The Waiting Game

I apologize for keeping you waiting for this post. It just so happens that not a single Canadian brought a computer to JWOC this year and their are no computers we have access to where we are staying. Just our luck. We are also expected to bring our own flag for the Opening Ceremony Parade and we didn't bring one of those either. Bad news. Randy Kemp hasn't arrived yet though and we're all desperately hoping that he packed one. Otherwise I'm not sure what we'll end up doing. Apparently we're not very organized this year. But that just makes it all the more fun and interesting!

The week started out well but tiring when I arrived in Copenhagen Sunday morning having received a negligible amount of sleep Saturday night. I met Alison and Holly at the central train station as planned at 11:00 AM and we bought tickets and just barely found seats on the train to Aalborg (pronounced Al-bor - or al-bo depending on who you asked. I think it's really somewhere between those two). The train ride was long but uneventful and we arrived in Aalborg safe but just as tired as before. Then we had to face a 25 minute hike across town to the hostel we were going to be staying in. Hannah and Kieth from the American team joined us later in the day and we then walked back into town to find a grocery store to buy some dinner, breakfast, and lunch supplies. I didn't really get enough sleep that night and Alison and I went out for a run at 7:45 on Monday morning. The 'tired' theme continues.

Cristina, one of the American coaches, came and picked us all up at 1:00 PM on Monday and, after picking up Nate and Andrew (more Americans) we went to the military barracks where we are staying for JWOC.

Graeme and Damian - finally some Canadians! - were already there as they had raced in Denmark on the weekend and came in Sunday night. I went out with the Americans for the week's first orienteering training session on Monday afternoon on a nice but not so relevant map next to the barracks. It was a good way to start the week.

Emily Ross was due to arrive between 6:00 and 7:00 that afternoon but more waiting ensued instead. She says her train out of Copenhagen was delayed and she finally showed up around 8:30. I only found her around 10:00 though and was slightly concerned. It's better than Alexi, the stoic American coach, though who was on the same train and walked in at midnight after walking all the way from the train station!

Tuesday rolled around next (big surprise eh) and with it a good day of training for the middle and long races. Tuesday's waiting was brought to us brought to us by the Danish bus system. We waited 45 minutes for the bus to Blokhus from the main bus station in Aalborg. Life would be so much easier if we had a van.

Wednesday we didn't have to wait for a bus (upon reflection this is actually quite unusual) because we did our training right at the barracks and on Hvorup. Instead we waited for Emily Kemp to show up an hour or two later than she though she'd be (around noon) and then again for Colin and Lee. They were supposed to fly in at 5:05 but their flight out of Whitehorse was delayed four and a half hours and they wandered in just past midnight. I know because I wandered into our room slight after them. No comment.

Thursday:

The entire Canadian team was now here so we took the time to navigate the bus system to our best but farthest away training map: Vester Torup. We had to transfer buses in some town halfway there and we ended up waiting an hour forty for the bus. It was fairly late by the time we got off the bus in Vester Torup and walked the half hour to the start of our training exercises. It was totally worth it though! Meanwhile the Americans and several other teams took the day as a rest day. Lazy bums :P Alison and several other female JWOCers went out to see Eclipse which just came out but thankfully left me behind. Supposedly it was good but I'm still skeptical.

On Friday our team split up. Graeme, Damian, E.Ross, and I went out to a beautiful sprint map in the middle of Aalborg and ran a sprint course I set with invisible controls. The newbs on the team (aka, Colin, Lee, and E.Kemp) went out to blokhus and ran what the rest of us ran on Tuesday. We then hung out at the Barracks and played a long super fun game of ultimate with parts of several other teams. Teams have been arriving throughout the week and the atmosphere keeps getting better and better. It's awesome.

It's now Saturday and I'm sitting here writing a very long blog post to make up for my shortage during the week. Tomorrow the team will run the model maps and I have my first JWOC tour race before a team leader's meeting in the afternoon and then the Opening Ceremonies. It'll be busy. But, as always, fun!