Training Log Archive: Rosstopher

Brief note because I should be quickly off to bed. Today's middle distance could probably be summed up with the title "me vs. the green and also the heat". I was moving alright at the start, but then was tempted into cutting through the green on the way to 5 (looked okay from the trail, I was such a sucker). I was pushed way off line and climbed all the way up to 6 and then back down, losing a minute. This was the first of my misadventures in green. Also, the heat was really wearing me down, really felt empty as I headed down to control 21, and my splits tail off in the second half of the course. 40 minutes would have been a really good run from me, and would have satisfied my goal to be top 30. My mistakes don't show as much in winsplits, but I think they will be evident from the GPS tracks.

There were some good moments though, and I think I've learned a bit about how to approach this stuff for tomorrow. Really excited for the relay. Think that the added/highlighted battle with NZ will be pretty amazing. Already daydreaming about how many ice creams our team will buy when they cough up the 50 mil... mmm ice cream.

Very cool stuff. We ran the model event this morning, and got to experience running in the riverside park lands. The river cutting through the map was interesting because there were only a few bridges and the edges of the river had steep earth banks and so it was a challenge to see if cutting straight across the river was faster than going around on the bridge route.

Straight through the water was always better, but there will probably be less of that going on for the official sprint race tomorrow.

The race tomorrow sounds like it will be very easy and very fast and I am really looking forward to it. We are performing for a sold-out crowd of 200 spectators tomorrow and there are 39 men and 40 women in the race.

Hope I'm not too nervous to get a good night's sleep.

C • Nice run in the sprint, loo... 4

First full day in Cali and it's been a great experience. Today we went for a cool run along the river, which was a wild experience of extreme sensory overload. This city is busy and full of life. All the orienteers stay in the same hotel which is fun and we have been able to meet a lot of new and old friends here just by hanging out in the lobby. After dinner tonight we joined with Michael Crone and Robert Merl to do some spectating. Korfball was going on in a nearby venue and we watched the second half of the Netherlands v Portugal game. None of us knew the rules, but it was a cool experience and we had seats in a special section just for World Games athletes. The taxi ride back to our hotel gave ample evidence that this place is always loud and awake and full of crazy people on mopeds. Walking around with Robert and Michael was pretty amusing because they were wearing official national team shirts and every 5 feet they would get stopped for an autograph or a picture with one of the locals. Everyone is super welcoming and warm and very excited to have us all here.

Tomorrow is the model and Friday is the first race. Bedtime awaits... we'll try to get up early enough tomorrow so that we can connect to the internet before it gets crazy full. More details to come then.

Arrived in Cali Colombia for the World Games. A bit tired after all the traveling, but very cool to touch down in a new country and immediately start to guess at which of the other passengers were athletes and which sports they did.

Accreditation was very smooth, we didn't need any of the print outs proving insurance or anything like that. Instead, a virtual horde of volunteers --including a couple wearing shiny purple suits, perched on stilts -- ushered us through a spacious hall to a desk where we got our passports checked and picked up our badges. A long multistop bus ride bounced from hotel to hotel dropping off teams, and we made it to our building.

We shared the bus with the Chinese orienteering team, and some Czech powerlifters and a squash squad from Britain.

Eric comes in later tonight and Ali tomorrow. Very exciting!

C • Cali 6