training week-end - day 2

On Sunday morning it was time for my first Score-O since ... puh, I don't know, must have been in the last century I guess.
Some controls were known from yesterdays afternoon session, so it was nice to have no paths on the map. My goal was to do only 60min, but as much controls as possible.

I did a mid-speed training and could keep concentration high until the third last control, where I was running 60° in the wrong direction. When passing the marsh I thought I am somewhere in between the two small ponds. When reaching the open area, I didn't want to go back through the muddy terrain, so I was running around the clearing. And another 60° mistake to the last one.


After a short break we went to the Czech Republic for a small competition. I had an almost disastrous, no, cancel the word "almost", it was definitely a disastrous start. At control no. 2 I was 11th fastest overall, at no. 6 still only 6th fastest overall. But then it started to be much fun and I could gain place after place. At 12th control I was for the first time on the podium with a 3rd spot and at no. 22 I got the lead - and could hold it until the finish. Close behind came Much on 2nd place and Bränsch with 3min sth. on 3rd spot - a triple for our club :-)

First two - out of five

Last week-ends the first district championships were held in Styria respectively Vienna - note!: both competitions were district championships for Lower Austria ;-) On the first week-end in April it was time for hill-climbing and stamina. Just 12.8km for ultralong sounds not too long, but garnished with some tough climbing it went out to be an almost 90min run - for district level really ultralong! It was organized as mass-start event together with Burgenland, Styria and some Viennese runners. I got in line behind Gernot and tried to read the map in advance to avoid - if appearing - some extra meters by cutting corners. As you can imagine, Gernot didn't make too much of extra meters :-) I had to fight quite hard and, unfortunately, quite early to stay close to the leading pack (besides Gernot, Heli, Bindi, Chris, Stefan and me formed the first group). Just after no. 13, Erik came from back and was pushing really hard uphill to no. 16 and 17. It was just Bindi who wanted (for Gernot, Heli, Chris, Stefan) or could (for me) follow Erik. At the long one to no. 19 I wanted to slow down a bit, but on the path I thought why not start the engine again - just flat running *yeah*! So I was fighting again with the top runners but had to finally break off at no. 35. Anyway, with a clear margin (Plohni saved energy for the sprint the following week-end) of almost 20mins I could repeat my victory of 2010. Well done! After one week of recover (maybe I should have done like Plohni...) it was time for the shortest discipline, the sprint. On last years Austrian Championships ground the district champs for Vienna and Lower Austria were held. Matthias Mahr showed how to make an interesting course in this terrain and forced us runners to make fast decisions and solve some nice route choices, and of course without losing speed. Things we missed last year... I had quite stiff legs but managed to do a good job - physically. Technically it was at some parts quite worse, like no. 4 were I did the wrong route choice, or no. 8 were I did it again, together with some small mistake in the circle, too. An extra loop at no. 9 and some hesitation at no. 10 made this place to my personal bermuda triangle :-) One last mistake at no. 13 and the thing was done. To sum up, 40sec mistake (maybe some more: routes to no. 5 - straight - and 12 - right - were not optimal) are far too much. At the End, I was as close as 14sec ahead of Roland - to be honest, it was just luck which seperated us this time. Plohni saved 7sec to Stephan on third place.