World Unis 2018

JWOC was over which meant it was time to relax for a bit. And by a bit I mean about 36 hours. The day after the races were done, a few North Americans and I made our way back to Helsinki and then up north to Kuortane for the 2018 World University Orienteering Champs. Let's just say there was a lot of mouth-open-head-rolling naps going on in the car...

Our accommodation in Kuortane was much much nicer than in Kecskemét. We stayed at an Olympic training centre, complete with a lake, all kinds of running trails, a recovery pool centre and a sauna (obviously). We made good use of the lake almost every day, but the problem was that you had to walk about 100m out to get to the deep part of the lake - it was a struggle getting back to shore after a really tough race. 

*Ooh lala*

I had the pleasure of being Team Canada's flag bearer for the opening ceremonies. The ceremony was nice, and it was the first time where we got to hear the FISU anthem, something we didn't know would be stuck in our heads for the rest of the week... 

Team Canada at the Opening Ceremonies - can you spot the American? 

The Sprint Relay - July 17th 

Robbie, Adam and I went out for a nice jog on the trails at our accommodation in the morning, since the race was in the afternoon. It was lovely out there, but surprisingly already getting warm out. Finland has been abnormally hot all summer long, which was okay for me since I'm used to warm weather coming from Southern Ontario, but some of the others were not as happy. 

Finally it was time to get ready to race, so we made our way to the town of Seinäjoki where the race would be held. We'd spent some time looking over the race area from Google Earth, and it didn't look like it was going to be very technical. This meant that I was gonna have to push hard since it was going to be a runners course. 

I ran the lead off leg for team Canada - weee mass starts! I flipped over the map and saw this big, long, super straight-forward leg to #1- was that it? Yup, not an artificial fence or real route choice in sight. There was lots of time to plan ahead through the whole course, and a few flat-out running legs, nothing special. I honestly kept feeling like I was missing something. The loop after the spectator control was quite fun in some small islands, and I wish we had spent more time in there. Overall, a clean course with only a small bobble on 4, and I guess my legs still had some energy left because I came through the exchange in 5th place - what?? The rest of the team (Adam, Michael and Pia) did extremely well despite some issues with the Emit system, and we finished in 18th place!

Leading the right-hand forking to #1!

Handing off to Adam Woods! (Photo: Janna Nousiainen)

The Sprint - July 19th 

I decided to not race the middle distance in order to save up for the other races. I had a super relaxing day doing nothing :)

Going into this race, I was super excited. I'd had some great confidence boosters both at JWOC, and at the sprint relay the day before, so I was ready to show everyone what I was capable of out there. By looking at the winning times and the course lengths, we could tell that this race was going to be more technical than the sprint relay, but not much more. I knew that I was gonna have to give'r.

The course was indeed trickier, but there was still not much route choice out there, except for the last few controls, like 12-13 and perhaps 13-14, see below. 

I had a clean course except for missing a small gap just south of #7, so I added some distance and maybe lost about 10s. This course was one of those courses where you had to find a route, take it, and push hard. There was no time to slow down to find the "right" one. I caught up to a few girls ahead of me, and that gave me some more adrenaline to push even harder. I've found recently that I'm able to push harder and make it hurt more than before, which doesn't feel good, but it is good! 

I'm super happy with my result of 8th place in this race, only 32.5s behind the winner! 

Routechoice?

The Long - July 20th

Finally time to head back into the Finnish woods! I was excited for this race, but also a little nervous since I wasn't able to get on the model map for the area, and this terrain was not even close to what we had in Hungary. I spent a good amount of time on the warm up map though, so that was a good confidence booster. My plan was to take the race one step at a time, and build. I took the first control slowly to get into it, and then tried to increase the speed after that. It worked for a bit but then the blueberry-covered ground made me super tired. I should have stopped to eat some :P

I made a few mistakes out there, some being pretty dumb. Then, the course was long and linear coming back to the finish, as if the organizers lost track of distance and were like "oh shoot I guess we need to get these guys back now...". I wasn't ready for the 2 long legs in a row, and I took a long time getting to 14. Pushed to the finish and was totally pooped and blistered up (I love chaffing!), but still had a blast out there. It was just so weird to run in Finland and not have wet feet! Crazy. I barely made it back to the shore after swimming in the lake that evening, but the ice bath felt really great. 

The Relay - July 21st 

Since Canada only had 2 girls (Pia and myself), we teamed up with Brigitte from USA to make team North America! I ran first leg on the relay (can you tell that I like mass starts yet?) and I was ready to leave it all out there. The race started by going into this green forest right off the start which was basically a conga line of getting slapped in the face with branches. I wasn't prepared for a technical open-rock hillside after some dense green so I hesitated on #1, and then again on #2. I was behind at this point so I re-focused and upped the pace. I was visualizing really well, and managed to catch up a lot of time despite having the longer forking. Then, a ton of people in the lead pack made a mistake to #7 and I gained places. This was probably the most exciting relay I've raced in since the lead pack changed so much. I ended up finishing in 8th place, and I think this picture below shows my disbelief for that number placing ;) 

"HUH??" (Photo: Christophe Goutaudier) 

The races weren't over yet though! It was time to be the official Team Canada beer relay cheerleader! Our guys crushed it, obviously. We also crushed the party outfits, but those hats didn't last long... 

Master Chef Canada

I'm incredibly happy with this week of racing, and I had so much fun with all my teammates. After 2 more days of relaxing in Finland, I finally made my way back home to Hamilton and my own bed <3