North American and Canadian Champs

This summer ain't over yet! My final big set of races were the North American and Canadian Champs, which were held in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. A friendly (but intense) battle between Canada and the USA for the Bjorn Kjellstrom (Sr) and Future Champions (Jr) Cups.

I got to Whitehorse a few days before the races started, and my family and I (and Anton too) went on an incredible hike up Grey Mountain. The views were breathtaking... once we made it up the sketchy road in our front-wheel-drive mini van.

The summit of Grey Mountain

The next morning we headed out to run on the model map to learn the terrain. It was different than all of the terrains I'd been on this summer, and much hillier too!

Later that day we hiked along Miles Canyon, and then stopped at Cowley Lakes to take in the view of the Kool-Aid blue water along our drive back to our accommodation in Tagish. 

That water colour though! 

Cowley Lake

Saturday August 18th - NAOC Long 

The first race of the North Americans was the Long distance. I raced in F19-20 Elite category which was a nice 6.8km long course with 200m of climb. I started the race out with the goals of looking up and being really bang-on with my compass, but found that I was struggling with this throughout the race as I was being pushed around by the terrain. A few large mistakes in the race cost me the first place position, but I enjoyed the open forest today and some of the short and technical legs during the race. And i'm also glad that I didn't run into the little black bear that a lot of people saw on the course!

Arena with a view! - Photo: Jim Waddington

Sunday August 19th - NAOC Middle

Today was a big day since the 19-20 Elite categories were running the same course as the 21 Elite categories. This meant that juniors were eligible to obtain the personal spot for the 2019 World Champs in Norway. Things were tense in the quarantine, and you could tell there were a lot of people ready to fight for this spot. 

My goals for this race, knowing that the terrain was very technical, was to be in control the whole time. This meant that I needed to have "mental flow" and perhaps not physical flow the whole time. It also meant that I needed to stop and plan every leg and double check my compass. Mistakes were not something that I wanted to make in this race, so going slow was good.

I had a little bit of a shaky start but then I got more and more into the map. We had a section of the course that was more bland, were I made a small mistake but by this time I was with some other ladies on my course who pushed me to navigate faster. We raced hard to the finish where I soon learned that I'd not only won F19-20E class, but I was the fastest in the F21E category too! Slow and steady wins the race in terrain like this I guess! Couldn't be more excited to be heading to Norway next year! 

View from the NAOC Middle arena

Monday August 20th - NAOC Relay

Monday was the National and Club Team forest relay. The race took place at the Biathlon and Archery Centre in Whitehorse, and we had been told that there were going to be large, plastic animals out on the course for archery targets. Odd, but so fun! :P
I ran the first leg on the 1st Sr women's team with Emily and Pia. I got a fast start with the boys, but as soon as the first steep hill came I knew I couldn't hold the pace for the whole race. I was with some of the boys for a while, but then their course different than mine and I was all alone. But after a small mistake at 4 and 5, Kendra and Tori caught up to me and we all trudged up this super steep and mossy hill together. I managed to get ahead of Tori but then in the arena passage I missed the turn in the streamers (which were confusing, trust me) and lost my small lead. I knew that I had to put on the rocket blasters then, and so I did. Hard push into the finish had me handing off to Pia in 1st (for Sr women). Nothing like a relay to push harder than you want before yet another race the next day!
Proud of our team for pushing through the injuries and rolled ankles to finish in 2nd place, and stoked for all of our other teams placements!

134 - path or crag??

Handing off to Pia - Photo: Robert Svoboda 

The team! 

Tuesday August 21st - NAOC/COC Sprint 

The sprint race for both the North American and Canadian Champs was held in the small town of Carcross. A few days before, a small forest fire had started just south of this town which made the air a little smokey but nothing crazy. In Tagish where we'd been staying for the week, there was another fire too, so we were used to it. 

Smoke from the fire just south of Tagish, in BC.

This sprint was going to be a combination of "urban"and sand-dune-like forest. My goals were to anticipate the switches between terrains and alter my navigation style.

Right off the bat, the race threw us in this small area of tiny little buildings and statues. It was a neat area, but the control circles and lines had been cut in so many different places to show the small buildings and between that and the mandatory crossing points over the train tracks, I couldn't even make out where the actual control circles were. The purple was very faint on top of that, and I was just so utterly confused and overwhelmed. Once I'd finally found the first control, I tried to get back in the race. It was going well until 5 but then I totally missed another control circle again and ended up at 7 before 6. Deep breath. 8 and 9 were great, but then I was too low on the side of a sandy hill at 10 and I just mentally lost it here. Another bigger mistake at 14 but somehow I managed to pull of a 3rd place in this race. 

It's always tough when you expect a lot from yourself in a certain race and then don't perform as you believed you could. But today was just one of those days where the utterly confusing map and I just didn't 'click' together. A total drag, as this meant that Canada didn't win either trophy. But I guess we have to share our wins with the USA sometimes ;) 

Photo - Jim Hawkings

Exploring in Carcross!

Rest Day 

On our (extremely needed) "rest" day, some my mom and I hiked up behind Fish Lake with some clubmates. It was a short but hilly hike up to the peak, half of which was in the alpine. The summit was incredibly windy but the views were worth it. After having a nice cinnamon bun snack, and running into some fellow orienteers at the top, we made our way back down and to bed for a nap.

Overlooking Fish Lake

Thursday August 23rd - COC Long

For the Canadian Champs I decided to run up in the women's 21 elite category. This meant that I had a nice, 10.3km long race today with 350m of climb (I think that's more than all of my races in Hungary combined). Today I wanted to run smart and clean. And actually pay attention to my compass goshdarnit.

This race went really well overall with only a small mistake at 3 where I aimed-off to a trail poorly, and then to 6 where I didn't have an attackpoint whatsoever. From there on there was a lot of trail running which was pretty boring, but some nice views in between lots of small lakes and up some big hills. Mistakes on 11 and 12, and slow going to 13, but then I hit a second wind and flew through the spectator control and last loop. Managed to be 2nd overall in women's elite, and first Canadian so that's a bonus too! 

Steep climbs and pretty lakes on the long course.

After this race, from all the hard pounding downhill running, my leg injury that I've had for (seemingly) ever was super painful. It acted up after the relay as well, which made me a little nervous. After some treatment that evening I decided not to race the middle, since my leg was still sore in the morning. I don't enjoy skipping races, especially since this one looked so fun, but I knew that with the cross country season coming up it was best to let my leg recover so I can give it my all. 

Overall, I'm happy with this set of races. Sure, they weren't as consistent as I had hoped they'd be, but they were solid and I learned a lot from them from a mental and technical side. Next step: Compass work. But before that, a little R&R before XC season!