Challenging terrains in Norrkoping and Finspang!

On Friday we competed in Elitserien sprint E2 in Norrkoping.

The sprint itself was just wonderful! First of all, the organization was brilliant. We went into the competition office on the 3rd floor, where we were told to wait and change clothes on the 5th floor. Then, we had to go down, to the garage on the 2nd floor, where we could leave our things and go to the warm up map. Sounds amazing? Yeah, it really WAS amazing! We weren't able to enter the pre-start area until our starting minute was called. Then, we followed colourful stripes to the start and had about 2mins left to the beginning of our race.

One woman and one man started simultaneously from a special wooden platform. I grabbed my map abruptly and saw that the 1st control was very close to the start. The course setter was unbelievably tricky and put the so-called lamp on our way to the first control. I mean another control, obviously. Unfortunately, I fell into this trap and lost 5 precious seconds. The 2nd control went with no problems, although judging from the split times I was just too slow on this leg. And then a real disaster came... I made 5(!) mistakes going to the 3rd control!

- I started running to the 7th control instead of the 3rd one, though I had checked it earlier and knew exactly where I should have gone - lack of concentration?

- I turned left much too early and had to turn back, though I didn't even plan to run there, because I noticed it was impossible to do so - hurry?

- I didn't manage to see that there was no gate between the 2 buildings and entered the so-called dead end - blindness?

- I checked if there was no way to the control on its left side, of course there wasn't, because the control was situated some metres below the place I was standing in at the moment - helplessness?
- Finally, I succeeded in finding my way to the control (still not the best one!), but it wasn't the end of my troubles, since I had to stop for a while because I hadn't expected to attack the control from that side and wasn't sure where it was bound to be - consequence of all the afore-mentioned?

How much time did I lose? About 1 minute, the sprint was over for me!

Till the end of this race I avoided making any huge mistakes. I just could have taken another route choices to the following controls:

*4th - the right one?
*8th - the right one turned out to be faster
*15th - I should have run close to the red line at the beginning
*16th - the left one might have been a bit faster
*17th - I think it was better to use the main alley and then go down using the yellow field.

All in all, I was surprisingly quite satisfied just after the race. But don't think it was due to my performance! It was because of the great opportunity of running in such a marvellous terrain I got! What a pity, we do not have such chances in Poland.......

On Saturday Hewi, Olej and I decided to pay 30SEK for a Tiomila training map and we just can't regret it! The 5km long middle distance course in a tricky Swedish forest - should we want more?;) I was really surprised how easily I could find controls in this difficult area. I must have been having a very good day, which was a really good sign before the coming 10mila at night!

In 10mila I was chosen to run the 2nd leg in Polish Junior Team relay. Pasza started at 22:00. The mass start was really amazing, as the spectators were able to see the runners for about 3 minutes due to an open steep slope at the very beginning. Pasza lost some time already at the 1st control and came 88th to the finish. It was quite a good starting position to fight for a better place.
My course was 12,2km long. I got into a group with a really good pace and followed them for some time. However, they started to split - the forking at the 1st control was obvious. I took a look at my map and compared it with the terrain and decided to run my own way. I passed the marsh, ran up the hill and saw the control no. 112 - yeah, it was mine! It boosted my self-confidence and made me so determined to catch the next group which was already on their way to the 2nd control. I just noticed that it was a really long leg, ran onto the track and chased them. I got really afraid every time this path turned, because I lost eye-contact with them. This forced me to run even faster and I eventually succeeded in catching them. I didn't control the map precisely enough on this leg, but fortunately I managed to guess my location due to the marsh in the green area I was passing (very close to my control).
3rd control was very easy to find and I expected there wouldn't be any forking. Nevertheless, my route choice to the 4th one was horrible. I behaved like a child in M14 and ran an S-shaped leg. I had small hesitations approaching the 5th control, because I saw many headlamps in different places. I controlled my own map and decided to turn right a bit. I was right once again! The short loop consisting of controls 6-10 meant only very fast running and passing the slower runners.
Then, quite a long leg to the 11th one. However, most of it on the track with the pace of about 3:20/km. Some 100m before the 12th control I was curious why the whole group decided not to run following the red line. Obviously, I was not brave enough to go there alone;) Afterwards the 'spectator' part of the course. Checking the results it turned out that I was 24th punching the 16th control. 64 places better than the starting position!

Unfortunately, I got really exhausted in this last loop of the race and made some wrong decisions losing lots of time. Firstly, the 17th control - I can't remember crossing that winding path before the another forking. Then, I didn't know about a new clearing in the area of my 17th one and got pretty confused while approaching it. I lost about 35-40 seconds there. 18th control - just a formality. To the 19th one I decided to go using this path up the hill and followed one group. Unfortunately, they completely missed it, I was sure something went wrong but didn't dare to change the direction and followed them till the control. We found it with no problems at the end. However, we lost almost 2 minutes because of running far too much to the right and sinking in the marshes and mud...

The 20th one was very close. Then, the last forking came. I was really tired and followed the same group. Controlling the map wasn't so easy as at the beginning or in the middle part of the course. I found another control and had to decide alone where to go. I was sure I had to run some more meters to find mine. I looked at the map calmly and went straight to the control. I was really angry due to losing about 1'30 to this control, but looking back on this race I am proud of myself, since I was able to behave appropriately in such a difficult situation.

The last legs required just fast running and fighting for the best plase at the finish. I managed to cross the finish line as the first runner in my group some 30 seconds behind the better group. While crossing it, I saw '48' over me - it meant that I was the 49th runner to finish the 2nd leg! I succeeded in going up by 39 places;-)

I achieved the 40th time on my leg losing 5:16 to the winner. If it hadn't been for my tiredness and consequently mistakes of about 4mins at the end, I would have had the 5th time of my leg. That's why I am incredibly satisfied with my stable performance in this year's Tiomila.

What's even more important for me is the fact that I got to know that my O-technique is much better than last year. I am much more self-confident in the forest, even at night, so I am ready and can't wait to take another challenges!