Pride means more than the result for me...

Last weekend I took part in Grand Prix Polonia organised by Azymut Dębów near Przemyśl. The whole event consisted of 3 stages and one additional race – sprint.

On Saturday there was a long distance race prepared for us – 7km and 300m of climb. I started 4 minutes behind Grochu and caught him already at the first control! The next 3 controls we ran together and I had a great beginning of my race. However, then a real disaster came… The map wasn’t precise enough for me on my way to the 5th control and I lost over 10mins(!) to the best split. Unfortunately, I was terribly disappointed and lost my whole motivation to push hard. I began to jog and continue the course just to avoid being disqualified because it was a 3-day competition… Nevertheless, I didn’t manage to run without any stupid mistakes and got the 8th place, but it didn’t really matter for me...


The second day I was incredibly motivated to win the middle distance and wanted to reduce my time waste to the 3rd place (Cilu). I had a very good race catching Wojtek P. at the 4th control. I made only 2 mistakes (wrong route choice to the 4th control and too much to the right just before this control; being too low near the 6th control and running too far). I managed to win with the advantage of 16 seconds over Gleb Tikhonov from Russia. However, I gained only 2:28 comparing to Cilu and he was to start 5:43 before me in the handicap the following day.


In the evening there was a short sprint race waiting for us. It was a pity that there were only 7 controls on the course of 1,8km. I took wrong way at the 1st long leg and met Rysiu, who started 30secs behind me, at the control. Then, I thought the 3rd control is the second one and ran towards it. I lost some 25 seconds and couldn’t find any reason to run fast afterwards... I just finished my race and ended in the very middle of the men’s category.


The last stage was a handicap of 6,1km and 250m of climb. My place after 2 first stages was 6th. I started some 1:30 behind Patela, some 3mins behind Wojtek P. and 5:43 behind Cilu. The leader started over 15mins ahead of me;) I speeded up at the beginning and had problems reaching the 1st control, but Patela’s problems were much bigger and I caught him already at this control. Then, I ran quickly to the green and tried to get through it. It wasn’t the best decision since I lost almost one minute and got my nose cut, bled and hurt. Controls no. 3, 4 and 5 went pretty good. At the 6th control the next huge mistake came, because I mixed the re-entrants and lost about 40secs. The 7th control was easy and at the next one I decided to push harder in order not to run with Patela the rest of the course. What’s more, at the same leg I saw Wojtek P. who was running back to the 7th control as he forgot to punch it. It boosted my motivation because I knew that at least the 4th place was waiting for me and I tried to catch Cilu as soon as possible. I felt really exhausted at the next controls, but saw him on the fields near the 11th control. However, he still had some 2mins advantage over me. I ran with no significant mistakes till the 15th control, where I lost nearly two minutes and my hope for the podium place completely disappeared. I came to the finish knowing I was fourth and I was not wrong...


In fact, I did not deserve the 3rd place, so the results were very fair. The only thing that consoled me was 200PLN which I won for the 3rd place in Galicja Orienteering Tour general classification.
The very same day I jumped to Wielkopolska’s bus and made my way to Miskolc in order to be the part of WOC 2009 and compete in Hungaria Cup.......