Training Log Archive: Rhesus

Still ill. Saturday ain't gonna happen. Ah pants.

C • damn 2

Blocked sinuses, razor throat, hacking cough. Someone put me down. At least I made it home, eventually.

Having a great day

Unsurprisingly I am now properly ill. Worth it.

Leg 4 for OK Sodertorn 1. Long Night! Doesed up on Eddie's sinus clearing medication beforehand - such a shitter getting ill on the day, but I was determined to run.


Willy, Josh and Georg sent me out in 74th after a broken compass and light issues causing issues. Monster leg to 1, so took my time to choose a route as didn't want to fuck it for the team and then steadily increased the pace as confidence grew. Caught Eskil from Pan Arhus just after the road, then foolishly let him finish the leg approaching the circle as seems easy and I wanted to look ahead. We drifted right and lost 3 minutes relocating. Arse!

Took charge now, and was clean through the next 3 with firm bearings, before letting others do the work at 5 and losing 40 seconds in the circle. Drove the train through to 9 where we lost 90 seconds (we were on the open hill to the north, which I thought we were but didn't have the security to do my own thing here as everyone went Right). There was a pattern emerging here, so I made sure I was leading the nav. Clean through to 13 where my light suddenly failed and we made a small miss (1 min). Hung onto the group through the spectator desperately fiddling with the light, failing to get it going (totally dead) and then struggling with my spare through the map exchange.

Climbing the hill, I finally got it on my head, and....nothing. You're fucking kidding me. Nothing for it but to hoof it onto second man in the group and just follow, map totally useless now.

Sadly the nav took a turn for the worst here and we binned 6 minutes here just off the track junction to the NE. Fuck knows where they thought we were but I was just a passenger now. Clean through the next 4, somewhere around 20 a random Fin saw my lack of illumination and handed me a spare torch! I could at least see the floor now but not the map too without stopping dead.

The group took a shit route to 21, I slammed the brakes on and tried to relocate as were off line and spent 2 minutes relocating with others just following me. Finally worked it out and got into the control but I reckon close to 4/5 minutes gone again.

Quite fucked off with the situation now and mustered some sort of sprint finish to bring us in 65th, 9 places gained. The boys were steady through the next 3 legs, creeping us towards a top 60 but some mistakes in the last 3 legs put paid to that. Ended 78th. Not a disaster but not great.

A strange race for me. Learnt a lot, but the 2 major mistakes came when the light was fucked and all I could do was follow, a helpless bystander. Wouldn't have been hard to have knocked 15 minutes off that time. A valuable experience but a few too many If's and But's for my liking. Plenty of positives though, nothing to fear in the dark in Scandinavia, I can compete.

Physically, the medication kept me going and I didn't struggle with the running. A fully healthy Rhys would've loved it.


https://www.tulospalvelu.fi/gps/2017042910milaH4/ - Caught Pan Arhus just after the drinks point on the way to 1, his GPS is my trace effectively after that, particularly after the specttor when I followed his evry footstep due to having no light! This was where most of the mistakes came unfortunately.

Event: 10Mila
 

Easy day, cycled out to Agesta to collect controls (strolling through the woods with map in hand, what could be better?). Eating and sleeping.