Saturday Oct 8 |
 | road run 7:00 [3] 1.5 km (4:40 / km) | |
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| warm up in the fog. |
| orienteering race 51:45 [5] *** 8.35 km (6:12 / km) | |
| 16c |
| WC relay, leg 1. Monte Livata, Campo dell' Osso, Italy. Pretty good race for me. A little right on #3...not too bad. On the way to 6 I misread a reentrant as a spur and ended up dropping 4 extra lines that I had to climb back up. Everything else went very well. Beautiful open forest. The forking in this relay was massive. No two runners on the first leg had the same forking. After the first leg - a climb straight up a ski hill in the fog - there were only 2 otehr guys near me: Italy just ahead, and IRE Andrew Quin just a little behind me. The 3 of us had the same first and second controls , but seems like there were two completely different folks in the vicinity on the way to 4, and no one went with me on the way to 5. After my error on 6 I was alone for the rest, although I did get a glimpse of an Italian shirt going into 7 and again near 17, but not sure if it was the same guy. Saw two others on the way to 6 but they were going somewhere else. Randy was cheering at the spectator (12). Handed off to Boris in 18th. Clue sheets were not provided ahead of time...only on the map, so I memorized 3-4 at a time to avoid having to unfold too much. Same % climb as in the long on Thurs. Actual straight-line course length was 7.8km (Boris and I measured), although the value mis-printed on the map was 6.57km. Triangle to finish was 7.57km, but there was an additional 200m from the actual start to the triangle. Weather was foggy, drizzling and cold while I was running, and progressed to a downpour while Randy was out. |
Friday Oct 7 |
| Note | |
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| Spent the morning walking around in the rain at Cervara di Roma where the Sprint final was on Wed. This place is incredible. Took lots of pictures and had a nice lunch on a balcony above town with Sandra, Boris and Randy. Unfortunately I ate something bad with breakfast. Was eyeing the steaks that Randy and Boris had but just couldn't eat much. Later that afteroon I puked up all of breakfast and lunch and spent about 4 hours just lying in bed in pain, but felt better later that evening and was fine the rest of the week. |
Thursday Oct 6 |
| orienteering 10:00 [3] *** 1.5 km (6:40 / km) | |
| 4c |
| Warm-up in the warm-up area before the Long final. There's an observatory on the map! |
| orienteering 1:52:50 [4] *** 16.88 km (6:41 / km) | |
| 27c |
| WC Italy Long Distance Final, Monte Livata, ITA. Damp and overcast, with some occasional drizzle, but dry compared to the rest of the races this week. A decent race! An error on 18 in the detailed pits area, and an error on the way to 12 (the spectator) due entirely to poor eyesight. Started on the best route but diverted to the left to take a flat trail to avoid climb. Well the flat trail was a powerline climbing a steep reentrant and it cost me 4 extra lines and 300m of distance. I think I had the worst split on this leg of anyone. The course was set up in 3 loops, with two trips in to spectator controls. The last loop was a killer with climb - just agony to keep moving. Walked a super steep climb to 25 with 3 or 4 others there also walking. |
Wednesday Oct 5 |
| orienteering 38:59 [3] *** 3.5 km (11:08 / km) | |
| 10c |
| Morning run on the Long distance model map right out of the house. Damp and overcast but not raining. Walked the big climbs because the sprint final is in the afternoon. |
| orienteering race 24:01 [5] *** 2.7 km (8:54 / km) | |
| 16c |
| WC Sprint final (B final, same course as A). Pouring rain, fairly cool, and foggy in the early forest section. This race was truly amazing. The town is just a maze of pathways and straiways between buildings on a steep hillside. I cam through the spectator control at the bottom of the bottom of teh town just as the flower ceremony was finishing - it was jammed with people. I missed the stairway I needed and went to the GO control by mistake. How embarassing! Then I finally got to the correct stairway (10 flights, stright up), and it was jammed with people leaving the ceremony, so I was dodging people all teh way up. The rest of the race went very well, but there was alot of stopping and checking the map because of all the intersections and changes of direction. One of the coolest races I've ever run in one of the most spectacular places. |
| road run 25:00 [3] 5 km (5:00 / km) | |
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| Lots of running up and down the hill between the staging area and the start up on top of the ridge. Walked it the first time because I had 3 hours to kill. Sandra and Karen were up there for their A final start. Sandra decided she'd rather have her regular O shoes since It was very wet and foggy. I offered to run back down and get them. Not much time to spare so had to sprint it. Made it back up with just enough time for her to change. It started pouring before they started, so I hung out at the start until they were off and then waited under a tarp for about 45 mins while all the other women started. Finally the rain let up and I ran back down the hill. Sat in the bus with all the other B-final rejects trying to stay warm. It started raining again. Finally made the trip back up for my start in the rain. |
Tuesday Oct 4 |
| orienteering 20:00 [2] *** 1.6 km (12:30 / km) | |
| 8c |
| Ran around Jenne, which was the Sprint model. We had seen this town on the way to the MIddle distance races the day before. Its built on a steep-sided spur, like a penninsula sticking out over a steep valley in the Appenines. It was a beautiful place. Funny to see donkey carrying logs down the main street with lots of national teams running around everywhere in funny clothes. Spent some time walking around taking photos afterwards too. This was part of the 4 hours of sunshine we had the entire week. |
| orienteering race 22:41 [5] *** 3.52 km (6:27 / km) | |
| 16c |
| WC Sprint Qualifier in Subiaco, Italy. The race started well - handled the forest section ok and the first loop around through the city, but at the start of the second loop when I had to turn over teh 2-sided map for teh rest, I made an error and ran up a dead-end alley. Took *forever* to figure it out. Too bad really. The really nice areas of this town were under-utilized. It could have been alot more challenging. Still the weather was nice, and it was just crazy with all teh people around. At one point as I had turned around after making an error, some kid started yelling at me and pointing back in the direction I had just come. I knew were I was and where to go, but still its distracting with people trying to "help" you. I was very disappointed after this race. And of course it started raining while we were changing afterwards. |
| road run 15:00 [3] 3 km (5:00 / km) | |
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| Jog from the staging area to the Sprint quali start and running around at the start. Spent something like 2 hours just sitting around in the staging area waiting, since all competitors had to take the same busses regardless of start time. |
Monday Oct 3 |
| road run 15:00 [3] 3 km (5:00 / km) | |
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| warm up running to the middle distance starts. With Karen before the quali. |
| orienteering race 32:46 [5] *** 5.3 km (6:11 / km) | |
| 14c |
| WC Middle Distance qualifier, Altipiani di Arcinazzo, Italy. Rain. Interesting area of old pastures separated by briary hedges and lots of stonewalls. Mostly open running though. I made an error on #1, and then a huge error on the way to 3 that just ruined my race. Even came across my control #6. I checked my clue sheet to see if it was mine but didn;t see the number for some reason. That cost me an extra couple of mins. |
| orienteering race 37:26 [5] 5.55 km (6:45 / km) | |
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| Raining. WC Middle Distance B final. This race went much better than the quali, but I was still well back. Got too far left on a long leg to #7 and ran along the wrong ridge for a while. Lots of cows. Warmed up a little in a training area near the start. Couldn't find a single one of the practice controls they had set out. Ugh. |
Sunday Oct 2 |
| road run 10:00 [3] 2 km (5:00 / km) | |
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| Jog to and from the Middle Distance model with Randy. |
| orienteering 21:08 [3] *** 2.5 km (8:27 / km) | |
| 11c |
| WC middle distance model event, Altipiani di Arcinazzo, Italy. Nice to see lots of familiar faces here. Started raining just after we finished, of course. Afterwards, Randy and I drove to Rome to pick up Borid at the airport. Had an interesting time trying to find our way down teh mountians to the highway. Went through a town called Piglia which was half-closed due to a giant street fair. Wanted to check it out but we had no idea where we were at the time and needed to make tracks. |