2021 is the year of my first WOC performance. I’m 20 years old, one of the younger athletes in the field, and ran for Team USA, one of the less experienced countries.
I still had a really great time and am looking forward to competing again!
Overall, the relay was my favorite and probably best performance at WOC. It was in the famous Czech sandstone terrain which you can see pictures here and a good video here.
Right out of the start I was feeling a bit crappy from earlier problems with overtraining, but my speed was fine as I chased everyone towards the start triangle.
On the way to the first control, the pack split up between the trail and the forest. I didn’t have a chance to really look at the trail route so I just followed the pack that went closer to the line.
It was rough keeping up with the pack going super fast out of the gate, but I managed to get to the first control right behind Martin Hubmann and Albin Ridefelt.
However, I didn’t really look ahead to the next control so I got confused both by which route I wanted to take and exactly what was going on with the other runners as they were still taking other forkings. I definitely could’ve saved time if I was more confident and looked for a route to number 2.
By control 4 I was already struggling on the physical side of things, taking a trail route around and losing some time to the quicker runners.
I made very few technical mistakes throughout the course so I’m quite happy with that. Another small hesitation on number 6 that you can see on my GPS track.
I’d say that the main things I need to focus on and practice for next time are 1) better confidence in myself and 2) better fitness.
With those two I think I can secure a much better result and hopefully throw myself into the mix with the top runners even in such a packed and technical first leg.
For more analysis about the actual course feel free to watch the video at the top of this post where I briefly go over some of my thinking, planning and mistakes throughout the GPS replay.
That’s all.
Anthony Riley 