Last of the season! (English)

The last orienteering race of the season took place last Sunday, November 10th, at La Peche map, located in the east edge of Gatineau Park, about 30min north Ottawa city by car.

It was very cold. It had been snowing for hours the night before so I wasn't very sure how much snow I was going to run through. It wasn't the first time I ran through the snow - I enjoyed some nice snowy races during Trofeo Villacarrillo last year - I wasn't ready to race almost 2h through that forest.

There were some jokes before I took the Start: will I survive or will I die trying instead? Once I had warmed up, I realized I wasn't cold anymore. That made me feel much safer and better. As soon as I took the start I stopped feeling my hands and my nose started to hurt tho.

As soon as I got into the forest and I started to climb the hill on the way to the first control, I realized the race was going to be harder than I expected: the snow was melting because of the rain and everything was very slippery. The second leg was a good sequence of mistakes: a nice walk through the green stain, a few face-plants when running downhill and some direction mistakes when only 30m remained to the control...

I made controls 3-4-5-6 with no problems. I enjoyed a lot when running toward the third control and when running downhill on the way to the sixth  control. The seventh leg didn't seem to be a difficult one (I just had to run all the way above the rocky stripe). Somehow I was running below the stripe once I crossed the swampy green stain, so I had to climb a "nice" slope to reach the control in the end.

I enjoyed a lot again when running to the eight control.

I made a mistake again on the ninth control. I reached the top that is right beside to the #9 in the map, so I felt very disappointed when I saw the rock but no the control beside it!! (Every single orienteerer nows how one feels when one is very sure that a control is somewhere but it is not there in the end) Luckily I found out where I was soon, so I could fix the mistake I made before in a few seconds

I did legs 10 to 15 without making any mistakes, thinking about the way my back hurt, the way I miss Spain and my fellows so much and thinking about that time is money for me during my stay here in Canada.

Ottawa O-Fest  (September 22nd, 2013)