Orienteering - wake up!

And I must admit I've really woken up! ...thanks to Spring Cup 2009 competition;) which was held in Hillerod [DEN]. We were to run 3 O-courses there. I was looking forward to taking part in them very much. However, I hadn't actually expected such good results judging from my shape and tiredness at Thursday's training. Fortunately, it went quite well...

Night Relay on Friday
Each team consisted of 4 runners in Men's Open. It was arranged for me to run the second leg - I don't know why, cause I was almost sure I was going to compete with the 1st leg runners. But it didn't really matter for me, I was even pleased with this decision since I was able to make the whole race on my own, not having to push the pace following the leaders. I took this course as a perfect opportunity to improve my orienteering technique at night and made a pretty satisfying race, although I didn't manage to avoid one sooo stupid mistake! In the end, we crossed the finish line as the 39th team. Nevertheless, it was only a small warm-up before the most important 2 challenges of the weekend :-)


Classic on Saturday
Our head coach had decided that Polish Junior Team runners from M18 were going to compete in M20. It seemed to be quite a good idea until we got to know that the courses are the same in both classes and the reward for the winners in these elite classes was 1,500 DKK ;-D However, I did not take any special notice of that fact - I only wanted to perform well and be satisfied with my run. And I pretty managed! Though the beginning of the course was quite tricky and my legs weren't working as I would have wished to, the very end of the race went just superb regarding not only my technique, but also running speed. I took a satisfying 7th place in H19-20E being the best among the Poles. What's more, if I had run in H17-18E, I would have reached the podium! I got a real buzz out of my performance and my self-esteem has heightened significantly. To conclude, I would also like to add that the result of the great running/orienteering fight between Nati + me vs. Dyzia + Olej is 3:1! We both achieved victories at the weekend :) I must admit Nati's success was much more clear than mine of 13 seconds ahead of Olej, but still...

Relay on Sunday

I was really looking forward to taking part in this particular relay competition for many reasons. Two of these were: my true love for running relays and a great chance of obtaining a good place in this race.
Not surprisingly, I was chosen to run the first physically demanding leg. I expected a fast race with a whole group of strong runners. But already the 1st control made me forget about my predictions. I left the starting flag as a third runner and almost immediately realised the other competitors were going in a strange direction. I decided to believe in myself and went completely alone to my first control. While leaving it, it was so funny to look at those lost guys heading for the same control from the place the other forking was;-)
Having left the first control, I saw a whole pack of runners from my class some 100m or more ahead of me running to my 2nd control. I got a bit angry, looked at the map for a short while to check the direction, held it strongly in my hand and started chasing them furiously! It turned out to be quite easy to catch up with the leaders. Then we reached the area close to controls no. 70 & 116 and stood for a while looking at each other. I suppose no-one was actually looking at the map precisely while running;-)
Having found these controls, we were to enter the part of the course with no forkings. I decided to push the pace and wanted to lead the whole group. I succeeded in doing it since I was the one to follow between 4th and 7th control.
I was so delighted with my shape and technique that I lost a bit of my concentration and instead of finding my 8th control on the yellow field I reached the control of the very different forking. I could only look at 3 guys punching it and making their way towards the next one.
Having spend about half a minute there, I still believed to catch up with the leaders. Unfortunately, at the 10th control another unlucky forking came and I had even punched control no. 81 and wanted to go ahead when I realised it was not my description! I lost another precious seconds there and it became almost impossible to reach the leading group now.

I reached my 13th control in a brilliant way, but didn't manage to stay concentrated enough during such fast running and missed 1 minute(!) to the next, 14th control.
The last part of the course after the spectator control went pretty well, with no huge difficulties. Only the 16th control should have been found faster and in an easier way.
At the very end of the race I was overtaken by some British guy who followed me almost all the time! I finished 4th, just one second behind him...
Then, I had nothing more to do than just take some rest and wait for Duduś and Olej to see the result of our team work. The result turned out to be magnificent! Since Olej was the first one to cross the finish line with the advantage of almost 2 minutes over the Swedish team :-)
We got some nice, miniature backpacks and were ready for a long journey home.......