Monday's Long Qualifier Course was all three of Team USA's first official MTBO competition. With 73 women competing, we were broken up into two heats and used two different maps. The top 30 riders in each of those heats moves on to the Long Final which happens this Saturday. And guess what?? Sue qualified! She nabbed the 30th spot in Heat 1, making her the first US MTBO-er to do so. Awesome. Rebecca and I are excited to see how she does after tucking a week's more of experience in her belt.
There will also be a Women's B Final for the Long Course, so the two of us will also get another chance to participate and try our hand at the Long Course. We're each learning so much each race that we can't help but improve every time.
Yesterday's Sprint Course was *rough* for me. It was essentially a Foot-O race on a bike, and I learned very quickly that my topographical map reading skills are pretty subpar. I made some crazy route choices, had to spend minutes comparing the map and terrain, and on the bright side of things, got to spend about an extra 50 minutes on a course where most people were done half the time. :) I put it together last night that my outrageous mistakes on the 3rd and 4th controls equalled a longer time than our apartment-mate, Emily's, entire race time. Emily is from Great Britain and an orienteering coach on the side of her day job. She was pumped for the Sprint and said it was 'her race,' so I can't be too disappointed. She finished in 22:07 and said she had the first five controls planned out while she was still standing at the start line. Wow. We've got a long way to go!
We're off to the Middle course today in new territory. Hopefully we'll get an update out soon!
Cool to read all about, good luck for the relay and long final!!
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