Yesterday Louise and I braved the mighty Portuguese jungle on a mission to complete the long qualification and qualify for the (hopefully less prickly) long final on Tuesday. We both came out of the forest with many more scratches than before but with races that got us both into the final... success!!!
After the race Louise said that she had lost too much time fighting through the green trying to take straighter routes rather than sticking to the trails and running around. A machete was a definite must for those courageous enough to try to cut through the dark green. She persevered though and earned herself a spot in the final!
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| Louise running into the finish (photo EOC2014 facebook page) |
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| Emily getting a good view of the landscape (photo from Orievents.com) |
My goal was to run an aggressive race while being careful attacking the controls in the green. Thankfully I also managed to avoid that panicky situation when you're suspended 1 meter in the air by brambles and you're starting to question yourself whether you'll ever make it out of these bushes alive! I had two small errors due to leaving the trail at either the wrong place or at the wrong angle which is frustrating but something I will try to fix for the finals. Other than that, physically it was a tough race, but I really enjoyed the challenge of finding the best route choices in a terrain with no forgiveness.
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| Women Qualification 1 map and route |
We also drove down to beautiful city of Sesimbra to check out the sprint model event and help the legs recover in the ocean. I didn't fancy going in but the Spanish team and Louise seemed to be quite comfortable!
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| At the beach in Sesimbra |
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Do I understand coorrectly that everyone is going to the final in the middle due to a misplaced control and inaccurate map in another place? Anyway, have a great time in both, and Good Luck!!
ReplyDeleteAll men made the middle final due to a misplaced control
ReplyDelete