Yesterday (Thursday) was a rest day for the WOC teams but it was an opportunity for the other Aussies to experience the WOC Long terrain on day four of the Five Days of Italy event being held in conjunction with WOC. After this we were invited by the WOC team to an afternoon tea at their team hotel on the south side of Lago Lavarone. A very pleasant and peaceful environment beside this picturesque lake. Toph and Lachie were the captains of the paddle boat entertaining Linus Quayle while the rest of us enjoyed coffee and cakes on the balcony overlooking the lake. A very nice occasion and the team seemed very relaxed about the challenges of the next two days.

Unfortunately Vanessa will not be running the middle today as she is not feeling well. She was a little off colour before the long but did an exceptional performance considering her physical state to finish and run so well. The coaches have decided to replace her with Hanny in the middle giving her a rest and a chance to recover for the relay on Saturday. Hanny is relaxed about the middle and will no doubt have the stamina to back up after the long on Wednesday. Jasmine Neve will be having her first run at WOC and will start at 12:35, Hanny starting at 13:19. The women will run before the men. Julian will be our representative in the men’s event and he will start at 15:07.

The terrain for the middle and the relay is described in the Bulletin 4 as “the middle distance final is organized in Campomulo, which is part of Asiago karstic highland, in the altitude of 1500-1700 meters above sea level. The landscape is characterized by many terraces divided by steeper areas.
Vegetation varies from alpine pastures to open forest, mainly coniferous, and the ground surface is very rocky throughout reducing the runnability in the forest. Trenches from World War are very common in this area. The network of paths, tracks and roads is not very dense. Cross country ski tracks exist in parts of the area”.

The men have a course distance of 5.86km with 290m of climb. The winning time is down as 35 minutes (6min/km). The women have a course distance of 4.96km with 230m of climb. The winning time is down as 34 minutes (just under 7min/km). Yesterday when some of the team went training on the model map there was fresh snow in the forest.