I am a man born to run JWOCs...

I ran only 6 JWOC races (all distances in Sweden and middle in Poland) this year, so the time came to take part in the 7th one! Now it was turn to finish the long distance race from the Polish Junior World Orienteering Championships 2004 in Gdynia. Of course I took it as a training, not a competition and my pace wasn't the fastest possible.

It was a really demanding course, not only physically but also technically. Moreover, I felt quite tired after almost 2 weeks of training in Ustka and while running this course I even thought of giving up... But I am not that type of guy!

As you probably expect, below you can see the deep analysis of each control. What's more, I even managed to find Michal Krajcik's [SVK] route choices. He was also 17 years old while competing in Gdynia and took the 29th place! His running time was about 78-79 minutes. The whole race was won by Matthias Merz from Switzerland (72:19) - the runner with black curly hair standing next to me on the main photo above.



1. - 0'10

I think Krajcik chose the best possible way to reach the control. Mine wasn't that bad but it could be better!

2. - :)

The same route choice, Michal only ran too much to the left just before the control.

3. - 0'45

His decision was definitely better. I just lost important power from my legs while climbing up 20 meters more and was simply slower! I started looking for the control in the earlier ditch as well.

4. - :)

Really interesting leg! He chose more running (but faster and no contours to cross) and I preferred to run slower and up-hill (but less). His split time was 7' or 8' + something while mine was 7 and a half. I think both ways were fairly similar but in my opinion he could have saved much energy thanks to his clever (?! - what do you think?) decision.

5. - :)

Nothing special, except for the fact that he had something to drink there ;-)

6. - :)

Exactly the same...

7. - 0'10

I was too careful, I should have just followed the red line as he did. Why? He had the point situated in the forest, I didn't :-P

8. - 1'30

Don't you think I was that foolish! I wanted to run exactly the same as Krajcik did but suddenly a fence appeared in front of me (the map is already 4 years old) and I had to go around...

9. - 0'30

I tried to go closer to the red line but using the path on the left must have been better! There was even a ribbon above that hollow :-)

10. - 0'05

Simple route choice and easy control. 5sec... why? There was a fence just before the point; luckily the point was outside!

11. - :)

I am sure his choice was worse.

12. - :)

One more drink for him, probably...

13. - 1'00

Yeah... the next fence in the terrain :-/ and a wrong decision made 300m before the control.

14. - 0'30

Michal made it a little bit better and I had some problems finding the right place standing just next to it.

15. - 1'00

If I could run this leg for the second time, I would choose Michal Krajcik's route choice.

16. - 0'10

I was in the right re-entrant but thought that mine is the next one and ran unnecessarily some meters more...

17. - 1'00

I was scared of the coming fence and crossed the green area, then I made several contours up which was completely silly! (look at Krajcik's map)

18. - 1'00

I did NOT actually find this hollow, it's doubtful if it still exists?

19. - 0'15

Look at the 16th control's description.

20. - 2'00

My pre-start goal was to run about 90 minutes. I saw it would even be possible to go under this magic boundary and 'found' this control one track earlier...

21. - :)

Point for M10 =)

F - :)

I looked forward to running through the lovely, grassy meadow but some agricultural work had been done there...

Total mistakes: 10'05.

I must say I am really proud of myself that I finished this tough race. I am sure it will bring enormous benefits in the future, especially at JWOC 2011 in Wejherowo.