We caught up with three NZ orienteers who were selected for the World Mountain & Trail Running Champs. They have described the the running terrain, how their race day unfolded and the whole event experience.Pictured above are Dougal and Bronwen at the World Mountain & Trail Running Championships which took place in Canfranc-Pirineos from 25-28 September. It brought together 1700 athletes from 80 countries – the highest participation in the event’s history so far.

Amelia Horne – 45 km Mountain Running Champs Short course 

A rookie move by me – my watch didn’t manage to get satellites before starting. Consequently my watch overestimated the distance I’d run which made for a bit of a guessing game on course as to how far away the next aid station was. I thought it was a really good course, with a good variety of terrain and epic views. The terrain included everything from flowy single track, technical rocky sections, off track sections down a ski slope and a couple of short sections along a road. The first two climbs were steep and long and the second two were shorter but more technical. There was a bit of rock, particularly on the third climb, which reminded me a lot of Mt Owen. The technical sections were engaging and fun.I didn’t get the chance to recce the course so it was all a bit of a surprise. I did try familiarise myself with the map and profile beforehand and got a couple of helpful tips from team members who had recce’ed the course. My race plan was to go out pretty conservatively, until the top of the second climb. Actually,, I went pretty conservatively to the bottom of the third, I was pretty fearful of the last two climbs and knowing the last one could be the worst I wanted to have legs for it.  I didn’t expect hornets on the course – I got away lucky with just one sting. 

Didn’t see Tove out on course, as she was crushing it, but caught up with her after. In the races I’ve done over the last year I’ve struggled with my nutrition, so that was a main focus for this race. It generally went pretty well. I use gels and carb drinks. I run hot so ensuring I had enough liquid to stay hydrated but not overdo it on carbs was key. I think nutrition is key on the longer races. There’s a bit of hype at the moment around high carb intakes for endurance sport, ultimately I think it’s finding what works for you, taking in a lot of carbs to end up with GI issues later doesn’t serve you well. I think the nutrition piece can be complicated, with different sugar ratios options, when to use what ratios, and factoring the terrain and time into when you take nutrition. Practising definitely helps but Practising nutrition and training your gut to be able to tolerate your race nutrition plan is key, and something I am still working on. The team coming together over race week was a special experience. Fellow teammates helping out at aid stations was a huge help and a boost to see team mates. The crowds out on course cheering, teammates, family members etc was all very special and neat to be a part of too. 
Watch the live stream from the short course on youtube here 

Dougal Shepherd – Mountain Running Champs uphill vertical kilometre 
The race was short and steep 6.3km +990m. The first 700m was along a gradually climbing road and then into single track around 15% then kicked up the last few hundred meters to maybe 25%. The terrain was similar to the Port Hills trails in Christchurch that I grew up running. Red, volcanic type soils and the technicality was single track but nothing crazy. I recced the course as soon as I arrived in Canfranc, over a week before the race. It was nowhere near as important as for the trail race teammates but good to get eyes on it. I then did a little hill rep session on it 5 days out. The main focus of thoughts was about the first section on the road into a stair set bottle neck. I weighed up going out pretty hard to try be in a strong position but opted to be conservative and try climb the second half strong. 

The weather was perfect, low wind and slightly on the cold side which kiwis prefer. I seemed to pace it reasonably well I think. I planned to be pretty smashed by the last 500m as it was super steep and I knew I’d be walking. Over the whole course I walked quite a bit more than most people around me. I think orienteering prepares you well to be able to switch between running and walking sections and picking what’s optimal for you. Unless you are Rémi, and you bound the whole way up, if you can hike at a decent ticker I think it’s an underrated tool. 

I placed 103rd. This was about what I suspected and I was thinking a top 100 would be a strong run. Its tough placing this far down and not think it is a poor effort, but I’m pretty proud of myself and pushed super hard so can’t be disappointed.  Being a sub 1hr race, glycogen stores don’t get depleted so fuelling is not really relevant, but I did have a gel 10’ pre start. In terms of gear, for uphill races there’s no benefit in a carbon plate. Wore a pair of the original Salomon Pulsars (~170g) that’ve been hiding in the closet for a special day. 

The event organisation was slightly underwhelming. We were staying 30’ from canfranc (race venue), which made spectating hard. most of us couldn’t go to the opening ceremony and there was no real afterparty. However, being able to be on course in the later days of the festival was really fun. The kiwi team was quite close as most of us trained in Canfranc prior. Jackson, my roommate for the trip, smashed the short trail off the back of quite a bit of adversity which was awesome to see live. Cool to see 2 orienteers, Tove and Fred, take out the short trail also. 

I went to Morocco after the race, and did the Atlas Marathon Skyrace 27km +2000m. a distance and profile I really enjoy but the altitude made it impossible to be competitive and I was out the back straight away. The race started at 1800m and went up to 3600m. I had a couple of vomits up the climb, which was a first for me, and was unable to focus at all on the downhill. It was good learning that to be competitive at elevation, you really need to live and train up there. 

Watch the live stream from the uphill race on youtube here

Bronwen Rees-Jones –  7.8 km World U20 Mountain Running Champs  
I had 396m elevation gain – It was bit over 40minutes of running. The distance felt fine going up and down as I was prepared for how long we had to decent/ascend. However, the extra 1km flat at the end was really tough as it wasn’t something I was used to, my legs felt super tight and tired and it was a challenge to maintain sub 4:00/km’s. The course began on a road for 1km before heading onto a gravel vehicle track for a few hundred metres. These sections were very runnable and had about a 3-5% gradient up. Then the single trail began where the rest of the climbing occurred, this was filled with the lower, rocky section before a less technical single track with switch backs. This was easy to run in terms of technicality, but you did have to be careful about a few areas of loose stones or roots. At the top we ran over a stone bridge before descending down a technical twisty single path with a few areas of streams and roots. This section was fast; you had to be careful not to overshoot the bends; I utilised trees to help maintain speed on corners. In the middle of the decent it opened out into a vehicle track before joining up to the original ascent for one last technical decline. The majority of the climb was around 10-16% gradient. The last 1.5km was open and very runnable with the last 1km being on concrete/road. Overall, the course was very mixed in terrain, but the amount of single trail made it difficult to move past people, especially on the decent.  On the week of the race, I managed to walk the course, running a few tricky descending sections which really helped on race day. On the day the weather was around 20 degrees celsius and clear skies. We started at 8:15am so when we first entered the forest it was still a bit dark making the ground hard to see. In terms of pacing, the first 1km was very fast around 3:40/km with around 20m of elevation gain, by the time we reached the single track and steeper slopes it was about focussing on maintaining a solid pace. Starting off a bit slower meant a few people came past, but as I made my way up to the top, I began overtaking a few runners thanks to maintaining running the whole way. On the downhill it’s about relaxing and running as fast as possible. I would say steeper descents is my strongest part, but due to the single trail I did get stuck behind runners making it frustrating. Once at the bottom and back on the flat it’s all about maintaining the speed as best as I could on tired legs. The event was filled with many great runners and orienteers competing; at the opening ceremony we got to speak to Jonathan Wyatt (6-time world mountain running champion) as he was at the event commentating.

Since we had to get up early the food selection beforehand was very limited, I ended up having some bread and then a banana closer to the race. This didn’t cause any issues during the run, afterwards I always struggle with fuelling, but I managed to get down some carbs within 30mins. A tip I have is to learn what works for you in warm up to help keep you from getting too stressed. I find that warming up around 5mins before the time I need to begin helps prepare me for any issues which may arise. I also prefer to keep to myself, so I can do everything at the pace I want to and not get stressed by others; but some people would prefer the opposite, being relaxed by having others there. The only way which you get better at controlling racing nerves is by racing more and putting yourself into stressful situations and learning how to react when things don’t go to plan. 

This event had the world trail and mountain running champs combined so there was a team of around 40 runners. We all stayed in the same hotel and socialised during mealtimes and the daily team meeting. Since our race was on the last day, athletes from our team were up on the trail cheering us on as we ran. The spectators were able to get very close to the course making for an incredible atmosphere. The organisation of the event course was done to make it spectator friendly, and this was seen in the later races in the day. Before the event I spent 10 days in the UK visiting family and I got to run in some cool places. In England you are able to run through farms; this meant we were able to run through off road which is much more exciting for running. My favourite run was in Weymouth, where I ran up a steep hill towards the Portland prison; it was 1km in a straight line straight up. Overall, the experience of the trip was valuable, and it was such an inclusive event which didn’t feel overwhelming.