Originally I was going to stay in a Travelodge with the
rest of the girls at Heathrow before the flight on Friday morning however Adam
had come to visit after his holiday in the Alps so took me on Friday morning to
Heathrow. After waiting for the boys to arrive we went through check in,
pretending to be off to the Olympics and boarded the plane. I was planning to
sleep on the plane but my seat happened to be in the middle of a hen group off
to Budapest too! After a short wait we boarded a small minibus to Miskolc,
which ended up being very smelly as I cracked open my boiled eggs and some
individuals took their shoes off.
We arrived mid-afternoon, got comfortable (I was sharing
a room with Katie with a joint toilet with Charlotte & Jo) before going for
a short, but very sweaty run. The evening consisted of dinner (which
surprisingly wasn’t boiled potatoes, dill & goulash but actually decent
meals! Although throughout the week there were a few suspicious deserts), team
meeting and then killing time – Katie found a table top football so was
entertained by some Canadians/Americans with that.
On Saturday the majority of the team went training – a
few of us had already been on a training camp a few weeks prior. After talking
to my dad I had the plan to just do how ever much was needed to feel
confident/happy so I was hoping I’d only be out for 10 minutes. It ended up
being a lot more as I kept missing controls, finding it hard to match up the
vegetation. Although not ideal, I called it a day as I had reminded myself of
what was required during the races. We travelled back, during which Eddie asked
about start times preferences for the long & middle. That evening we had the opening ceremony, which we arrived late too WHUPS!! we marched up a street with lots of stalls selling random things before getting to the Miskolc castle which was where the ceremony was held! REALLY COOL - and even though very hot the circus act kept us all entertained!
That night I woke up to go to the loo, finding a poorly
Charlotte on the bathroom floor who had been up for a few hours previously
being sick after what we spectulate some bad fish. We were going to go to the
sprint but Charlotte & Jo stayed in so I headed off with Sasha &
Aidan. The finish & spectator area was a bit light, with a small area to
support along the finishing straight and no GPS/tracking shown live. Luckily
Megan's Mum had it on her phone so we could track the girls first & then the
guys. It was such an exciting day with both Megan & Charlotte getting top
10s and then Willy (the first starter) holding the lead for a surprisingly long
time!! Jonny & Peter came in slightly off Willy’s time and then we were
waiting for Kris. Having previously made a map and had supported the rest of
the team showing the intricate levelled part of the map we were all so excited
to watch his race and it was no wonder that he smashed it and came storming in
with a huge lead. We were all so hyped & it was great to be part of the
team.
In the evening it was time to get prepped for the long
and after the GB Sprint performances the organisers had given us all GPS which
I love running with as it makes me feel important :’). Leading up to the race I
had done some geeking and roughly worked out where the start would be and
planned some courses, always enjoying it when I get it right! Unfortunately the
bus on the way to the quarantine dropped us at the wrong place so the athletes
trekked along the wrong road for a while before it was apparent we were going
the wrong way. 20 minutes later we got to quarantine. I had my pre-race plan so
knew I was on scheduled – planned out exactly when I needed to eat my banana, o
on the model map, warm up & even sort my hair! Before I started I felt
relaxed & knew in my head I wanted to make no mistakes and have a
consistent steady run, after all you don’t need to do anything special to be
special. Nixon reinforces this as I went into the start block so I was
confident & happy when I started.
I started safe and my confident build so I was
comfortable pushing my speed. The majority of the race went really well, I was
in control, had good plans & executed them well. However as I got further
through the course I was using my brain less and so wasn’t as accurate and made
a handful of errors (mostly overshooting/hesitations as I was too far to one
side of a control). I finished and was really disappointed straight away with
the position, feeling like I’d tried really hard, exhausted and all for a 20th
place. However I took some time to reflect, warm down and talk it over with dad
which helped realise actually for where I am in life it was pretty solid.
We eventually go the bus back to the accommodation after
Sasha & Aidan decided to follow an Estonian and we had to get the bulletin
& map out to work out our way to the parking. I got a massage that evening
and also the next day as my back felt ridiculously tight :( Although really
tired, a few of us made it to the Cave Baths – a five minutes bus journey to
the edge of Miskolc. It was good for my muscles especially where there were
jets that could pummel my back! The water was so warm and we found a really
warm pool to sit in. That afternoon we travelled down into Miskolc centre for
the mixed sprint relay & excitement was high as we all knew we had an
awesome team. The leg order was Charlotte, Peter, Kris & Megan and after a
strong start Kris came back with over a minute lead handing over to Meg. The
whole team was ecstatic and we were sprinting around, screaming our heads off
at any spectator point. Meg held it together well and came back with the lead
still meaning GBR had another gold. There was lots of photos and hugs followed
by the cheering as they went on the podium. After that the team went back to
get food and try to rest for the Middle whilst the winners stayed on as Meg had
the struggle of peeing in a pot for doping control & willy got ‘kidnapped’
by a ‘reporter’ who wanted an interview & drop willy back at the
accommodation – after a few hours we got a little worried but then he turned up
overly happy…
The following day I got the bus with Sasha, listening to
Megan’s shuffle as my ipod I use to use for quarantine had broken. As we walked
to quarantine past thickets, brambles, nettles and rough open I was impressed
that the warm up map was ‘Very Relevant’ – similar scrubby terrain to a rocky,
overgrown north east area. Nevertheless I was excited for the race and maybe a
little too hyped shoveling jelly babies in my mouth and stuffing a gel down my
sports bra! Silently being judged by the rest of GB team when trying to justify
that I will need to the energy I reminded them that I took three gels during
the long race and was still in need of energy.
I was a bit more nervous for this race and wasn’t as calm
– although I knew what was required I was too excited to get going and the
agitation stayed on as I started the race. I ended up running a very scrappy
race where I was racing too much and not actually in control of what I was
doing. As I ran nearer to each control I was praying the control would jump out
so I could get a move on to the next control. When this didn’t happen I would
quickly panic and faff around. The whole race was like this and it was really
unpleasant to experience as I felt like I was scrabbling for control the whole
way round but didn’t have time to lose. I finished in 6th which
everyone was happy about expect me as they had no idea what had happened in the
forest. I quickly dropped down to below 20th which was disappointing
but understandable.
That evening Katie packed as she was leaving in the
middle of the night to go to the airport :( so I had the room to myself. I was
excited for the relay, running with Jo & Charlotte on second leg but also
apprehensive as I have little trust in teammates from previous experience.
However, knowing what that I could orienteer without making mistakes and understanding
what I needed to do, helped my confidence in my teammates too and I believed we
had a strong team. Jo was first leg, coming back in 9th, behind a
string of people (including Megan!!). I set off on my own but quickly caught up
three others. My race was going well, slightly panicky at parts when I had time
to think and realise the pressure but pretty consistent. I made a LARGE error
at ten – still not sure what happened but didn’t match the features up
correctly and took a 90 degree route choice error looping back around and
stumbling on control ten (thank goodness). I was running with a Russian here,
fearing I had lost a lot of time and was back down in 9/10th. I went
through spectator having no idea the position just, ‘well Done Lucy, you’re
doing well’ from the coaches. WHAT DOES WELL MEAN??! I remember thinking that
if I was doing crap they would probably say I was doing well so carried on into
the last loop spotting Andrinne – thinking Holy Fuck she must have had a
nightmare as I know she went out a way before me. I finished up just behind the
Russian (skinny girl that had a lot more speed than me!) and handed over to
Charlotte, finally realizing I had come in 4th! It slowly sunk in we
had a chance of a medal & I had sporadic OMG moments followed by, ‘Aaah we
will probably muck up and end up in 10th or something’. However I
had confidence in Charlotte as I believe she is the strongest, most consistent
forest woman orienteer we had. From what we could gather from the commentary
she had run the team into 3rd, pulling a lead over the Russian &
Norwegian. She came through the spectator loop running straight past the
spectator control and having to double back before re-entering the forest. It
was then a waiting game and unfortunately we were waiting too long – watching
the Russian team sprint out the GPS tent to the finish was pretty gutting as we
realised Charlotte had made a mistake. She came out the forest in 4th
behind the Norwegian and we finished in 5th just behind the Russian.
My brain was my worst enemy for the next few hours,
torturing me with thoughts of going onto the podium and I was really gutted. I
don’t think it helped that everyone was saying how good 5th was when
we were so close to 3rd. It took a while to get some perspective and
even as I write this I can feel myself getting frustrated with the result. It
is a step in the right direction & my mum wisely said that the teams who
beat us are consistently in the top 6 & it still doesn’t work for them so
we need to get used to finishing in the top 6 before we can expect more.
We had to stay for the prize giving and closing ceremony
before heading back to the accommodation where we had the beer relay
(definitely some cheating going on…) before eating some food to line the
stomachs before some more drinking and the party which was held on the uni
campus.
The travelling the next day was not fun and I felt VERY
ROUGH – apparently I was up late/early hours of the morning putting the world
to rights with Charlotte?! I sat with Peter chatting about life and eating
copious amounts of ham & cheese sandwiches! Just as I was ready to sleep we
arrived at the airport. Luckily I wasn’t sat in a hen party on the way home and
could get some sleep! I was pretty sad the week was over as it was probably one
of the best competitions I had been to and it was horrible that it came to an
end. The bags took ages to arrive so the team needed to rush off. I picked up
my bag and got the bus & train home where I tended to my hangover before
Adam came down from Sheffield.
After a much needed lie-in we drove down to the New
Forest to spend the weekend at home. The traffic was bad on the way down which
stressed me out and I was quickly back to normal routine where I got grumpy and
Adam had to highlight the positives in life :’). We made it to Lyndhurst where
we stopped for a late brunch & scones in a little café. We went for a walk
in the sunshine before continuing home. It was good to get home and speak to
Mum and Dad. Grandad, Uncle Tony & my cousin from America came up in the
afternoon as well which was great to see them. The rest of the weekend we just
chilled, did a bit of baking and did NO TRAINING. I wasn’t/still am not sure
where I am going with the orienteering – after managing the step up in life
having to balance a 9-5 job with training I need to decide where to go as there
aren’t any more 20-25 age group competitions before the senior level which I am
uncomfortable racing at if I am not good enough to do well. So then it would be
playing the long game and training/committing to five + years to get good which
to be honest isn’t high on my priorities in life…OR pay £7,000 to do a Masters
and go back to WUOC in two years (tempting)!