Training Log Archive: ColmM

This was the race I had been looking forward to all year. Physically I hadn't prepared all that well, and I knew this. I had started well with some good Winter training, but it had gone to shit from around January onwards. That said, technically, I had done pretty much all I could to prepare for this race. I had studied the map, planned out legs, looked at them, chosen routes, even run a small bit of CF on this map. I had also prepared myself in real orienteering races, and had begun to pretty much master my technique, which would obviously help a lot for this race.

The race didn't start as I had hoped, I made small errors on number 1 and almost ran straight to 2! As well as a little bit more on 2. I didn't really think of them as much in terms of mistakes, I knew they weren't that big and forgot about them. This worked really well, I hadn't consciously told myself to forget them and navigate better, I just did. To 3 and 4 it went well, I was caught once again by my 3min man, an Australian. The long leg went very well, I knew where I was the whole time, and nailed the control, and punched just before the Australian who was running faster but navigating worse. The whole next section went really well, in general the race did. I had a plan almost all the time and knew where I was almost all the time. I also executed these plans really well. There were a few hairy moments where I seemed a little unsure, but I was right. There were also 1 or 2 small mistakes in the butterfly, but not anything major.
But, I never attacked the course, not at all. It was a very very cautious race, at a pace I knew I could last, and could navigate fine at. I didn't push enough and simply tried to run cleanly instead if run well. I wasn't really sure what to expect at the finish, good or bad, but it was certainly worse than I had hoped for. The place was too fast and too easy to run the sort of race I did. I was still first of the Irish, by a similar margin to the sprint (% wise anyways), but in a completely different manner. In the sprint I had won some 16 or 17 splits out of about 23, out of the Irish, and not won by a whole pile, due to my mistakes. But on the Long I had won some 3 or 4 out of 26 or so, including the first Long leg maybe, but still. I can't say I am happy with the performance, you can't run JWOC with this attitude, at least not in this terrain.
But I can take positives from it, that's for sure. There's a part of me that felt I may have slightly over-analysed it too. I knew that to finish within half an hour at some JWOCs would have earned you a Top50, but at most at least a Top 80. I knew I could run under 100mins for this course, not really a problem. And I knew I could be within half an hour, but I was 108th, which isn't satisfying, and those thoughts were obviously silly now.

It's funny how things work out. I knew I hadn't done the training for this or any of the JWOC races to really go well. But there's still a sneaking suspicion at the back of your head that, if you run a good race, you could still do really well! Sadly, today, that was not the case, it never is, but it's too easy to let yourself think that way.

Anyways, I started 1min behind Marius Thrane Odum and was a late starter. I started fine, perfect to 1 and 2, but I didn't look far enough and was fooled by 3 taking the wrong route and hitting the uncrossable fence. I didn't lose much, but as I corrected Marius was on his way to 4 running towards me, we were both looking at eachother and he knew I had already messed up. I chose the opposite route though to 4, the long leg, and had a moment where I thought I couldn't get through the greenery, but you could. The start of the route was good but I took the wrong variant for the second half and was really struggling up the hill. I got it fine though, as well as the next few in the forest.
Through the tunnel, and hit 10 grand. But to 11, I did not read into enough detail and ran straight down the alley with an uncrossable fence down the end, again. It wasn't a huge loss, but I wasn't concentrating and ran past my turn off for the control as well. Now, I was caught, first my 1 minute man, and then at the spectator, by my 2 minute man. One of the Polish too, possibly Olejnik. I didn't much specific stuff at the spectator, but I heard a lot of noise! I thought it was huge amount just for some measly Irish kid, and yes, it was all for the Polish runner whom I hadn't seen yet. I began to lose soul, knowing I had been caught by 2 people, and all the spectators had seen it happen. It was silly to think like this, but I did. I got the next few okay, it was not my map reading though but rather the Pole's which was getting me through. I was reading to make sure he was right, not to run my own race. They both ran way and the rest went quite okay, except for a few bad routes which were costly, but I had also slowed down a lot and just felt very very tired since I had been passed. A part of me was telling myself that I was probably coming dead last, and I should consider dropping out, I am dying too much. Thankfully, I didn't let my mind win that battle, and was genuinely very surprised that i wasn't the last Irishman, but instead the first.

Looking back, it was a bad way to start my JWOC career, not even the result, how I felt, and how I ran and navigated. And the run suffered because of how I ran mentally. But this happens, and I hope to come back a lot stronger next year, and actually fight for a good position, because I think I can.

Event: JWOC 2011 RUMIA-WEJHEROWO - POLAND