One month to DK06!

Posted by Mike….
Twenty three years ago I represented Canada in my first international orienteering race. It was the Junior International (which would be renamed JWOC a few years later). It was held in Silkeborg Denmark. Fitting that my last race for Canada at the International level will at the World Orienteering Champs in Silkeborg in one month from today (well yesterday now because I had trouble posting this last night). Last weekend I had a mini training camp in Silkeborg to familiarize myself with the terrain and to test my knee. About an hour south of Stockholm on the long drive I asked myself why I was going? This can’t be worth it. I won’t be able to run, I thought. But I wanted to see what the terrain looked like so the visualization and armchair orienteering exercises I do in the final month will be that much ‘clearer’. The training camp was with the GBR test races. They had a sprint on Friday, middle on Saturday and long on Sunday. On Friday I did some sprint training on a map south of Mindeparken in the morning. Mindeparken is the site of the WOC sprint race. I liked what I saw. The woods were mixed but not as open as I thought they would be. The ground was very hard but the area felt familiar. In the afternoon I ran the GRB sprint race in the Botanical Gardens. It went quite well considering I had a sore knee. Unfortunately the middle distance the next day was not so successful (I had to quit because of the pain) and the Sunday long distance – well I didn’t even try to start. So I used the remainder of the weekend to visit many different maps and well it felt like home. Very much like the Ganaraska forest (minus the poison ivy) and the awesome Copeland Forest near Barrie (minus the MTB trails) and a bit like the Dundas Valley (minus the soft ground). Big hills, some intricate contour detail, open woods, route choice, hanging re-entrants on big hills and a mix of coniferous and deciduous forest. No wonder Alan Mogensen (Denmark) won the 1992 Ganaraska World Cup race. He was running on essentially home terrain. I'm sure I'll feel the same way in one month and that is a great feeling to have when standing on the start line in an international race.

As I mentioned my training camp was together with the GBR test races. I helped pick up some controls for them and in return got to participate in their races. Having their team trials right in Denmark in the WOC training terrain and on Danish maps sounds like an impressive dedication to the sport and the best way to select a team. But remember that the cost to fly UK-DK is less than the cost to fly from Hamilton to Edmonton. Nevertheless, it was an interesting test race. The GBR men have great depth with Stevenson coming 10th in the sprint, 6th in the middle before winning the long easily. BJ, coming off the ankle injury, was far back in the sprint (but still ahead of me) but was added to their WOC team in sprint. The Brits are very well organized and have clear goals to win medals. It was great spending the weekend with the Brits - too bad I couldn't run very well. I have to get this knee working again soon.