WOC Long Final Report

After the euphoria of qualifying for the long wore off, reality sunk in: Oh God, I actually have to run the long. I tried to stay calm, telling myself I had already made my goal to qualify and I did know how to orienteer but I was so so nervous the whole morning before the start.

I started with Magnus's last words of advice running through my head: "Take your time to do the first two controls well. It's a really long race to be annoyed all the way through!" Then I turned over my map. The first control looked so tricky! Despite the 375, 45m climb run to the start triangle, I still hadn't decided what what route to take. But good sense won out and I decided to play it safe and ran along the path. You can find the map (and final results) here.

I had a few minor hesitations through the first four controls but I manged to make it through the tricky section relatively unscathed. That made all my training in France seem worthwhile as there is no way I could have done that a year ago!

On the big screen! Photo: Greg Walker

The second half of the race was really just a physical fight. Running up and down ski hills in that heat really cooked my brain and I made a bad mistake on the way to number 12, dropping 9 places. Oops. Lesson learned not to cut corners when you can't think properly! I was running with a few other runners through this section but never really managed to keep up with anyone for very long.

Finally, I made it to the finish, after 1 hour and 56 minutes of running. I was so exhausted. Everyone was coming over and congratulating me on an awesome race, which was a little confusing. I didn't feel amazing out there so I thought they just were saying that for finishing; admittedly, finishing that course did feel like quite the accomplishment! It wasn't till I recovered a bit that I realized the mistakes some of the other women were making. You can relive the drama by watching the our GPS tracks.

Just trying to make it to the finish line! Photo: Adrian Zissos

In the end, I was ecstatic to learn that I'd finished in 33rd, way beyond what I'd dreamed was possible. This WOC everything really came together, with terrain that suited me, having tonnes of supporters there and just having lots more orienteering experience. Then our team's relay result was really the cherry on top: first ever top-half finish for the Canadian women! Such an awesome week and now I'm really excited for the future!