O-Ringen Day 2: Rough Day at the Office

Day 2 opened with, you guess it, rain! But, its not as bad as it sounds, the rain has petered out, less of a downpour and more of a drizzle. You most definitely came back wet, but this time around your stuff wasn't soaked when you got back. A pleasant change, nonetheless.

Today truly displayed the chaos that is O-Ringen. While yesterday had plenty of people, it was a long distance, and on a 1:15000 map, so people were more spread out. Today, being a middle distance, was madness like I'd never seen. There were people everywhere. The most difficult part of it was the fact that elephant tracks so readily appeared that looked like genuine trails. The actual trails on the maps turned into 2 metre wide highways, while single-track trails appeared everywhere, making it extremely confusing.

I had the (possibly unfortunate?) opportunity of wearing a GPS for the first time in this race. Unfortunately it was middle, which is not my strongest, and was unquestionably the toughest middle I've experienced in my short career. If you're the kind of person who likes to learn from other people's mistakes, then look up my GPS tracking and take notes. Catastrophic! However, I am still leading the North American battle for not last place in H21 elite, and am within 15 minutes of a European, so there's hope for me yet!

But, its not all doom and gloom! Once again, Carol Ross is whipping out awesome race after race, placing 12th today, bringing her up to 24th overall in D21. Robbie Anders(s)on also clearly has a grasp on this terrain, placing 12th today to bring him to 11th overall in H21. Also, there are 265 runners in H21 and 149 in D21. Madness! And also mad Canadian dominance.

Tomorrow O-Ringen is back to the same arena tomorrow, for a longer distance race, and I'm getting the morning off to race in the evening at the event I've been most looking forward to, the downtown sprint. Its really the main reason why I entered H21 Elite to begin with, so I'm very excited and hope to do myself proud.

Remember to follow live results and video feed at oringen.se, and the evening elite sprint may be broadcast as well, so keep an eye out for that!

Finally, if you're wondering, the reason I (Will Critchley) am the only one posting about O-Ringen, its because I was very lucky and am staying in an apartment of a friend of a friend of my Swedish Roommate, so I'm the only one with internet, electricity, heat and.... not rain.