Wednesday 31 July 2013

Back to Reality

     After 42 day in Europe I will be flying home tomorrow August 1st to Winnipeg where I hope to compete in the WCOC’s http://www.orienteering.mb.ca/WCOC2013/ if my knee is up for the challenge. It has been a very enjoyable past 42 days in Europe with tons of great orienteering races and trainings on unique terrains. I feel I have brought my orienteering abilities to a whole new level. My goal was to improve my orienteering technique and I think I have succeeded which is exciting for COC’s this fall in Hamilton where I hope to be fighting for gold in all three disciplines.

I      was unable to compete in Day 5 of Bubo Cup due to a severe knee contusion and missed all five days of OOCup because of the same injury. I went to the University Medical Centre in Ljubljana Slovenia to make sure nothing was broken or cracked in my knee and the doctor said I was lucky nothing was broken because there was a lot of swelling. I was given crutches and sent on my way. I was impressed with how fast the emergency service was, in and out in 3 hours. After a week of rest my knee is doing very well and healing faster than expected. I can see and feel improvement on a daily basis. There is a good chance I will be healthy enough to compete in the WCOC’s despite my right leg being weak and out of shape after not using it for a week. I expect my leg to bounce back quickly and despite it being a bit out of shape/weak I think I will do just fine. My bigger worry will be fighting off jet lag. I arrive late Thursday, August 1st and will be racing the Middle Saturday, Aug 3rd followed by the Long and Sprint Sunday and Monday respectably. This is not much time for my body to adjust its internal time clock and recuperate after a very full day of travel but I think I will manage just fine.
 
Lets go tot he top! I didn't make it out of the parking lot. Near the top of Mangart Mountain (as far as we could drive)

Mangart Mountain on the Boarder of Slovenia and Italy

Sheep near the top of Mangart Mountain

Some random lake in Italy we past driving to Ljubljana


Trebon Center
Trebon

Train on,
Damian

1 comment:

  1. Cool pictures!!! I hope you will win the COC!!!

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