Second day of competition. Pia, Adam, Robbie, and myself (Tomas) were off to Virpimäki for the middle. We were spoiled with an unusually luxurious quarantine; a tiny storage warehouse scattered with open drums of chemicals, half-eaten sandwiches, and dead mice. The sun hadn’t let up so hydration was super important.
The terrain consisted of medium hills covered with mossy rock faces, dried-up marshes, sparse boulders, and decently runnable forest broken up by large cut blocks.
Looking back, I wasn’t super well prepared for this race. Not only was I still recovering physically from JWOC, the terrain and map were also a big change from Hungary. The forests were faster and the contours and rock features were much more subtle. On top of things, the thought of having a GPS to broadcast my every move was just a bit unhinging. Nevertheless, I went into it intending to get use to the new environment and enjoy the experience of running on Finnish soil for the first time.
I had good flow going for the first half of my run. My bearings, however, were a bit off. Probably because I didn’t have the extensive visibility I did in Hungary. It was crucial to not get caught up looking for smaller features. The rock faces and marshes were useful even though the dryness and moss made them look pretty similar. At the start of the next half, I cut through a large patch of deadfall, and that’s when the heat and fatigue started to get the best of me, leading to some pretty embarrassing mistakes.
All the Canadians were pretty pooped by the end of their runs. Pia’s race was unfortunately cut short by an injured ankle. In the end, we all had positives and negatives to take from our races and were looking ahead to the rest of the week.
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