Knee injury...

Polish Champs?
EYOC?
?

Limanowa Cup 2009 and EYOC qualification races

It was a wonderful 3-day competition for me! I managed to get three 1st places in the most important races (qualification races for EYOC) and gained 300 points, which was one of my goals and dreams. The fourth course (included in Limanowa Cup overall standings) was an orienteering downhill, in which I succeeded in achieving a podium place (2nd). It all allowed me to get a clear victory in my class with a margin of almost 15 minutes!
There were two other interesting classifications carried out during this competition - North vs. South match and mountain bonus. I was chosen to represent the team of South by its coach Remek Widziewicz and we managed to beat our opponents from North and got nice T-shirts as a reward. The mountain bonus was clearly won by Pietrzyk! However, I helped him a bit... and am very happy I did it;-)

Below I present all the maps (in a chronological order) with a precise analysis on each of them.

Tomorrow early in the morning we are leaving for Gdynia to take part in Baltic Cup 2009. I am going to compete in the elite class. On Saturday a long distance race of 15km is in for me! Right after the competition I am heading for Italy. I am going to stay there till 3rd June on a high-mountain camp. It's gonna be really tough... It must be!

Ridiculous competition...

Last weekend we had an enormous pleasure to take part in the first round of Polish Club Championships in Pilica and Zawiercie. I was really looking forward to this competition since it's a wonderful thing to meet all the people after such a long winter break. Therefore, the atmosphere was magnificent. Unfortunately, the very organisation of the races did not meet my expectations... What's more, it made me laugh once I had finished my long distance course!

However, I would like to describe it chronologically, so first comes the relay.

It was an unknown quantity as our team was extremely experimental. Cilu ran the first leg for the very first time in his life! And managed to come first just some 22 seconds ahead of Pietrzyk. One third of the whole task was done! Now the time came for Klusek and Grochu to compete. We waited nervously at the spectator control for them to appear. Suddenly, Grochu came into view and made a funny show;-D Klusek was more than 3 minutes behind him at this control, but at the finish the time difference was only about 2:43. Then it was me to start... I began the exhausting chase after Olej and took risks almost all the time. I made lots of smaller or bigger mistakes which were unavoidable in this situation. After the race I got to know that I passed Olej somewhere near the 6th control because the next three ones he ran some meters behind me. Surprisingly, I did not even notice it! The 10th control was a real nightmare as the map was terrible there! I lost over 2 minutes but Olej was still behind me (he had a longer forking at the previous control). I made another mistake to the 11th control because I still thought Olej was very close, but ahead of me and I wanted to catch up with him... It turned out I wasn't right and he only passed me at this unfortunate 11th control! While running to the next one, I saw Olej jumping among the rocks and already knew I had to catch him to the spectator control. It was not a problem since there was a long track towards it and I succeeded in reducing his advantage. Then I had a little crash with the spectator control;-) At the next control the unexpected forking came (mine was some 100m longer) and I lost some time and self-confidence. Nevertheless, I did not give up and ran incredibly fast after Olej and was only some meters behind him at the next control again. The control no. 17 could have meant a clear victory for me, if it hadn't been for my lack of self-trust... After an unbelievably fast and tiring finish I punched just 2 seconds after Olej and... fell down....... In the evening we heard gladsome news that we eventually won the relay competition because of Azymut's disqualification (one of the showman's controls was missing). 35 points for our club were gained!:)

On Saturday the first individual competition took place - looooong distance race.

The race analysis (which was incredibly hard to carry out!) is on the other side of my map, so I simply lack willingness to repeat it. I would only like to mention some of the aspects which disabled me to ticket this particular competition as a good one.
Fortunately, I am able to make a wonderful comparison between two long distance races in one week's time. Ratisbona Open 2009 (check my previous note) and Polish Club Championships. 7,5km and 7,3km. 350m climb and 275m climb. Time of 48:01 and time of 74:51. Only one question comes to my mind: Where did my shape disappear?!
Actually, we had over 500m to climb (2 times more than announced in the course parameters!). Moreover, my class did NOT even get the control descriptions before the start; I asked politely if there were no descriptions for M18 and I got an unpleasant answer 'No...'. As far as the control descriptions are concerned, I did not actually need them because they were absolutely useless! Fortunately, the code numbers were right at least...
Two controls were situated in the wrong places. What's more, I came across a map from M21 class and their 3rd control is placed on a rocky wall whereas my 11th control is placed on a rock (about 1mm to the left). The funniest thing is that... they have the same code numbers!
Is it enough or should I go on naming all the other drawbacks?;-/

Finally we competed in the easiest sprint ever.

It was very, very hard to make a mistake during this sprint course. However, some competitors 'managed':P Personally, I am just happy I won this race significantly, even though my legs were so heavy and tired before the start...

I think it's all I wanted to say right now:)

Superb shape in Germany!

The 'long' weekend of May we spent in Germany taking part in a three-day competition Ratisbona Open 2009. There were 4 very interesting courses prepared for us:

Relay

Middle

Night Sprint

Long

I am so happy that I came back home safe and sound! As I had a terrible experience during my night sprint race... one man, who was a bit drunk I suppose, threw a glass bottle from behind and it passed my head only by some 1 meter and it smashed on the ground just in front of me:/

Ok, but as far as the very competition is concerned, I performed really well and am very pleased with each of the 4 races, especially with the last one - long distance - since it's my favourite one and I managed to make a brilliant race gaining a clear victory in my class.

I do not describe each race separately as I have already done it. Just check this link out and simply enjoy! (this time in Polish:P)

Fantastic weekend in Łódź!

It was the last weekend of April when I took part in two nice competitions. The first one was an orienteering course on Saturday and the second on Sunday - a street race. I present a short description of each of them below.

XXVIII School Championships of Łódź Province
I had an obvious desire to run as fast as possible after mincing and feeling not so well physically during our camp in Sweden. I started like a dog let out from a lead and had a terribly uncertain beginning. Although the very end of the course went just superb, I was sure I could not have won this competition. I was really surprised when Olej came to the finish losing over 3 minutes to me...

VII Piotrkowska Street Race

I decided not to take part in the open race (about 4km), but chose a two times shorter distance as I thought I would get some chance of achieving a good place in the secondary schools' class. I dreamt of being in the TOP 6...
Some time before the race Pasza told me that it was possible to win this competition. I thought 'He must be joking!'. However, it was really nice to hear such belief in my abilities:)
We discussed the strategy. I had some points to follow:
- do not lead the race
- run about 3rd-5th place
- do not speed up in the middle part
- attack on the final straight.
Nevertheless, it turned out not to be that easy! Everything went just the other way about, cause the start of the race was incredibly slow and I ran in the first line. I had to stop my legs in order not to take the lead. Suddenly, two daredevils decided to run faster, but I was sure they would not be able to keep their pace... and I was right. After some time I joined the couple and ran almost the whole course with one of these guys.
Just before the final straight I looked into his eyes and got to know I was going to win the race. I made a short speed-up, so did he. And some 150m before the finish line I decided to carry out the final attack. I looked behind and saw he was too tired to chase me. I could not still believe I had just won this street race. It seemed so unbelievable several minutes before, I was so happy!!!
Apart from gaining a great deal of satisfaction, I got wonderful awards as well - a printer, a sports bag, lots of cosmetics and a cup sponsored by the President of Łódź.

As far as the very sports aspects are concerned, the length of the race was about 1,8km (possible in my opinion, although it was said to be 2km long by the organizers) and my running time was 5:43. My heart rate was 178/188, but does it really matter? ;-)

outstanding Sweden

Firstly, I would like to say that I updated the previous note about Tiomila - I added my map and a short text;) And now let's go on to describe shortly the second last competition race during our camp in Sweden - i.e. Elitserien Sprint.

It was held just one day before 10Mila, at April 17th in the afternoon. Obviously, we were not permitted to start in the first final and competed in a class called 'H21 E2'. The course parameters were pretty frightening - 3,1km and 93 meters of climb! Fortunately, I avoided getting lost in the first tricky area and didn't make any huge mistakes throughout the whole course. However, my legs did not want to cooperate with me at all. Surprisingly, I achieved the 2nd time of Polish Junior Team runners, behind Stefan, but it was still sooo far from the leaders and something I could have called 'a satisfying performance'...

Below I present all the maps from technical trainings with some words of description on each of them.

As you can see, the terrains were really sophisticated and we had a great opportunity to improve our technical skills in almost every aspect of orienteering.

All in all, spending 12 days in the south of Sweden meant almost 147km in legs, 6 competition races, 12 technical trainings, 18 new maps and a great fun with Polish Junior Team!