Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Walked around the small sprint model - which will, I think, be almost as relevant to the green parts of the long final (the course length, 7.9 for a 65 winning time, suggests there will be a few) as it was to the sprint. The natural forest, as an orienteering experience, reminds me a bit of NZ native bush and probably won't be a lot faster than NZ native bush - even the white patches don't seem much faster than 10 minutes/km. (Most of the long areas are pine forest which will be much faster).

The landscape of the Canela area itself actually reminds me a lot of the hill towns of the Gold Coast hinterland; the likes of Mount Tamborine or Springbrook (though Canela itself is a much larger town than those places are).

WMOC sprint final, 13th. As expected, a very different race to yesterday and a different result (at least for me - Nick Barrable was an equally convincing winner on both days). This one was in the park around a major waterfall - partly cleared picnic grounds, but a lot of it (thick) forest with an extensive track network. There wasn't a lot that actually made you go into the thick forest - one short leg (9-10), and some 50-metre in-and-outs - but it made for some interesting route choice. Quite hilly too.

Technically this was a decent run. Two minor hesitations, on 1 (where I didn't see a side track I was expecting to, but got out of it with maybe 10 seconds lost) and 9. Didn't feel as if I had a lot of strength on the hills, but the humidity made it a strength-sapping day; glad it was a 19-minute race and not a 60- or 70-minute one. (It should be less humid later in the week, on the back side of the same system that's given Bariloche the snow mentioned in the comments thread and Buenos Aires its second triple-figure daily rainfall in five days).

The placing looks nominally good - I was even in front for 15 minutes - but being over four minutes down on Nick Barrable is a fair indication that, once the pure fast runners fell away with the more challenging navigation (although only a few controls were difficult), there isn't a lot of depth in this field. I certainly won't be 13th with a run like this next year. (Actually, if things are repeated exactly, I might be - a qualifying run like yesterday's in Gothenburg will probably mean ending up in the B final). Have a reasonable feel for the field now, though - enough to think that top ten is the benchmark for an acceptable result in the long, and top six a good one. (The placegetters are too far away unless one or more of them blow up on the day).

Jenny Bourne had an impressive win in W60 - 47 seconds ahead of the field - but our other high qualifiers couldn't repeat their placings of Sunday. Kevin Paine was (a distant) 4th in M85 but I don't think anyone else got beyond the fringes of the top 10 (haven't seen final results in M55 or M60 yet, though).

Update: Now I have and it's a bit better than I first thought: Ted 4th in M60, Geoff 7th in M55.

C • Ted van G 1