. I'm not actually running the middle however it is the same terrain as the Relay which I hope to make the team for.

I had Cristina plan me a course with the controls out in the woods and went out for just under an hour. The first control I ended up taking quite slow as I hit about 3 different type of vegetation on that leg. Figured out that the rough open (yellow with white dots) was very much like felled ground in scotland so slow but not bad to get over, The rides weren't always obvious and that the green wasn't too bad but had tall grass/flowers/nettles in it so slow going along with lower viability. Ended up hitting the cliff south of the one I wanted but relocated quite quickly after pottering about looking at things. Then to control 2 I again tested things. Either through the green and have to really be strong with your compass as can't really see, or cut north a bit to the green slash were one can see but slow going. I think avoiding green slash is the way to go! Many places to catch your ankles in that stuff! The rest of the controls went well and liked how things were mapped. I also got to have Thierry Gueorgiou pass me on the way to 258. It was nice to see even him kinda come back at it but he just flew through the woods just jogging and making it look super easy! I'm hoping I get to do at least a spectator race in the woods!

Orienteering my way to Finland

(Bit of an excerpt from Attackpoint with more added)

Flight from Philly!

I was meant to leave for WOC on July 2nd and well this was not how I was planning the day to go! So was supposed to fly out at 10pm Philly time (to London then Helsinki then Kuopio). I however got a lovely email that morning though saying that my flight was delayed until 0800 the next morning! Well that just wasn't going to work and I was freaking out! I wasn't done packing and had a few things left to do in Philly. Thankfully though my parents are the greatest! Dad started having a look at other flights I could ask to get transferred to, mom helped me quickly pack and get an essay finished. And then mom and I headed to the airport for 2pm to see what could be done. As the lady on the phone was useless and couldn't even figure out that I couldn't make a 1200 flight while being on the phone with her at 1100. Then she said I couldn't do anything about missing my flights to Helsinki and Kuopio because that was a different round trip booking than my London flight. It was an "OH DEAR!" moment.  Thank goodness for a lovely guy Jeff at BA as he sorted everything out and rebooked me on all new flights! So I was thankfully still on my way to WOC! 

Frankfort Airport deserted!

So I have now been on a flight to Frankfort. I however was now flying two different airlines so I couldn't get my bag checked all the way through :( So had to go through boarder control, wait for my bag, change terminals to find the finair check in desk and recheck my bag. This is when I found a pretty empty airport! And it stayed that way until about 10am (I arrived at 6am). Spent about 6hrs there. I was in line basically right as the check in desk opened, and checked bag all the way through and got tickets. Well that was fine but security was touch and go for a bit and I had gone straight there. Like seriously thought I was going to miss my flight after sitting in the airport for 5hrs already! LESSON LEARNED: just take out the kindle even when they say you don't need to as your bag will get searched but you will be stuck in a que behind newbie travelers that apparently don't know what a liquid is! like seriously people perfume, toothpaste, hand sanitizer, lip gloss, mouth wash, ALL liquids! But heyho I made it through and got to my gate in time, even managed to get a croissant for breakfast :) 

So managed to get to Helsinki and Kuopio with no problems. Met a lovely Fin in Helsinki and we had a nice chat about the Kuopio airport and flies and he even knew about WOC which was cool! I then got to Kuopio and ended up having to wait about 5.5hrs before Wyatt showed up to pick me up in a car (he had been driving up from Helsinki). So spent the time on the internet which was fine and reading my book. But the main issue was the airport was SOOOO small. It did have a cafe but it wasn't open, and the vending machines would only take coins which I didn't have yet only notes. There wasn't even really anyone around to get change from. So needless to say I was a very hungry Alison while on skype to colm worried as to where wyatt had gotten to. But it was all good I got picked up.


Wyatt and I then still had about a 2hr drive further north to Vuokatti to the cabin. This is where we found out that it REALLY doesn't get dark out. Like not even for a half an hour. You couldn't even really tell it was midnight when we were driving that we found it very funny to be saying "Happy 4th of July" to each other already. Decided that Fireworks would stink here as you wouldn't see them! Anyway after a stop to get me a burger for dinner, and then a little bit of navigating issues right at the end we finally arrived at the cabin 2am July 4th Finish time (+7hrs from philly). 


So I've basically had to orienteer my way to woc but hey great warm up right!?

On the road to WOC 2013!

This summers adventure started at least a year ago when I decided I was going to train to make the USA senior orienteering team to compete at the world championships. Hours of training, motivation and juggling course work was this year. Training more with the Scottish elite and daily runs with my friend Regina got me pretty prepared. I had some good runs back in October at the North American championships. And great runs at Easter in the big uk race the JK. Then the waiting started! I had put in a petition but had to wait until mid may for the USA team trials to take place. I was glued to the computer waiting for results that weekend. 

I honestly cannot fully describe the emotions I had when I read off my name when the team was announced! Relief all the hard work paid off, pride that I got to represent my county again, but probably most of all excitement! Excitement to make the jump to the senior level of the sport that I love! 

Then I'll be honest a bit off worry set in where I doubted my ability to compete at the high level I wanted to and exceptions I and others had for me. That's when a SEDs (Scottish elite development) training weekend came in. I got talk to to many previous woc runners including Linnea Gustofson who had won gold for the sprint! Her advice is what I'm holding on to strongly (with bits an pieces from others added on ;) ). Linnea told me that I shouldn't worry about others. That I had done my part, I made the team and it is now my competition to enjoy and learn from and just do the best I can and worry about my goals and no one else's expectations of me. That the best runs come from when you are focused and calm yourself and the rest comes. 

I'm excited to be racing the sprint at the 2013 world orienteering championships in Finland! 

So I'm on my way! Literally I'm sitting in the Helsinki airport! But the story of my actual trip here deserves another post. 

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.