The day began beautifully with dark clouds, thick smoke and a postponement notice for the middle. Due to the heavy ash and smoke from the Dixie Fire the air quality was too bad for us to run first thing in the morning. We hoped that strong winds would clear out some of the smoke for the afternoon and we would get to race later. The morning passed slow and stressful as we waited for the official announcement. Thankfully at 12:30ish, we got the news, we would run.
As the races started, however, the smoke and altitude were still the main stories of the day. While the smoke had cleared it was still thick and laced with the dirt from the dry forest floor. The course would also take place at 6600 feet so oxygen would be tight. While open running it was a physically grueling course. So even though there were many great stories and races that took place throughout the afternoon this blog post will be focused on the junior’s reactions to the physical conditions of the day. I asked as many juniors as I could to comment on a scale of 1/10 their opinions of the physical condition. Here are the results,
· Oriana – treadmill
· Kirsten – So out of shape it didn’t matter, but also my throat was on fire
· AJ – It was so bad, I thought I was going to die
· Caroline – If I was allergic to nuts and raspberries the physical condition today was the peanut butter and my strength was the raspberry jam on the PB and J of this course
· Siri – I was walking and the sand almost ate me
· Victor – 2 cigarettes/10
· Bridget – Was about to pass out but I felt like that for 2 months so nothing new
· Diana – Felt like a runner’s course but minus the running
· Julia – I thought it would be a good idea to chug 2 bottles of water; weirdly it made it worse?
· Tyra – Couldn’t decide if my mask or the smoke was better to race in
· Jack – 5.500
· Jessica – It felt like the terrain ate me from the inside until I wanted to puke.
· Ben – 4
· Max – 5th ain’t too bad for not training in the slightest [also rank 5 for lungs will be damaged for the next 5 years]
· Keegan – Eh it wasn’t that bad
Let’s hope for some clearer weather tomorrow,
Keegan
F20 Middle; M21 Middle
USA Junior Orienteering 