13/7/04:
WOC Selection weekend...After a year of disappointments and setbacks this weekend felt like real trial. Despite the best possible preparation over the past weeks we both knew that this was an all or nothing weekend. For Jenny things did not go according to plan - after coming out to Sweden directly from her sister Rosie's wedding (congratulations!) she was ill during the classic race. The pressure was just too much in the middle distance and she finished 6th after several mistakes. After more than a year of thorough preparation this was a huge disappointment for her.
I had made the choice long ago to miss the sprint selection. I'm glad I made that decision as I would not have been able to beat the two young upstarts Graham Gristwood and Matt Speake, who ran great races to guarantee their WOC debuts. Congratulations to them!
The long race provided a few more surprises - 'Grandad' Palmer took an early lead in this relentlessly technical race only to hand the victory on a plate to Dan Marston on the last control of the race. Still, it was a great performance by them both and one that I could not match after a series of mistakes.
I
finally managed to put my millstone aside for the middle distance and ran a
clean race in some beautiful terrain. I was very nervous throughout this race
and took no chances whatsoever. Dan ran yet another good race to finish just
9 seconds behind (after a miss on the last leg). Unluckiest man of the weekend is certainly Ewan, who ran 3 good selection races only to miss out yet again. Your time will come! The selections are available here.