Discussion: My year in Switzerland (long version)

Back to the routes!
Orienteering in Switzerland

In mid July, when I moved into my empty apartment in Bern and sat with unexpected boredom, not realizing that school in Switzerland doesn’t start until October, the first activity I did was orienteering. Going to this training race on a Wednesday evening was surprisingly easy, not just by the fact that it was ten minutes away, but also because I was not anxious of the type of people I would meet there. Orienteers are truly amazing people all around the world, a universal family joined by this great sport.

Why had I made this move, in the middle of my college years, to Switzerland? Essentially two very important things in my life collided there, my family and orienteering. Within one year of my arrival the World Championships would take place in Rapperswil Switzerland, and my family are native Swiss.

Some of my biggest challenges did not lie where I expected them. I seemed to have everything backwards, I was confident that my “first” language, Swiss German, would come back quickly, and I thought training for the world championships would be hard. The training was there, laid out for me, just calling me to it, but the Swiss German took initiative and guts. As I was jumping language hurdles, my training, and racing schedule fell into place.

Living in Bern turned out to be optimal. On Tuesdays a local orienteer and sports physiologist would lead an interval workout to which a group of 15 to 20 orienteers would come to train together. This group regularly included Swiss team members, even Simone Luder (5 time world champion!), but also typical local orienteers that just simply wanted to get better. Then on Thursdays a different local orienteer put on orienteering training for us. We had transportation to the map, and he would have a variety of navigational exercises organized. Already here I had enough structure to keep my motivation high. Now with races every weekend, the recipe was complete, and all it would take is time to bake.

After several races that showed my mediocre performance, a big realization of the year hit. This, as in progress and success, was going to take a lot of time, more than just a year in a country with training opportunities, but years of physical training, and orienteering experience. This was not discouraging to me, I am patient and motivated, but I started to rethink my goals. Although I was there for WOC 2003, my goals started to get focused on 04, 05, and beyond. This year was to give me a starting point.

The opportunity of training camps also helped me come to another realization. After spending two weeks in southern Spain and orienteering twice a day, I was able to experiment with several technical aspects of the sport. For instance, I could play with how I tape my ankles, or how I hold the map. This is how I found out I prefer carrying my thumb compass on my right hand. This seemed to help my flow and comfort in carrying and reading the map. On a side note, southern Spain has great maps, organized training courses, and beautiful beaching, winter vacation anyone?

So, now at this point, after qualifying for the team in New York I was finally beginning to feel ready for WOC. My focus was narrowing, my orienteering was coming together, and I felt physically fit.

In July, I met Erin Olafsen, and Boris Granovskiy in France for a 5 day competition. This turned out to be a confidence builder for me. I was placing just around where I thought I would be in an Elite category. Every day could build on itself, learning something new each and every day I could tackle a new goal. One day I ran under 60 minutes, a race with 21 controls and 8.4km. It demanded technical accuracy in this very fast sandy forest.

In the weeks to follow before WOC I saw that my orienteering had reached another level, a move up that I had been hoping for and working hard towards. At the Swiss team middle distance selection races I saw myself pop up a few places in the results, even beating some team members. Two weeks before WOC I placed 3rd in an elite race (local meet of 200 people) and then the next day 12th at an A meet, 10 minutes behind the winner, a Swiss A team member.

I was ready! I was excited and motivated for WOC.

The World champs ended up having some ups and downs. Getting it all right on the one week that is important to you is tough and should never be underestimated. The classic qualifier (my main goal for the week was to qualify for the A final in this race) was a disaster. I goofed on the first control, losing two minutes. If I could have pulled myself together at this point I believe I would have still had a good chance to make it, but I didn’t. The race went downhill from there. I ended up 25th in my heat, 10 minutes from qualifying (yuck), and 27 minutes behind the leader (even more yuck). The disappointment and embarrassment of cracking under pressure is hard, but the next day I was running the Sprint and I had to get over it quick.

The Sprint race took place in the town of Rapperswil. Sixty percent of the race was in the old town, including a castle and many little stone roads and alleyways, and sprint race heaven. Up until this point I had done 8 sprint races in Switzerland all in similar little towns, I didn’t think there would be any surprises. Oh, was I wrong! My first surprise hit me after being let out of a two hour quarantine, taken through an 8 minute call up line and around a corner to the starting line where the street square was packed full of people, and two cameras with bright lights stared me in the face. I had never expected this much hype, or so many people!!! As the clock counted down my nerves soared. I tried desperately to control the anxiety these two cameras were giving me as I headed off towards the fist control. This race was like no other I have ever encountered, spectators lined the streets, creating pathways to the controls, everyone shouting your name (start list were given out). One thing that was hardest for me was that since I spoke the language, I understood what people were telling me. Running your own race, staying concentrated, and making quick correct decisions was very difficult when people are yelling at you, ‘right, left, take the outside route, go over (the castle), etc.’ This was the hardest race (and 17 minutes) of my life. I made more mistakes than at other sprints where I had placed much closer to the World champion that day, Simone, but all in all I was happy to end up 39th, 4:47 minutes behind. What an experience!

By the evening of the next day I started to get sick! Oh no, disaster! A head cold took me from feeling fit and ready into deciding not to run the Middle distance race. I wanted to recover in time to run the relay, and I am happy that I could give Erin the opportunity to run, she ran an excellent race, just missing the final by 8 seconds. Brian May had another excellent race and qualified for the final, and I must congratulate everyone that day, good performances were amidst us.

We continued our wave of good performances at the relay. This was personally the best race for me at WOC! I had a solid run, and felt like myself in the woods, something I wish I could have found at the beginning of the week. Placing 20th out of the anchor runners, and 11 minutes behind Simone’s winning time was a great way to end the week. Moreover, everyone had great races, Erin showed her talent again placing 17th on her leg, and the women’s team placed 22nd overall. We all left with a smile.

I left for the US just after WOC, and haven’t had much time to reflect, but I do know one thing, I want to do it again! This year was only the beginning, and I am excited to be back in the US racing scene.

I want to thank every single one of you out there, without the community we have here in the US, orienteering wouldn’t hold such a strong place in my heart. Thank you USOF, and the US team for making participating in WOC possible, and thanks to RMOC and UNO for local support.

Thanks for sharing your wonderful experience!

Simply put: it is absolutely coolest and most inspirinng piece I've read in past year or so!!! Can't wait for others to tell about their experiences.
Thanks Sandra.

Thanks Sandra for taking the time to share your experiences with the rest of us. I hope others will feel moved to do the same.

Makes me wish I'd discovered O 20 years earlier!

JDW

Great writeup, Sandra! As Sergei says, both 'cool and inspiring'. Can we put it on the US Team page? Stories like this are great to share with your fellow team members and supporters alike! Thanks.

It sounds like Switzerland is a very good spot for orienteering... ;-)

Nah, it's overrated - too many Swiss people. :)

There's a difference between a good spot to train for orienteering (sounds like it's true) and a spot with good orienteering (e.g. Harriman...).

Thanks for the read.

Indeed a great read, but I did notice a glaring omission from the account - Sandra's new Swiss coach who surely must take some of the credit ! Never underestimate the impact of a decent coach !

Hum... yeah,my coach sure was great! You make a good point! Living, training with, and lets not forget dating Marc Lauenstein helped my orienteering a lot, but also my general mood:-)