Rory Morrish is always a bit behind the clock

Irish ski-orienteering enthusiast turns up late for World Championship start - again

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By Petteri Ala-Kivimäki in Kittilä
     
      Here are a few paragraphs of cheer and consolation for the over-sleepers and the congenitally unpunctual among us. Sh*t happens.
      The starter's gun has just gone for the 25.5 km men's long-distance race at the 2005 Ski Orienteering World Championships, held at the Levi ski-resort in Kittilä, Western Lapland.
      At the same instant, competitor #59, Ireland's Rory Morrish, is just stepping out of the bus in the stadium car-park.
      Morrish runs, a knapsack on his back and a ski-bag under his arm, through deep, yielding snowdrifts as his fellow competitors ski at high speed towards him.
      He strips off his tracksuit, leaves his gear at the foot of a handy pine tree, puts his skis on, heads for the starting-line, and promptly falls on his behind.
      After collecting his map, Morrish skis down the opening straight, shaking his head, nearly five minutes adrift of the pack.
     
However, he is not the last to set off. A Swede who broke a ski dashes away in pursuit of the disappearing Irishman.
      At the finish line, almost exactly three hours later, Morrish comes home in 53rd place. There is one skier behind him.
      Rory's time for the event was just under one and a half hours longer than the winner, Eduard Hrennikov of Russia. It should be mentioned, nevertheless, that five competitors on the starting-list did not make it all the way round.
     
Rory Morrish could be described as a traveller with a thirst for adventure and experiences, and he has paid for this World Championships gig out of his own pocket, so he is not about to quit while he is having fun.
      He manages to keep smiling around the course from control point to control point and all the way to the finish, although his choice of routes, the waxing on his skis, and the timing of his peak of personal fitness all seem to leave something to be desired.
      Not even his transport to the actual competition venue went quite by the book.
      "No, I wasn't in the bar last night. I mean, normally, I would have been, but... No, my bus was late, because there was a truck spread-eagled across the road and we couldn't get by, so we had to make a detour", explains Morrish. The buses to the site did in fact go every fifteen minutes.
     
They say that in Lapland haste goes out the window as soon as you cross the Arctic Circle going north. Morrish has taken the adage to heart.
      So, Rory, what did you think when you were running, up to your knees in snow, towards the start line and you saw the others coming at you like a ton of bricks?
      "Oh sh*t, I'm late - again. I was also late for the start of the sprint event last Sunday, although not quite that late", grins the 37-year-old from Cork.
      Morrish also reperesented Ireland at the Nordic Skiing World Championships in Oberstdorf a couple of weeks ago, when he managed to beat a few of his fellow-competitors to the line.
      "Yes, I beat a Brazilian, two Moroccans, and a Portuguese guy. But Nordic skiing is really for wusses. Ski orienteering is the real deal, proper skiing that requires a strong head on your shoulders and a good physique. I don't really have either of them."
     
Morrish comes to the sport from orienteering, and he became interested in the ski version after moving to Norway four years ago.
      "I only went into training in January. Today I ran out of gas, and the uphill parts were murder. But I like killing myself and then having a few beers afterwards", laughs Morrish.
      In spite of the smiles, Morrish's progress around the track looks anything but relaxed and enjoyable. He slogged through his final kilometres on Monday heading uphill in deep snow, even though a track was right next to him.
     
His ski outfit reads "Ireland" on the trousers, but the Republic of Ireland does not have a ski-orienteering federation. Morrish, who sells timber adhesives to the Norwegian wood industry, has shelled out for the trip from his own wallet. And he has no complaints.
      "This was a challenge. No pain, no gain. Tuesday is a rest-day, so I may pop in to Hullu Poro* and taste some Finnish beer", grins Morrish.
      Fair enough. Besides, he's earned it. Even though he gave everyone else a five-minute start, Rory Morrish beat 54th-placed Aims Coney of the United States, the last finisher, by a thumping sixteen minutes.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 8.3.2005
     
* Literally "The Crazy Reindeer", a popular Levi watering-hole.


Links:
  Ski Orienteering World Championships 2005, Kittilä, Finland
  Ski Orienteering: the basics from the International Orienteering Federation

PETTERI ALA-KIVIMÄKI / Helsingin Sanomat
petteri.ala-kivimaki@hs.fi