Ontario Relay Champion!

Today was the Ontario Relay Orienteering Championships held at Milton (near Toronto). It's quite a low key event but my club (Waterloo Stars) and team still wanted to win.
RESULTS NOW ONLINE

Nick Duca set off strongly on first leg, and despite losing 2 minutes part way round, he capitalised on a mistake by the rest of the field to come back in 1st with a 1 minute lead. Andrea Chappel ran second, with a good run to set me off in 3rd place about 2 mins down. I overtook 2nd early on, and didn't see the leader but went past them somewhere. A clean run led to victory, and a nice homemade pumpkin pie. The area was fast but hilly (a ski hill) and I completed my 4 km course in 24:35 mins.
It was a good day for Stars, with two top 3 teams in the handicapped class as well.

Kelso, Gator Orienteering Club

I also ran cross-country yesterday. This was the home meet on North Campus. 8 km (four 2km laps on parkland) took me 27:33 mins. I felt strong and was fairly happy. Only seven people can run at the Ontario Uni champs in about a months time, and I think I'm currently about 7th or 8th in the team, so I'd like a good run at Kingston in a fortnight.

The Warriors Prepare, a view of the course area and Columbia Lake
Photo of me, credit: Natasha Lane

Western Invitational and the Turkey Trot

On Saturday I ran at the Western Invitational in London (Ontario). This was a 10 km cross-country on a golf course, so soft but flat grass and some tough climbs. My time of 39:21 was ok considering the tough week of training (Coach's race report). The Waterloo team's aim is to peak for the Ontario Champs at the end of October, so we aren't resting up for these early races.

The training is getting tough, two long interval sessions a week and 45-60 min runs on the other days, with competition and a long run at the weekends. I'm sure it will be good for me in the long term but I am feeling it at the moment. My first impressions of Canadian university sport is that it is much more tightly controlled than in Britain. Teams are run by the university, rather than students. I can't say which I prefer, I think the all-inclusiveness of Britain is a good thing since it encourages casual sportsmen to become competitive, but there is still a great team atmosphere here and having a (free) professional coach can only be a good thing (and free race entry, free transport, meal allowance).

Next XC is this coming Saturday, our home meet. The Don Mills open. I don't think it'll be the most enjoyable course ever, certainly will be a lot of laps.

On Sunday I had my first orienteering experience over here; day 2 of the Turkey Trot. The area was Albion Hill and was a managed forest, with lots of bike trails (not all marked). It took me a while to get into it, a combination of not orienteering for about a month and being out late the previous night. The second half of the course was much better. The forest was tough going, definitely worthy of its slow-run screen and it was hot. There weren't many competitors (I'd rank its importance somewhere close to Twin-Peak or October Odyssey, but about a tenth the number of people and a very reduced number of classes to make that sensible competition) but they did have decent prizes for the top 3 each day on all classes and best overall.

Ion Gheuca and Janos Kuszalik

Next Sunday is the Ontario Relays, I hope to do better there, followed by the Ontario Champs (sprint, middle and classic) over the following Thanksgiving weekend. I've also just entered the US Champs (incl. a World Ranking Event) at the start of November near Washington DC.

As for uni, there is definitely a lot of work to keep on top of.

End of week 1

I've had one week of classes now, and things seem ok. It was difficult to schedule my lessons to avoid clashes but I got things sorted, and it's fairly common to have classes till 8pm over here, fortunately I don't. I also have a weekly assignment for each class which is a bit different!

I ran in the black & gold of Waterloo Warriors Cross-Country team yesterday (results) at Guelph Uni. The race was mainly on trails so fast going. It was 7.4km and I finished in 28:18 mins (winner 23mins ish) and was 6th Waterloo. I felt as though I could keep running but was lacking speed, probably from training every day since I've been here. It will probably be good for me in the long term to up my training, but at the moment I can't do that and race anywhere near my best.

There was also a team social to a bowling centre last night (they only have 5 pins over here!) then some of us went on to the Bombshelter club on campus. The DJs could do with learning from a British Students' Union about music choice though. It was a fun night, but getting up for a 9am long run wasn't.

My US trip next weekend is off since Stars couldn't get a team together, but I expect to have another XC race in London and then a regional orienteering event near Toronto on Sunday.

Why this blog?

I've moved to Canada for a year, and when I get back I need to write a report on what I did so I thought it would help to keep stuff all in one place. If people read it, great, if not it'll be useful for me.

I plan on writing about my orienteering, running, university life and anything else that could be [slightly] interesting.


I've had one week over here now, it's been quite quiet since most Canadians are only turning up this weekend but it is a nice enough place with a few patches of woodland about to go running in. I've been out with the uni XC team a few times so I've learnt some routes, and with Nick Duca from the local orienteering club (Waterloo Stars).

University starts on Monday, and I think I have a cross-country race for the university next weekend, with possibly a trip to the United States orienteering relay champs after that. If not I expect my first North American orienteering experience to be the Ontario Champs in October.