World Cup Final Classic Race

For almost two hours I ran into trees, fell over rocks, fell onto rocks, headbutted rocks, got bits of tree in my eye, fell onto more rocks, attempted to find a few controls and generally really enjoyed myself. Very tough technically and while not overly physical, the sheer rocky-ness made the running very tough (although I probably didn't help myself by running through lots of rocky bits that I should have run around).
I was fairly happy with my race apart from maybe four places. I made a stupid error at control 3, both coming in and leaving in the wrong direction. On the epic long leg across the map, I chose a good route, and then proceeded to ignore the nice white forest and attempted to run through a thick green boulder field. Then at controls 22 and 23, just when the finish was in sight and everything seemed to be under control, I made two big mistakes. The first I lost contact on the leg and failed to relocate, and then the next one I had big problems in the circle. I lost maybe 7-8 mins in total on those controls.
I am content with my 31st place. My goal before the race was top 30, so I am not really happy. At least I beat BJ (only just though....)

Results here, map sometime when I get home

Sprint at Chateau de Theix

Today we had a really enjoyable world cup sprint race around Chateau de Theix. With no qualication, it was a straight final with a really strong field. Most of the race was in some steep woodland with intricate rock detail, and the rest was in scrappy parkland with mixed vegetation and quite a few paths.
I had a fairly good race, and I am content with my placing (20th), but I was amazed by how far down I was on the leaders (almost 2 minutes). There were a couple of route choices that I was unsure about, and some of the mapping of the rock detail was either hard to read or a bit dubious. I lost some time on one control running through an area of large rocks mapped as rocky ground when the rocks were just as large as the one with the control on it. I also lost time on the hill running sections of the course, entirely down to my inability to run up hills. One 300m leg had 45 metres of climb on it and I really felt every centimetre.

Results up here, map to follow

Kenilworth, Ukraine and World Cup Final Middle race

In the time since my last post, I have been living in my new house in Kenilworth (which is very nice). I have had a bad cold after my long summer trip, I have had a training camp in the Ukraine with the GB squad (maps and photos to follow), I went to the Post Finance Sprint in Switzerland (where I did very badly) and I am now in France at the World Cup Finals.

These are being held in the Auvergne region, close to Clermont-Ferrand. The event website is here. Most of the team arrived on saturday, but the Post Finance Sprinters drove over from Bern on Sunday morning. We all took the opportunity to go to the model events to get a feel for the very special terrain (see extract below). We were blown away by the technical element of the orienteering here - it truly is a case of lose contact with the map, and lose the race. Mistakes here can be measured in tens of minutes.

Middle Qualifier

I had a solid race, no big mistakes. I stuck to my plan which was to keep constant contact, make good judgements about where to run fast and where to really concentrate, and if in doubt, make absolutely sure. I made a small mistake early on, and really hesitated at one control where I stood still for over 30seconds making absolutely sure that I was where I thought I was. At the end, I was running at a really good pace with a small pack and I qualified comfortably. I feel that I was a little unlucky in terms of heats, as my time would have placed me much higher in the other 2. I felt 12th was worse than the run deserved. Results here. The map of my race is here.

Middle Final

Memorable. Before the race we knew it was going to be trickier than the qualifier, with less paths, more details and more climb. What we didn't know was that the weather would conspire against everybody and force the race to be cancelled. Winds over 100km/hour knocked out power to the whole region and caused many trees to be knocked over. The event itself lost power and runners were stopped in the forest. Only a handful of athletes finished the race, and many weren't even allowed to start. I started, but only made it as far as half way to the sixth control before I was stopped. My run was ok, I had made a 2 minute mistake, but apart from that I was fairly happy, even catching Audun Weltzien by 8 minutes (at the 2nd control).

Tomorrow is the sprint race, I have a fairly late start. Then thursday is the classic, friday the rescheduled middle and saturday the relay.

New house

On wednesday I moved into my new house in Kenilworth. I will be working in Kenilworth over the winter in a number of schools, and using it as a base for my mapping and training. I will be living with Matt Rooke and Harold Wyber, both students at Warwick University, and both promising orienteers.
I was going up to the Lake District Mountain Trial this weekend, but I have a slight cold so instead I am going to have a relaxing weekend in Kenilworth, and catch up on my emails and paperwork.

Switzerland

Just a quick post. Last week I had a great week in Switzerland, staying first with the Lombriser family, and then with Tom and Nicole up in the hills. I did a lot of running, including a very memorable run up and down Niesen (awesome views). I also did the Kandersteg elite races at the weekend. Maps and photos to follow from my whole trip.