Training Log Archive: paw

More tourist stuff. Now (Friday am) wondering if we'll be allowed back home!

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Turku-rastit evening race on an area a short bus journey from the city centre. Nice terrain, loads of bare rock, quite a lot of paths. Map was good, though could have done with 1:7500 rather than 1:10000 - the first four were on a hilltop covered in a jumble of black. Spiked 1 and 2, which made me overconfident for 3 where I went straight rather than aiming off and blew a couple of minutes. Steady for the next couple, then hit a really good rhythm from 6 onward. Went pretty cleanly for the rest, but discovered the map wasn't waterproof when I turned it over heading back to the finish and found 1-4 had vanished. As the last three legs skirted the edge of this hole, I was being very careful how I held the map for the rest of the course, but just made it back with some guesswork about how to get to the finish!

Ended up 5th out of ~60, 5 min down on Peeter Pihl, so a nice result in the end. I'll definitely bring a map case next time I'm in Turku though.

Touristing.

Travel to Turku for next leg of Finalnd holiday. Slept a bit!

Jukola leg 3 for Clyde team. A solid run, about as good as I could hope for in the circumstances, especially given the minimal amount of forest-based night races I've had in the past few years. I had anticipated only needing the torch for the first 30 min or so, but even though I set off about the expected time (care of Arnis and JonX) the combination of miserable weather and dense bushy terrain for much of the race meant it stayed on all the way just for reassurance.

Started very steadily, knowing the distance was likely to be my biggest problem. Orienteered well through the first 8 controls (got a bit lucky at 4, losing contact going through the marsh and relying on intuition/guesswork as to which of the vague shapes on the ground were actually mapped). Overshot 9 very slightly, and then made a mess of my route to 10, mistaking a line of crags for a track through the green...idiot! We had a nice long track option to 12 which settled me down a bit, but began to struggle physically as we came back north again, falling over a few times too many. Followed a slow queue of people for chunks of this section, but gave them the slip into 15, partly due to knowledge gained on my error to 10. Went through the arena passage in just over 90, but struggled badly up the next hill. 21 was a beast of a site - a line of small crags, almost invisible on the map on a steep grotty slope - and I was hugely relieved to find it after taking the decision to dive off the main trail. Fortunately the wood around 23 and 24 was some of the nicest on the course, and I had a lovely descent off the hill into the final two in the fields. Handed over to AndyP in 522nd, gaining 86 places.

Happy with the race - aside from the stupidity to 10 I didn't give anything away for free, and I generally felt in control the whole way. One pleasing point was that I didn't see a control that wasn't mine until 100 minutes in, so I must have been doing a decent job of picking the right trails. I think the week in Helsinki really helped with confidence in low visibility terrain as well as understanding the general mapping style. Paced the race reasonably well, and would need to be significantly fitter to get down near the times Thomas and Ewan were doing, which I suspect isn't likely to happen.

Mostly jogging in the changeover mudbath.

Arrived at Jukola; walked to tent while avoiding windblown portaloos and casualties of falling tree; arrived to find the tent half blown away, and helped put it back together (running repairs to the tent were a theme of the weekend). Watched Venla start just as the rain began properly; cheered Hollie over the bridge in 3rd, then had to retire to the tent as I was getting colder and colder; spent the evening dozing and eating.

Introducing Al to Finnish forest at a gentle pace in Paloheina. Nicer than I expected from the map - a lot of lo-vis but generally runnable stuff. As we had just one map we took it in turns to lead, stopping quite a bit to discuss the mapping. Al was hesitant but found the controls well. The sun appeared just as we drove off.