Tuesday, July 3, 2012

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 :(

Monday, July 2, 2012

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.