A couple of days ago our first race in Italia started with a bang! Venice filled with alleyways, tourists and the all-exhausting heat.
First of all, my hat goes well and truly off to anyone who ran the WOC races. I know I couldn’t concentrate well because of the heat, seriously sapped everything out of you. So to run a qualifier in the morning and then a final in the afternoon at a world class level with that in mind is impressive by any standard.
We found all the other New Zealander’s in a hall that everyone piled into to get out of the heat. Making our way to the start, Helena and I were mind blown how the Scandinavian’s we were following knew where they were they going as we got lost and totally disorientated in the maze of Venice - could they even orienteer without a map?! Then we realized they were following tapes… sneaky
The public races were very casual. Walk up to your course box and the man standing with a stopwatch. As for the courses – longer than a typical sprint and lots of jumping through crowds of people on the main streets…Pretty awesome experience! Most people didn’t race it hard – combination of jet lag, heat and week for of races ahead. Helena managed to take the win for W20 – yeehar! Unfortunately didn’t get to watch the WOC Final as had to race back through the crowds with our bags to get to the train in time but sounds like it was a pretty exciting race to watch.
Now we have moved North up into the mountains, to a place called Asiago. Six of us going to JWOC (apart from Callum) are staying together in an apartment right in the middle of town. Such a fantastic area, with the streets always bustling with people.
It’s a nice place!
First of all, my hat goes well and truly off to anyone who ran the WOC races. I know I couldn’t concentrate well because of the heat, seriously sapped everything out of you. So to run a qualifier in the morning and then a final in the afternoon at a world class level with that in mind is impressive by any standard.
We found all the other New Zealander’s in a hall that everyone piled into to get out of the heat. Making our way to the start, Helena and I were mind blown how the Scandinavian’s we were following knew where they were they going as we got lost and totally disorientated in the maze of Venice - could they even orienteer without a map?! Then we realized they were following tapes… sneaky
The public races were very casual. Walk up to your course box and the man standing with a stopwatch. As for the courses – longer than a typical sprint and lots of jumping through crowds of people on the main streets…Pretty awesome experience! Most people didn’t race it hard – combination of jet lag, heat and week for of races ahead. Helena managed to take the win for W20 – yeehar! Unfortunately didn’t get to watch the WOC Final as had to race back through the crowds with our bags to get to the train in time but sounds like it was a pretty exciting race to watch.
Now we have moved North up into the mountains, to a place called Asiago. Six of us going to JWOC (apart from Callum) are staying together in an apartment right in the middle of town. Such a fantastic area, with the streets always bustling with people.
It’s a nice place!