One second mistake is still not good enough!

Last weekend I took part in JWOC 2011 qualification races in Rumia.

On Saturday a very fast middle distance race waited for us. We had all expected the course to include a lot of controls in green areas. How wrong we had been! The course was really fast and the forest offered great visibility and runnability. Just after the race I was very satisfied and thought that the maximum time loss to the winner could equal 1 minute. However, Olej's shape was just unbelievable and I lost as much as 1:28! Having analysed the whole race deeply, I realized it was not such a brilliant performance (1'07 of mistake), but a really good one.

On Sunday we ran long distance race on the same map. I had a really good flow throughout the whole course. I understood the terrain perfectly and chose wise route choices (apart from control no. 3, where I lost as much as 40 seconds!). I could have run faster by 2'20 (summing all my mistakes) and the time lost to Olej was 2'40. The lead was out of reach that day, too...

Is my shape not good enough?

Is it possible for me to improve so much?

We'll see.

All in all, I am very satisfied with my performance at the weekend. My O-technique in this terrain is close to perfect, which is a great prediction for July!

I can't wait to compete in the coming Polish Club Championships;)

Sinusoid. It's all in your head.

Fortunately, my good health let me execute all the plans presented in the last note.

My last winter training camp in Szklarska Poręba in the middle of February was expected to be quite tough. And it really was. I managed to do 21 trainings during 9 days (3 of which were technical sessions).

At the end of February my club made his way to Żelazko in order to spend some time with a map in our hands. At the weekend I got the opportunity to run 4 technical trainings (using even 5 maps, in fact). I had a really good flow and my orienteering technique was quite promising.

Then, the highlight of this training period - Portugal!

After arrival in Crato we spent 2 days training on the model event maps for Portugal 'O' Meeting 2011.

The competition itself was a great success for me. I managed to win both middle distance races and place 3rd and 2nd in long ones. In the overall classification I gained the 1st place ahead of Jan Petrzela (CZE) and Olej. It was unbelievably satisfying and boosting to defeat the previous European Youth Orienteering Champion. I felt that everything is on the right way!

Afterwards, we trained for some 3 days in a bit different terrains and prepared for the coming competition - International Meeting of Arraiolos.

Despite making some silly mistakes, I managed to win the middle distance again. Nevertheless, I had no mental power for the last day - long distance of 13,7km. At the first 4 controls I lost a total of 11 minutes! 5 of them already at the 1st one... And the rest of the course I jogged. At the end I remembered about my bet with Olej concerning the finish. Although it was very muddy, I decided to run the last 300m as fast as possible and... won this split with the advantage of 5 seconds over the next competitor (not only in my class, but in all competition classes). Funny;)

One week later I took part in the popular cross-test in Ruda Pabianicka. I achieved the time of 28:58 on the course of 8,08km (3:35/km). Looking at my last year's result, it was 51 seconds better! However, Olej was really fast that day and beat me by 27 seconds - congratulations and recover!

Last weekend I took part in the Danish competition, which is considered as the opening of the orienteering season - Spring Cup. The night relay on Friday was a real fun for me and I enjoyed the mass start very much. Nonetheless, the most important race for me was Saturday's classic. Generally, I made an awful performance and lost as many as 6mins due to my mistakes! It wouldn't have been that bad, if I hadn't lost more than 10 minutes to the winner - Eskil Kinneberg from Norway. In my opinion, he is the best junior right now, but losing so much time is not acceptable! I must have had a really bad day...
This painful failure made me lose my motivation, self-confidence and belief completely. That's why I had no fun running the 1st leg of Sunday's relay and came 7 minutes behind the leading group (making no more than 1min of mistakes!).

My mental state during the last days was so poor that I wasn't able to find any motivation for running and my life was so dull... I don't mean that I avoided trainings. I did them, but with no commitment and willingness. On Wednesday I was close to tears when I finished almost all the intervalls behind the runners who are actually not faster than me. At the same day I had a long talk with Łukasz and it must have helped me really a lot, because - although the beginning of my Thursday's training wasn't good - I managed to overcome my problems and ran with a huge smile on my face!

THANK YOU, ŁUKASZ.

Last orienteering journey of 2010

It consisted of Polish Championships in Superlong, technical camp in Rumia with the Danes and Baltic Junior Cup in Lithuania. Oh, I should also mention that it began exactly 4 weeks ago...

The day before the last PC race I took part in Sulejów Cup. The map fell short of my expectations. However, the terrain was very nice and pretty fast;) Everyone took this competition very easily, but I decided to run at full speed and I do not regret it! I managed to win the men's elite class and got... a bottle of wine. Such a prize was worth an effort:)

On Sunday I wanted to pursue one of my pre-season goals: achieve 5 out of 5 possible medals from the individual races during Polish Championships. After a constant and solid performance at this tiring superlong distance I did manage by winning the silver. Rino had a brilliant race and totally deserved the title of Polish Champion.

The funny thing is that this year in M20 class the podium looked the same in all individual PC races: Hewi, Rino and me. We only exchanged the colours of medals sometimes;)

Only some hours after this exhausting competition Pałka, Olej and I made our way towards Rumia in order to take part in JWOC 2011 technical camp organized by the Danes. We got to know really nice people and made friends with them. There were not only the Danes, but also two Swiss girls and Norwegian superstar, Eskil Kinneberg - probably the best junior at the time.

We had lots of interesting training sessions, two of which are especially worth mentioning:

~ O-intervals with mass start and no forkings - we got a great opportunity to compete with great juniors from Scandinavia and made a wonderful speed and strength training!

~ long route-choice course - the course was really demanding and challenging, but the weather was even more difficult to put up with: it was raining, the wind was blowing and my hands froze over...

THANK YOU for all the maps & courses and nice time spent together!

As soon as on Thursday afternoon Olej and I had to drive to Warsaw so as to head for Baltic Junior Cup the following day. The national team was strongly experimental and I was the oldest member of it, I felt pretty strange about it;)

As for the races, I made quite a solid performance during the long distance course of 13,4km. I gained the 5th place, 38 seconds ahead of Olej. Unfortunately, I missed the podium by only 1'33 and felt disappointed about it. If it hadn't been for my tired legs...

The next day the well-known mixed relay awaited us. I was chosen to run the last leg in our first team. My starting position looked quite promising: 5th place, 2'04 to the podium and 1'39 ahead of the chasing teams. Already on my way to the 1st control I passed the guy from the 3rd (!) spot. Then, I made a close-to-clean race (losing only some 35 seconds) to the spectator (12th) control. While attacking the 15th one, I saw the guy from 4th spot and succeeded in passing him at the 17th one. Unfortunately, control no. 19 was a real disaster for me. Olej (who ran the 1st leg) told me about this particular place before the race and I stopped thinking on my own... I lost so much time there (1'15!) and lost my dream bronze medal position:( Later on, I was not able to calm down and lost my concentration completely. On the way to the second last control I decided to do my best to win at least the 5th place for my team and ran as fast as possible. I managed to run away from the other competitor and had 'only' to find one of the easiest controls of the whole race. Being really close to it, I lost my mind and went left to the wrong field. When I turned back, I saw the afore-mentioned guy reaching the control... I ended up on 6th spot, but it turned out that the Finnish team got disqualified and we eventually took the disappointing 5th place.

All in all, my performance at this final leg was terrible and I am very sorry for the whole team. On the other hand, I gained lots of invaluable experience! That's why I am really satisfied with that O-weekend.

29 days out of home!

It's been by far the longest journey in my life. It began on 19th July...

Day 1
Train to Gdynia. Waiting for Olej. Shopping in Tesco. Pizza in DaGrasso. Sleeping at AP's house.

Day 2

Ferry to Karlskrona. Michael (from Nybro OK) takes us to their clubhouse. Wow! We've already been there (Baltic Junior Cup 2008).

Day 3

The best O-training in my life! Normal course, Swiss game, in and out, contours and corridor. Just see how close to the control (a piece of toilet paper) I was during the 'Swiss game' part of the map! Then, sauna in the evening;)

Day 4

In the morning a middle distance course. I was very satisfied with my orienteering. In the afternoon we decided to check if the BJC 2008 mixed relay terrain was really so difficult and we made sure it was NOT. It means that we were poor some 22 months ago...

Day 5

Finally reaching Örebro for O-Ringen! Unfortunately, no tehcnical training, because the map was miserable and it cost 50 SEK. Exaggeration!

Day 6

Short physical training with Photo Orienteering as a part of it. Really nice to look for some small features in the city centre;)

Day 7

1st stage of O-Ringen. 10,7km. 92:34. Started quite good, but lost concentration after some stick stuck in my shoe near the 4th control. What's more, the map near the 8th control seemed just impossible to read for me... Afterwards wrong direction and not using the path on the long leg to the 12th one.

Day 8

2nd stage. 4,2km. 44:10. Great time, wasn't it? I spent so much time walking in the green area just before the 7th control that my only dream was to finish the course since that moment. Obviously, I didn't manage to avoid making mistakes later on...

Day 9

3rd stage. 11,4km. 99:07. Technically, the first half of the course went relatively well. Then, Gustav Bergman caught me at the 8th control and I took advantage of him towards the 12th control. I could have followed him till the end, but I decided to make my own race and let him go. Suddenly, I started to feel dizzy and terribly exhausted. I had problems walking on my own legs during the last part of the course...

Day 10

At last a day off! Generally, we did nothing. We only tried a combination of badminton and tennis - called speedminton.

Day 11

4th stage. 11,3km. 77:23. Certainly, it was my best performance at this year's O-Ringen. 36th place....... Matthias Kyburz caught me at the end of the long leg to the 15th control and showed me how to orienteer in this type of terrain. He is fucking fast, I must say! However, he lost some time to the 18th control and I kept my 'lead' till the finish line. Half a loaf is better than no bread;)

Day 12

5th stage. Handicap. 11,4km. 106:55. There was no transport to the arena because we were told it was within walking distance from the camping. Yeah... more than half an hour to the event centre, 2,5km to the start, almost 2 hours in the forest and more than 30 minutes of coming back. I had enough! My race? From the very beginning my only wish was to reach the finish line.

In the afternoon to Karlskrona by car and then a night ferry to Gdynia. At last!

Day 13

Waiting some long hours in McDonald's for the beginning of the official JWOC 2011 training camp.

And the first technical training. It seemed to be nothing special, but for me it was like salvation. I regained my lost motivation and power in my legs - brilliant!

Day 14

Morning: quite a long course on a map with scale 1:15000. The course included nice butterflies.

Afternoon: map with contours only. Unfortunately, there was no control flags in the forest - ridiculous... And the funny thing, I was sure I found controls no. 42, 38 and 37, but realized I had not after I got completely lost on my way towards the 43rd control. The biggest and most long-lasting parallel mistake in my life!

Day 15

M: a classic race. Our goal was to run the even controls fast and to rest at the odd ones. Very nice, but horribly exhausting training session!

A: some short and boring course in a flat terrain.

Day 16

M: middle distance with lots of butterflies. I could not understand the terrain properly. Fortunately, there is still much time to learn before JWOC 2011;)

A: just some stretching with all the people and taking rest before tomorrow's looong.

Day 17

M: 13,6km. I took this training very seriously, as a competition. I felt really well during the whole course and my technique was close to perfect. I only regret misinterpreting the map at the end of the longest leg and losing some time at controls no. 4 and 15 due to some new fences in the terrain.

A: a very interesting lecture with dr Jeremi Ściepurko. Really worth listening to!

Day 18

M&A: 2 technical training sessions in flat terrains. I started understanding this kind of terrain much better and feel more self-confident right now;)

Day 19

M: middle distance on a map with no tracks. We were bound to run with a competition pace. Unfortunately, I had problems understanding the map in some places and lost far too much time. Nevertheless, my running speed was promising;)

A: sprint in Rumia. I know this map well, cause I took part in some competition there in April this year. So it was only about the fast legs and Papuś was faster by 6 seconds that day.

Day 20

M: I wanted to run the long distance course that day. However, I was forced to make it shorter, because I had a really bad day and was not able to focus on map reading.

A: sprint in Wejherowo. The map quality is ridiculous... Furthermore, we had some closed gates and had to run around or climb up the fences. Moreover, I found a new gate in the terrain (while going to the 2nd control), by sheer coincidence. After all, the sprint was very nice and I had a really good race despite all the adversities.

Day 21

First legs training. Unfortunately, the controls situated in the forest weren't proper to set an interesting and FAIR course. I was far behind Olej already after the first double forking, but didn't give up. However, after losing plenty of time near the 106th control (where the map was just awful!) I decided to jog...

Afterwards the whole team left us and it was only me, Nati and Olej who decided to spend 2 more days in the JWOC 2011 terrain.

Day 22

M: I had a nice freestyle technical training with Olej. I was in my element while running in this forest.

A: We had a short course on a 1:15000 map 'Rogulewo' drawn by AP for us. I couldn't find the appropriate rhythm during this training session.

Day 23

In the morning Nati set controls in the forest for me and Olej. Thanks to her we had an opportunity to take part in a nice memory training. 2 times 3 courses with 2 controls on each of them.

Just after it we picked Hewi from Gdańsk and started our journey to Baniocha, because... Jolanta was organising a party there. It was a fancy dress ball and I decided to be an unemployed;) The party was outstanding!

Day 24

You should know what people tend to do after parties;-)

Day 25

We made our way to Przeworsk in order to take part in this year's GP Polonia.

On the very same day we competed in the 1st Unofficial World Orienteering Championships of Tied Couples. My partner was Nati and we became vicechampions! Incredible success:)

Day 26

1st stage of GPP. I made an enormous mistake (just the same as last year) and lost chances of winning the competition. However, I decided not to give up and finished 2nd in men's elite. Funny;)

In the late afternoon there was a sprint qualification race. I agreed to run in my 'unemployed' shoes (from Jolanta's party) and proved that shoes do not run, because I achieved the 3rd place only some 6 seconds behind the leader, Hewi.

Day 27

2nd stage of GPP. I just loved that forest! It was flat, only with some small hills and the runnability was brilliant. I made an average performance, losing only 1'35 to Włodar - nice!

In the evening the time came for the sprint final. The course was very tricky and interesting. Because of that I took wrong route choices 2 times and lost more than 40 seconds. I should have been angry at myself, but I wasn't, because my speed was awesome that day (winning 5 out of 10 splits) and I lost only 22 seconds to the unbeatable winner, Włodar.

Day 28

Last stage of GPP - sprint. Men's elite class was the last one to start that day, so we had a great opportunity to have a good laugh waiting some 2 hours for our start. The course was really demanding and I made an awful mistake while running to the 7th control, because I didn't see the black wall and had to turn back. Moreover, number '7' is situated in a wrong place on a map, because I thought that a gate under this number would be open... Nevertheless, my time loss to the leader was huge (14 mins) and my time advantage over the 3rd place was big (6mins), so my only goal was to finish the course not being disqualified. Somehow I managed;)
Then, I was ready for the bus journey to Łódź. That night I slept at grandma's.

Day 29
Finally, back at home!!!

It is really possible! (the end of JWOC story)

Useful rest day

We really deserved this one-day break after a very tiring long distance race. The organizers prepared a model event for relay that day. Firstly, we started laughing while looking at the map, because it seemed to be too easy and almost useless. However, it turned out that these open fields (yellow areas) weren't covered with grass but some pricking bushes, which made running much more difficult. The relay race on Saturday was going to be really tough...

Solid middle qualification

I felt that I wouldn't have forgiven myself if I hadn't managed to get to the A final. So I just decided to do my best to qualify and thanks to it I had an almost clean race with quite a good speed. The terrain was unbelievably easy and fast. I only had some hesitations at the beginning (1st and 4th) and probably took not the best route choices at the end (18th and 19th). All in all, it was a wonderful feeling during the long finish when I already knew that I would compete in the A final the following day;)

(Bad) luck during the middle final

Bad luck? The first part of the course (6 controls) was very tricky. Unfortunately, I lost too much time at the beginning. Small hesitation while running to the 1st control... Running too much to the right while approaching the 4th control... Running much too far and looking for the 6th control near the wrong hill... 5+20+55=80secs, whereas I lost 73 seconds to the podium place. That's a pity!

Luck? Just before the 4th control I managed to catch Vetle Ruud Bråten from Norway, who started 2mins ahead of me. Thanks to him my speed and self-confidence were much higher later on and I could be happy with a TOP 15 result in a JWOC individual race. 14th!

Analysing the splits, I got to know that my time in the easier (forest) part of the race (from the 6th control till the end) was 15secs better than the one of the bronze medallist Olle Boström from Sweden. I became convinced that it is really possible for me to get a JWOC medal next year!

JWOC diploma in the relay!

It was an unbelievably hot day and the courses were extremely exhausting due to many open areas and huge amount of climb. I stood in the first row (thanks to our team's 8th place last year - Jacek, Jancia, Rino) and expected an incredibly fast mass start. That's why I started quite fast as well and... landed in the lead - quite funny;)

The first double forking went really well. Then, I decided for the track route choice to the 5th control. I wasn't sure if it was a good idea, but eventually it must have been quite ok. Afterwards a triple forking came! I got a bit confused while running to the 8th control, because almost everyone went left there. Fortunately, I was brave enough to go alone to the right hill. I took a very round route choice to the 10th control, but it turned out to be quite good as well. Then, a spectators' passage and a map change for the second loop.

One more time I chose a round route choice to the 14th control - really good. However, the right one using the mountain top might have been a bit faster. While running to the 16th one, I saw a big group of about 4 runners some 150m ahead of me. Unfortunately, it seemed quite impossible to catch them and I had to run almost alone from that moment. Technically, the rest of the course went really ok, but I wasn't able to keep the appropriate speed...

I finished my race on the 8th place less than 4mins behind the leading Swedish team. It was a quite satisfying result and a good starting position for the next legs. Olej had a brilliant race and jumped onto the 5th place! Unfortunately, Rino didn't succeed in gaining a podium place. Nevertheless, he secured our 5th place and a JWOC diploma! I think all of us did their best and thanks to this magnificent team effort we could celebrate the 5th place in the world!

Saturday's afternoon and evening

Just after coming back to the barracks we decided for a short football match on the pitch. We all felt terribly exhausted, but who cares?:)

In the evening the time came for the well-known JWOC banquet. Fortunately, I was able to keep my drinking under control and had a great party with the orienteers from all over the world;-)

JWOC long map and analysis

I didn't start my race well. I made mistakes at the first two controls (0'50 and 0'35). I think they were caused by my not competing in sprint the previous day...

Then, I went a bit too far at the 6th control (0'20). I had problems leaving that control and attacking the next one (0'15). I decided to go straight and ran too much to the left (0'10).

The butterflies weren't as tricky as I had expected them to be. However, I took the wrong route choice to the 10th one (0'15), because I caught some other runner at the 9th control and wanted to run away from him as fast as possible. Then, a 'mirror' mistake to the 12th control (0'10).

I managed to run the middle part of the course (between controls no. 13 and 24) in 33:56, while the Junior World Champion's (Pavel Kubat's) time was 32:40. It's really promising;)

The 25th control was one of the trickiest ones, because situated in the green. I should have chosen the left route choice. But I didn't and went too far there (0'30) - I was lucky not to lose more time in that area.

During the last loop I felt really exhausted. That's why I took a round route choice to the 27th control, which turned out to be much worse than the straight one using the paths. I must have lost most of this time trying to get down in dense green (0'45).

Even the last control was very difficult! Firstly, you had to get uphill (which was terribly tiring) and then, find the control somewhere in the bushes. I landed a bit too much to the left, but saw the tapes after a short while (0'10).

Summing it all up, it was quite difficult to estimate how much time I lost. However, I tried to do so and it turned out that I lost about 4mins due to my mistakes. If it hadn't been for them, I would have taken the... 16th place. Sounds miserable, but my physical shape that day wasn't as good as I would have wished to. So the TOP 10 result seems to have been possible. Maybe in the middle?

26th in long

My aim for this race was to achieve a TOP 20 place, my dream - TOP 10.
The start was delayed by 40 minutes - ridiculous!
Unfortunately, I made mistakes at the first 2 controls and lost my self-confidence. I had to fight with myself to still believe... The middle part of the course went pretty well, although I didn't feel fantastic physically. At the spectator control I was 19th. During the last loop I felt really exhausted and lost some time (actually not due to my mistakes, but due to my lack of belief and praying just to finish my race).
All in all, my result is much better than I had expected while running. However, my performance was just featureless - not bad and not good... Comparing to my 99th place in Sweden 2 years ago, I can see an enormous progress. What's more, there's potential to fight for the TOP 10. Nevertheless, the podium place was completely out of reach and it's bitter...

The map with route choices and some analysis tomorrow, because there's a rest day at JWOC.

JWOC coming soon...

I spent two days in Świnoujście doing 2 technical trainings. The first one was a very interesting middle distance, whereas the second one was a line training combined with controls picking, unfortunately both of the at the same map. However, it was really worth orienteering in this terrain!

Today, after a very long and tiring car journey (7h in extreme heat!), we reached Aalborg - the place where JWOC 2010 is being organized. In the evening I did a short physical training session (with about 7mins of orienteering at an easy sprint map at the barracks, where we actually stay).

Tomorrow I am running model event for long distance in the morning and some speed training in the afternoon. On Monday 5 of us are competing in JWOC sprint distance, while I am just taking rest before the Tuesday's long distance race in Svinklov.

I am unbelievably surprised with the bronze girls today! Great!:* And Papuś, you're a real hero!:)

Quick catching up before JWOC!

I haven't written for a very long time, but now it's high time I fixed it;)


Polish Champs in Gdańsk

The sprint distance went pretty well for me. I managed to keep a really good speed throughout the race and gained the 2nd place (5secs behind Hewi). Analysing my route choices and splits, it turned out that I lost gold because of being too hesitant just after the 3rd control. However, I was very satisfied with my performance.

The middle distance wasn't as technical as it should be. Despite that fact, I didn't succeed in avoiding making mistakes. The worst one came while running to the 3rd control. I saw Drągu, who started 2mins ahead of me, got this weird feeling and misunderstood the contours completely. Eventually, I achieved the silver medal... 7secs behind... Hewi. I felt a little bit disappointed, but still very happy about my stable shape.

The most wonderful thing is the fact that on both days the podium looked the same: Hewi, me and Rino. Nevertheless, not only the people were the same, but also the time difference between the winner and bronze medalist - 21secs!

In relay we knew that it would be very difficult for us to reach the podium, but we never gave up! I ran the last leg in my team and started to the forest as the 6th runner. During the race I managed to catch Włodar (2'34) and Jacek Kowalczyk (5'16). Running with Włodar was a real pleasure, because the pace was very high and everything happened so quickly. At the very end I had a shorter forking and had the opportunity to gain some advantage over him. I managed, but he was incredibly fast before the finish and I lost the 4th by some 5 seconds. Respect!

Technical camp in Białogóra

The first two days were full of slow, easy running, because we were taking rest after the demanding PC weekend.

On Wednesday we ran a very interesting sprint in Gdynia (the map from EYOC 2002). The start interval was 15secs, what made this race much faster, I think. I took stupid route choice to the 7th control (too much climb) and lost some time close to the control, as well. Apart from that, I ran really well and lost 15secs to the winner - Rino.

On Thursday we had a really tiring long distance (12,65km). It consisted of 3 loops. The first 2 of them went pretty well, but the last one was a real disaster - due to my tiredness, all the scrapes on my feet and bent north lines on the map... Unfortunately, 2 controls were set in wrong places and I didn't find them. However, I lost some time while running around and looking for them everywhere. After all, my performance was quite satisfying;)

Kytäjä-Jukola 2010

On the ferry between Stockholm and Helsinki something really amazing happened. We took part in an orienteering competition!!! Just see the map and regret not having been there:)

On Saturday afternoon Olej and I decided to run a short technical training session to familiarize ourselves with the terrain and get to know what was waiting for us in the nearest future. Since that moment we had known that we were going to run in the most challenging terrain in our lives!

I wanted to run the 1st leg and I got the chance! The start was at 22:55 (Finnish time - sunset). Unfortunately, it was raining (what made the terrain even more difficult), but I felt really hot and excited inside. I stood in the 3rd row among 1534 other runners! The music at the start was really thrilling, I remember. And it all began...

The decisive moment was the forking before the long leg, where I lost touch with my group and had to run the very long leg with a much slower and technically worse tram. While heading to the finish, I thought I would take the 500th place. To my surprise, I was 102nd (a little less than 12mins behind the leaders). All things considered, it was an average performance, but the experience was unbelievable!


Vestjysk 2-dages in Denmark

Only some time after a long plane (2 times) and car journey we were to run the sprint. The course was really long - 4km (my watch states that I ran 6,37km!). The terrain was very demanding physically because of numerous meters of climb. The map was a little bit imprecise. There was quite an interesting route choice to the 15th one. What would you choose? I lost more than a minute to the 17th control due to the fact that the map was not made in accordance with ISSOM.

The next day we competed in a very challenging long distance race - 10,4km. I made some mistakes (especially to the 22nd one...), but I must admit that the terrain was very tricky - full of green areas and winding contours. I was very happy about my result, since I managed to achieved the 3rd spot (behind some elite runners and ahead of my peers, with whom I'll fight in one week's time at JWOC).
Note: the map was made by the Poles: Lech Trzpil and Piotr Sierzputowski.

3 days ago we decided for a middle distance. That day I felt completely out of tune, probably due to my enormous headache the previous evening. That's why my only dream was to finish the course and take some rest. Fortunately, we got the opportunity to run in the dunes. The last part of the course was very greeeeen and running was almost impossible. To sum it up, that stay in Denmark was very useful before the coming JWOC competitions and my performance during the long distance made me believe in my abilities;-)


Now

Yesterday I decided to make some blood tests and got to know that my results are better than ever! What's more, I changed my hairstyle and am much lighter now;) Moreover, I passed my A-level exams even better than I had expected. It's not a place to boast about it, but I just can't help telling you that I got 99% in written Polish (basic level, of course) - I still can't believe it, haha! Furthermore, I did 2 great physical training sessions yesterday and today, during which my legs were close to flying;)
It's all a very positive signal for the nearest future and in the future comes...


JWOC 2010 in Denmark

I am leaving at 22:10 to Świnoujście tonight and then, probably on Saturday, to Aalborg. I am going to run the long distance (6th July), middle distance qualification (8th July), hopefully middle A-final (9th July) and relay (10th July). I promise to do my best and fulfil my expectations!
All the appropriate information here.

KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED FOR OUR WHOLE TEAM!