I'm currently in Switzerland, at the World Orienteering Championships. I've been here all week, but internet has been slow enough at our hostel that I haven't posted anything, since I'm spoiled by fast internets at home. I finally got a bunch of photos to load, and those are below. I'll write up the races in a bit - executive summary is one good race, one disaster race, and I was not selected for the US relay team. I just returned from the relay, where Ali led our team into 3rd (3rd!!!! holy shit!!!), followed by a super solid run by Sandra and a great finish by Sam to bring our ladies home in 15th, which I think is our best ever finish! I was super pumped to be a spectator and watch that finish. I'll post those photos later, since posting photos around here is a lesson in patience. In the mean time... enjoy!
Sprint final arena - beautiful weather, beautiful backdrop of the oldtown of Lausanne behind the massive jumbotron.
Packed stadium, and more people all over the rest of the arena.
This dude, hiding under the jacket, controls the octocopter, which basically looked like a flying erector set with a video camera dangling below it.
More tech dudes, hiding under the stadium seating. Ed asked for lots of photos, so I tried to take photos he'd appreciate =).
Cutest little South African baby ever. The flag-sling worked really well to move her over obstacles.
GPS tracking!
Matthias Müller has his own fanclub. So cool!
Lake Geneva
The Swiss team dominated the sprint. They all happened to be called Matthias. Crazy!
Opening ceremonies had tap dancers holding orienteering flags. Cool.
At the opening ceremonies, they presented the awards from a kids race that had happened earlier in the day. No wonder there is a strong orienteering community in Switzerland! Imagine doing a race and getting your result announced at the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS! So cool.
This is a map that is 125m long, from an orienteering relay that crossed all of Switzerland. This was really cool.
Before the first race!
Magic tape. I decided to try out kinesio taping to see if it would make my achilles feel better, after spending some painful hours watching youtube videos (did I mention the internets are slow?). I call it magic tape because the placebo effect totally worked, and I could run again. Need to acquire some of this magic tape.
Cute lil' cow at the quarantine area.
Team USA!!
At the middle final arena. Another gorgeous day.
Middle arena
Arena from the adventure day. The Swiss 5-Day competition happened in conjunction with WOC, so that the spectators have something to run. Since I didn't make any finals, I got to run in the spectator races, and stage 4 was a real adventure. It involved driving way up the valley beyond Montreux, up the side of the valley wall, and then a cog railway up to the top of the pass. The course itself was hellacious, involving plenty of gratuitous climb, and I had a pretty epic bonk. More on that later, maybe.
After our adventure race, a bunch of us hiked down to a gorgeous lake, which, being in Switzerland, naturally had a cafe by its shores.
chilly!
I'll post relay photos and long distance final shots later. It's been fun, but now it's time to go get banquet-ified.
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