KrisJones

Almost two weeks have passed since I lined up for the World Orienteering Championships in Venice. There really isn’t any reason that I haven’t written about it up this point (barring a couple of thoughts on attackpoint). Team mate Helen has posted twice since then, so I am obviously slacking. The big question is:

How did it go?

It went ok. After a knee injury in a hill race one month before I put myself in the unenviable position of having to play catch up in the month preceding. Given that it went pretty well. I had three solid runs but I felt like I was lacking something. Maybe I wasn’t lacking as much fitness as I thought but I was short on confidence.

This (very unflattering) photo taken by our awesome team manager Dave sums up my frustration. Straight after the Sprint Relay which I suffered through from start to finish. I had a clean run (not difficult given the course) but was that enough for the team? I gave it everything but I wasn’t up to the pace of the top runners.

Now this all sounds a bit doom and gloom but it wasn’t. I learnt a hell of a lot. In sport, things can’t always go your way and besides, I didn’t actually do that badly. In the relay, I was part of an awesome team who all gave their all and had four clean runs and we finished 6th. Not all that bad really.. In the individual sprint, 18th. Also not that bad.

I had a great week with a great team (staff and athletes). There is more to come. Not just from me but from the team as a whole. Next up are the World University Championships, which I hope to regain some good feeling for. This will be followed swiftly by Euromeeting and then not so swiftly by WOC 2015. In Scotland. Bring it on.