What follows isn't really a question, but this board can be used to write a few other things too. I thought a few people could be interested in what went on at the WOC from an OK perspective, and it would be good to preview something of the official OK WOC Report before it comes out! Here are some tidbits... and some pretty big news as well!!! Hopefully the html I used here works!

• OK was well represented. Both Mook and Peggy represented us. It is hard to believe that this was Peggy's 8th WOC appearance. During the week leading up to the WOC we were camped near Loch Ness, training every day on different terrain. Peggy's knees hurt every day. I can only stand in awe of what Peggy has sacrificed for her club. It was on one of those days that Peggy announced her intentions to retire from elite competition following the upcoming WOC. I think Peggy retires as the greatest female orienteer the US has ever produced! Who will be the next Peggy? I don't think we'll see another Peggy in our lifetimes. We're (of course) very proud of Peggy!
• No sooner had we (various US team members) arrived at the cabins near Loch Ness than Peggy became embroiled in a nasty spat with the owner of the cabins! In fairness it should be said that Peggy feels it was the result of a cultural misunderstanding, and she later claimed to "make good" with the owner. Anyway the owner of the cabins had been expecting our party to arrive about 4pm a certain day from the airport. We took the scenic route, were forced to retreat backwards along the narrow road after running into a "smash up" (a.k.a. car wreck), and arrived around 8pm. The owner was furious that he had to wait around for us. Peggy took personal offence, and interpreted his concern for our safety as a disciplinary lecture. She let him have a piece of her mind while the rest of us stood around and watched. Next the owner informed us that we were expected to pay for the electricity we used in the cabins. There were little electric meters that accepted 50p coins. That was a bit weird.
• The Scottish terrain we saw was mostly a glaciated stuff. The vegetation was quite heavy, similar to places in Scandinavia. Two types of ground cover stick out in my mind -- heather, which grows in clumpy or smooth ground cover, and has a springy feeling, and bracken, a type of fern (probably grows and dies off with the season, but I'm not quite sure). Bracken tended to grow in certain patches and its leaves hid the ground. That made it a bit unnerving to run through. It also gave some resistance, and sometimes a lot of it where it grew to around head height. The heather was always a slow and physical thing to run over. Sometimes it grew in clumpy hummocks that were very slow because it required stepping up and down. In addition, most of the forest was used for logging so there was a great deal of slashed branches on the ground (very much like the '98 US Classic Chumps in Washington). The contour detail was pretty high and there were some rock details as well in the glaciated areas. One type of terrain is a sandy moraine that was used for the relays. It was billed as a lot faster running, and it was a bit faster anyway. It was mostly devoid of rocks, but has a lot of contour detail. Still there was a fair amount of stuff on the ground. In almost all cases the winning times were longer than those predicted by the race organizers. My impression of British orienteering is that it was pretty good terrain, and was difficult to prepare for by running in the US (any areas I know of). The British have a lot of good orienteers, and it makes sense why this is.
• A few things about the WOC organization weren't too great. There was a constant sense that the organizers saw this as a great money-making opportunity, and they wanted to charge for such things as race result printouts, parking for spectators at atleast one event, etc. Many of the costs were very high. I realize that there is a great deal of time spent on the organization, and these are volunteers, but one would think that the honor of hosting the WOC would be enough (and they'd make some money and maps for their clubs anyway). Some of the training maps were of lower quality than they really ought to have been, and there were even some complaints about the map used for the Classic qualifier (not from me). Another thing that was odd was the dissimilarities between a lot of the model event terrain (practice courses set by the organizers) and the race terrain. I understand that this is often the case however. At least they could have set more controls out on the model maps (to get longer practice legs). Sometimes all of the controls on the model maps could be visited in 10 minutes.
• To a great extent, results for OK (and actually for the US team) were not great, or actually were poor. For my part, I decided to take everything I'd ever learned about orienteering and throw it completely out of the window. It was dismal. I think I did better in the practices, and haven't completely figured out why that is. I think that I didn't take things as seriously as I could. I was telling myself to take it easy, and run as if I were training. It was a way to feel less pressured, and I thought that it would help, but as I look back at various races I have run, I generally think that more pressure helps me. After running into problems in a sprint to the finish against the Canadians in the relays, I now vow to do some speedwork in my training as well. Most of all, I wish I could have run some practice competitions in relevant terrain. In order to not tire myself out before the actual competitions, this would require going over rather early.
• I enjoyed Scotland and I hope Peggy did too. There was a lot of waiting around, some inconveniences, and we were not always comfortable, but that's not a complaint. I expected that. All of the supporters of the US team should be thanked for all of their help. It was only possible with their efforts. I don't think that one should look at the performance of the US team in this WOC and conclude that we are doing something terribly wrong. We were up against tough terrain and in a difficult position to prepare for that. I know that I spent time preparing, but didn't necessarily know what to prepare for. I think that we'll build on this experience. There are a lot of countries that are building strong teams that weren't that spectacular 10 years ago (e.g., New Zealand, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland) and other countries that have atleast one or a few good runners. Some of these countries are in disadvantageous positions as well.

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), August 17, 1999

Answers

Great report, Mook.

I was a bit surprised to read that you took it too easy. I think a lot of people do the opposite -- they try to have the best race of their life and, instead, get nervous and make lots of mistakes. But, there are also people (like you) who need to have some pressure in order to do their best.

Let's hope Peggy adds her thoughts to the discussion (we really need a good name for this place, any ideas?).

-- Michael Eglinski (meglin@juno.com), August 17, 1999.