North American Orienteering Championships
Long Distance - Egypt Mills
Gorgeous autumn sunshine, beautiful terrain, excellent map and a varied and fun course!
Two legs over 1 km long, mostly travelling off-trail. I really enjoyed this race. As it went on, I became more confident with the quality of the map and my ability to see features in this terrain. With the older, less-detailed maps available to us for most adventure races, I often take less risky routes but that wasn't necessary today. If I'd started out with that mentality, I would have made some different route choices early on. I felt focused from start to finish, which has not always been my strong point in long O races.
Photo by Adrian Zissos
I pushed harder than yesterday. If last weekend's 100K run was holding me back, I didn't feel it. Reviewing the splits, I was in the bronze medal position after 12 of 15 controls - and then I made a bad choice on the way to #13 which led to a slow slog through thick alders in a wetland. To add insult to injury, I emerged from the other side to see runners trotting happily on a lovely trail to my left. WTF? I moved my thumb to see a huge and extremely helpful trail that could have delivered me to the same spot. Oh well... That appears to have been a 3-4 minute error.
Then for my grand finale, I messed up the "go" control - the one connected to the finish line by a path marked with flags. I ended up finding the flags and running backward to find the control tucked in the trees behind a tiny hill. The go controls I've seen in the past have usually been out in the open and simple to find. I didn't give this control sufficient respect and lost 30-40 seconds on it. Lesson learned.
In spite of the bobbles in the late part of the course, I'm still very happy about today's race. In our category, former national team stars Pavlina Brautigam and Peggy Dickison are shoo-ins for the podium. (Pavlina didn't race yesterday, giving us all a break! :) ) So the only medal up for grabs is bronze, and today there were four of us who finished within two minutes of one another, all nibbling at Peggy's ankles! I ended up 6th of 21; hope one day I can be sharp enough to hit that podium!
It was so much fun hanging out in the arena afterward, chatting and cheering. DVOA did a fantastic job of organizing this event.
Hammer (who had an awesome race today, 1st/30 in M45) and Faceplant (Isak)
Eugene Mlynczyk
Ilona and Peter Dobos
Laura Smith aka Mrs. Mick
And Mick's #1 fan along the course, J-Lu.
And Mick - happy to finish this race after some troubles on the course.
Nev-Monster in the announcer's seat helping to make the experience more exciting by reporting on radio controls and current standings.
Clive Hayhow
Anton and Teo Mlynczyk
The unbeatable PeggyD (I've been trying to win just one race for 8 years but the difference between us is growing!) (P.S. Hi Peggy! :) )
This was the results tent with large flat screen TVs to track current standings in each category, monitor how long runners had been in the woods, track times registered at radio controls, etc. Extremely cool. There was also live video feed from the woods.
Mia Smith, AdventureGirl! and Faceplant
Ralph Lindzon and Don Ross
AZ and the incredible Valerie Meyer, SI results guru.
Here she is in front of one of the flat screen TVs showing results.
Here's what the results look like close up.
Barb Bryant - We've done a rogaine together and today we agreed that we should race together again since we are so well-matched. Our three races were all close, although she always prevailed - today by 17 seconds!
Cedarcreek in the finish chute
Sudden finishing up an excellent performance
Sudden, Pat-hectic and Hammer reviewing the M-Elite course
Bubo from Sweden - we'll see him at Vasaloppet 2014!
Cristina Luis - so fast she is blurry! She was probably in a rush because she heard I wanted to take home her awesome U.S. ski-O team jacket.
Mia Smith marking her route. She was mostly colouring in the control circles.
Charm (Charlotte McNaughton), Executive Director of Orienteering Canada; we sure are lucky to have her.
Wil Smith and Jon Torrance
Nick Duca
Nick and Val
Andrei and Serghei "Runit" Logvin (father and son). Serghei took the silver medal in M-Elite but may have broken a rib in the process.
PG (Peter Gagarin)
Pamtastic (Pam James)
Kissy (Kris Beecroft) - great performances during her comeback from knee troubles
Last but not least... a much-needed dinner! Alas, the restaurant didn't serve wine even though it would have gone well with my yummy shrimp pasta.