Training Log Archive: Sanders

German Team Championships.
Today was a fun race. I have never run a Team race before. It took 3 Germans plus a huge diagram to fully explain all the complexities and strategies of this type of race to me. Basically it was a race with teams of 3 starting together and finishing together, and the course consisted of some common controls and some individual controls, and it was up to the team to divide the individual controls amongst the team members. I was running with Melanie again, plus an older guy called Andreas. Our strategy was to divide the controls equally and we planned it all fairly rapidly at the first common control. My course was straightforward enough but the terrain was thicker than yesterday and I had some problems identifying vegetation boundaries (it all looked thick and green to me) but I did OK despite a few deviations and I was the first of our team to the last common control. I didn't have to wait long before the others arrived, and we finished together feeling very pleased. I think we were 9th overall in our category.
The highlight of today was running on a narrow path through a long stretch of green bracken. I thought bracken was brown and dry :) I can't remember the last time I've seen such an expanse of thick green bracken. I was on the lookout for wombats but didn't see any :)

I really enjoyed both team events this weekend, it's been ages since I've done any team sports. Great atmosphere and friendly rivalry. Orienteering in the summer time is totally different to winter.

this was a run to stretch my legs after sitting in a car for a while, and also to see if the river has warmed up enough for swimming. I didn't swim but there were plenty of people in there so it must be OK.

German Relay Championships.
I was the first leg runner on an offen kurz (open short) team for the TOLF Berlin club. Quite glad to be doing a shorter course today because it was very hot (by German standards). I reckon it was over 30 degrees and the assembly area and start was in full sun so everyone was dripping before they even started running. It's been ages since I've run a relay and my main aim was to not to mispunch and to get my team off to as good a start as possible. I had a good run, with a few wobbles in the middle, but was happy with the sprint through the spectator control and round the final loop because those controls were very easy and it was just a matter of sprinting to the end. I was the eighth finisher out of about 35 runners on the first leg of the open short category, so that was a good start. The terrain was typical north Germany being very flat with thick vegetation mixed with very runnable forest, and many tracks. A good choice for relays. I think my team was 10th in our category.
The highlight of the day was the changeover of the second and third runners in my team. The second runner was a girl called Melanie, who I met for the first time when we slapped hands at our changeover. I only caught a glimpse of her then, so I left it up to our third runner, a kid called Alexander, to watch for her at the spectator control. We were all sitting up on the small hillside, at the far end of the field from the finish chute in the shade. Unfortunately Alex missed seeing Melanie and a call came up “She’s coming! Melanie’s in the finish chute!” so Alex had to jump up and start sprinting down the field along the side of the finish chute to the changeover point! It was hilarious. He and Melanie were neck and neck. Melanie didn’t realise he was just on the other side of the finish chute, madly crashing through spectators to get to the finish before her, and then she put on a sprint for the line, so he really was struggling to get there. We were all in fits of laughter watching, it was the funniest thing I have seen for ages.

quite late in the day but again nothing special today

nothing special

still not quite 100% but getting there

just an amble around the park avoiding all the big dogs
a lot slower than usual owing to some fatigue and stiff legs, as I expected