O-Ringen Day 3: Grey Skies Are Going to Clear Up...

There was a notable change in mood today in Orebro, because the rain has stopped, the sun is out, and the weather was glorious. Today's stage took us back to the terrain of Day 2, for a long-ish race, not quite as long as a long, but on a 1:15000 map, and all the navigational chaos as yesterday. Everyone came back saying that the terrain and map were really great, but all had quite a tough time. Carol noted at one point that she relocated off a moose. Emily Ross and Graeme Rennie were the sole Canadians today who rose up in the overall standings, Emily vaulting to 86th and Graeme jumping 5 places to 74th. Even now, every day is as important as the one before it, small mistakes of 30 seconds can mean 5 places. No one is too far out of a battle!

My sprint in the evening was a very exciting experience! Held in a park near the centre of town, it was a high speed, and high crowd sprint. Each day I say that O-Ringen can't get any crazier, but when I turned the corner of the building and saw the crowds milling around the hill top that I was about to run over, I was again astounded. At control 5 we flipped our map over (to the confusion of some runners, in fact!), ran underneath the BIG screen, and headed out for another loop. The sprint concluded with us first running across a fake bridge created solely for the race, and then up the stairs and finishing right on stage! I was a little disappointed, though, I made a few poor route choices and decisions which probably cost a solid 30 seconds of errors, I could likely chalk that up to my inexperience in such.... experiences. I think I was mostly spectating myself while racing, because it was just so exciting.

It was unquestionably the most fun race I've ever done. It was apparently broadcast online, so hopefully there will be a replay of it posted somewhere I can post a link. I will also attempt to post some pictures later.

For now, though, its our day off! Tentative plans include locating an alleged beach, or perhaps going to see a movie. Robbie and Eric are also competing in the orienteering biathlon at 4PM, so we may all go and attempt to distract them while trying to shoot.