Training Log Archive: W

And thus ends my China experience for another year. Totally worth the travel, the cost, the effort, and frequent orienteering humiliation by athletes who are far better than I. Its such a different experience from skiing, where the National Team guys wouldn't even give me the time of day. These guys are cheerful, talkative, interested, and seem to genuinely care about how my race went, even if we both know that I'm 15 minutes behind.

Especially notable because I had burgers and beers with some friends when I got back, and they never once asked me about my trip. What a contrast.

I miss those Euros (and one Aussie) already.

C • write ups 7

The last race of the trip, in Beijing's Botanical Gardens. Again, a pretty standard park sprint. I finally pieced together an okay race, but the results don't really reflect it. Although I had generally the same rank as always, I was far more in the mix than usual. I know for certain I could have run faster, and there is likely a solid 20 seconds in hesitations and route choices that could be found out there.

Afterwards we were all grouped up with a bunch of Chinese school kids and gave them a little lesson. I had them each lead a few controls, and before leaving the control, figure out the direction they had to leave, and then count off 1, 2, 3, or however many really obvious things along the way that would help them find the control easily. The kids were surprisingly good and caught on very quickly, especially considering they barely spoke English and obviously I'm just a large idiotic water buffalo.

Quickroute is here

Finally, a decent race, and it was a middle, of all things. Perhaps it was the conditions, or the map, or the terrain that made me perform a bit better. It was pouring rain, the map was questionable, and the terrain was different and relatively easy and a total adventure.

It was classic China farmland, terraces of farmland, which marshes that grew something... long spur hillsides, with occasional forests. Very soft mud, made super slick by all the rain. It was a mudfest out there, but I actual felt comfortable sliding out of control down the hills, I think the knowledge that there were no rocks at the bottom to break myself on made me confident.

I definitely made a few mistakes on the way, including taking a bad route on the way to three, missing 6 on the high side, taking a somewhat sub-optimal route to 10. But, aside from that, I was smooth, confident and aggressive. If often helped that you could see the hill side you had to go to from miles away, but there was the problem of how to get there.

Several other guys had a major problem in that their map disintegrated in their bag. I'm not quite sure how that happened, since mine was pristine, but some of them had their route or an entire control obscured because their map was in mush form. Weird!

In all, pretty pleased with how the race went. Don't get me wrong, I was still 6 minutes back. Although it totally doesn't translate, if this were a WOC qualification based on this year's results, I would've been around 17th, so I still wouldn't have been in a final. Nevertheless, it was my best non-sprint WRE points ever, so I could call that a result.

I will try to post my map in due time. I hate drawing my routes on my map, but its probably something I should do regularly. All the good guys seem to.

Here's a terrain sample:

Chinese Sprint Championships, in Wansheng. WOW, what an insane race. If you haven't already looked, check out the map first.

Map

I have yet to find a picture that really does what we ran through justice. I would have loved to headcam the course, but they didn't give us the maps back and we had absolutely no time to run there again before going back to Beijing. I don't even quite know how to describe it. It was a residential area, but a Chinese one. The passageways were incredibly narrow, and it felt like you were running through people's living rooms. It was extremely difficult to keep track of where you were, and you would look into the passage way you're planning on taking, and just say "That can't POSSIBLY be it, that's someones house!" But, it really was. I, as usual, had to start first, which meant that I got to be the zamboni, clearing out all the bystanders on the course. They get in my way, and then stayed out of the way for everyone else. Annoying. It also started raining just as I started, making the entire course a slippery death trap as well. Several guys slipped and fell down stairs, walls, etc. Super sketchy, just to add to the craziness.

I made a mistake at 6, where I tried to go through the little cut-through, but I couldn't find it. There was one that I thought was correct, but it seemed to have tape across it. So I incorrectly went to two dead ends before bailing out and going around. That cost a solid minute. There were plenty of other hesitations and missed turns, but I also think I made some good route choice to decisions and minimized the damage on certain legs.

Obviously, not a satisfying result, but, whatever. That was the new "craziest race I've ever done".

I don't have a route for this because it was an WRE and technically they're not allowed. I know beforehand it was discussed and it was "decided" that we could use them anyway, but, I don't know. I know its a stupid rule because no one would be faster with it, especially in a race like this, but, whatever, rules are rules, whether they make sense or not. I'd rather roll with the rule and get over it and support a rule change, rather than just overtly ignore it.

Headed off to Chonqing for another set of races. This places is way south of Beijing, about two hours flight. We got in late the night before and had to come out this day for the big race of the Chinese Championships - the 100m race. Yes, this is a real championship in China, they say its because they just don't have large enough terrains to do a full-on long. So, they do this wacky race instead. And I tells ya, I love it.

Okay, so maybe its not exactly appropriate for a national championships, since in the two I've done in China, they're pretty easy. But, at the same time, they're not. It gets a little crazy out there, so much spinning, so many things going on, so many people. If it were a serious race with something on the line, who knows what kind of mental meltdown I might have. Nevertheless, its a total blast to run. There was a bit of European disdain, but those guys just need to chill out and embrace something new and wacky. You never know, this could be the future of orienteering. We could do it on the infield of the athletics track at the Olympics. You could have Kenyans who can run 1:40 800 metres doing it.

Only downside? I mis-punched. But I didn't. Although my Garmin could barely keep up, it clearly has me going to each control. There were many that I punched but never heard a beep, but just kept going. So... that'll need to get sorted out. Still, fun!

Before our "big race", we went running up a road in no particular direction, save for the fact that it was uphill. Until we hit the long long downhill, which meant we'd have to come back up. Super scenic though, really amazing. Here's a few photos:

Okay, so, the last time I was at the great wall, I didn't run. Don't ask me why.

This time around, I was for sure going to join in the jog. Running on the Great Wall? A lifetime must-do. A tad on the crowded side, but really fun. Super steep in places, and some crazy ass downhills where there were no stairs, and the stone was really slick. Ran up one side to where we couldn't go past, then ran up the other side.

Here's a photo of part of the route:
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Yt-O4wj5cHM/UGM...

After a lengthy 7 hour train trip to Beijing, a large portion of the group went for an evening jog. Thanks to Julian's iphone, our late night jog was actually through the grounds of the Temple of Heaven! Jogging in the dark in a famous Chinese landmark? Yes please.

Lots of people wandering around, lovely area, lights in the sky. Awesome. Its those kind of mini-experiences that in itself make the whole trip worth it.