Helsinki O Games Long - H21E
Took this very seriously and preparation was perfect pre race. Jog before breakfast, big meal of porridge and muesli 3hrs before, decent warm up, all the drills and strides I'm used to and some good technical preparation and imagery on the drive over. Nice weather, but quite hot and humid for racing.
Started quite hard and this went well for the first few minutes. Got to the circle at 2 comfortably but veered left to the wrong boulder. Actually it wasn't on the map and only a few metres off but then dropped another level before figuring out what I had done. Lost a minute but was out to get it back. Good flow through 3 and then picked a great route to 4. For most of the legs today, Toni's advice of straight on every leg in this terrain popped into my head and this worked every time. Just off the fastest time to 4, a 9min leg, but then lost another 45s to 5 having entered a reentrant too early, one that wasn't on the map. Also lost my leg in a crack in a rock slab which could have ended up a lot worse than a graze.
Reorganised to 6 and had a good split and direct route. Fastest split to 7 by ignoring path temptations and really simplifying the terrain, focussing on a vague bearing and running harder. Felt I had to dip round to 8 but lost time by doing so. But then good to 9 and took a few seconds to drink as I was already very thirsty in the heat. 2mins down here, which could have easily been 0 minus the stupidity.
I lost focus heading out of 9 which made for a very funny routechoice to the lake. At this point I was stuck behind an old man for a bit. When I eventually nipped past and checked my map, I ran head first into a lamp post-sized tree and completely took it out with a very loud cracking sound. Lay there laughing with the man behind me laughing too, and felt a bit sorry for the tree but this was soon replaced with a huge surge of adrenaline having smashed myself off the ground. Soon I was back on track to number 10 having only lost a few seconds to the best time.
Found it fine and began planning out when to have my gel to 11. This unfocussed thinking made for a few extra bananas though which no doubt added about 30s onto the first section. Crossed the marsh having relocated and removed the gel from my sock (it worked well) only to drop it and, tragically, watch it land about 1cm from a dead mouse. I considered not eating it with all the diseases likely now living on the packaging but I was beginning to bonk so took it anyway, still awaiting extreme vomiting to commence.... Got back on track and ran the final section of the leg pretty directly, only veering off for runnability, as is usual in this terrain.
Next control pick was quite good save for 12 where I was a hill behind myself and ran past the kite. Good split on 14 feeling the gel kicking in with a sudden recharged pair of legs. A bit scrappy to 15, not finding good lines through the grot, but found the control fine. Changed my mind 20s after exiting to 16 so a small banana but good execution after. Again, same thing to 17, and would have topped the splits without the exit banana, good route otherwise. Then top split to 18, which was nearly identical to 7, my other best split. Something about this leg suits me then I guess. Another decision change once I had exited, trend emerging....
Final few were good and managed to put in some pace down the hill to pip Scott's time, feeling a bit brutal. Really happy about the result though and feel that I'm physically just about ready to race to my full capacity this season. Especially considering a heavy week in the legs and some rough terrain, which only a few months ago seemed a lot harder than it is now. Put this, as well as an increased technical performance, down to the last 10 days of extremely relevant training (obviously). It's nice to already see some good results emerging, and hopefully another 10 days in this terrain will only bring about more 'gains'.
Results -
http://helsinkiogames.fi/wp-content/uploads/2017/0...
Map -
http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/doma/show_map...
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