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EYOC 2015-Cluj-Napoca, Romania
After an afternoon preparing for the races with the model evets on similar terrains, I was really excited for the three races which lay ahead.
The first race was the long. Having been expecting high temperatures when racing, it was a shock (and a bit of a relief) to wake up to find it pouring down with rain and temperature in the mid-teens. I had a steady run and was 24th until the penultimate control were I was caught out by an impassable fence meaning I dropped to 32nd overall.
The relay was the next day. I was selected to run first leg and was excited about the chance to race against some of the best girls in my age category. Unfortunately I got really lost going to number 2 and lost about 9 mins, meaning there was no chance of catching up with the pack. I came back really disappointed and felt like I had let my team down. I was soon cheered up though by a piece of watermelon and the first day of good weather we had had since arriving in Romania. Our team finished 21st.
Final race was the sprint. It hadn’t seemed too warm when we had arrived but whilst I was warming up I realised it was going to be a hot and tough race. I pushed hard all the way round, and although I may not have found all the best routes around the course, I was happy when I’d finished. I placed 40th.
I had a really great trip; experienced incredible new terrains, learnt so many valuable lessons and made loads of new friends from around Europe. Thanks you very much for the grant which helped towards the cost of the trip, without such grants it would be extremely hard to compete at high levels and internationally.