As always, the terrain in Carinthia is quite difficult for Austrian conditions, the more so because of an international approach of control setting - first find the object, than find the control. That's the way it should be! And as the map has some contradictions, too, orienteering in the dark became extra difficult.
My goal was to keep full control over my doing, which worked out quite well until control 25. After each control I checked my direction before leaving and started than to navigate securely through the forest. When I felt that it was necessary, I even started to navigate from object to object which was great fun (hill, depression, stone, hill, cliff, re-entrant, control)!
At no.3 I was first looking at the wrong cliff (15sec) and at no.5 I was too far to the left (15sec). Another 15sec at no.10 when I first tried to take a direct route, but had to admit that the forest was too dense there. At no.19 I lost 30sec as I was very unsecure when running down the slope as it was at least a light green in the forest, but white on the map. And again 15sec at no.20 when I simple passed by the control without seeing the stone. So at a running time of 42mins just 1'30 mistake was a very good performance until that point. But it got worse...
10 respective 20sec were lost at no.25 and 26 when I was twice too far to the left. And another 20sec at no.27 when I didn't see the flag and started running uphill (thanks to Phil!). After this, I had a moment of shock when I lost myself on the way to no.29. I am not sure where I was running, but I think there is another fence in the dark green, there was definitely an area of reed where I was fighting through, than I passed a gate and finally, I found myself in the slope again... mysterious! Maybe it would be better to go around either on the right (easier) or left (more risk). To no.30, I lost again 20sec when I was climbing on the hill before the path and than running too far to the left (again). Another 20sec to no.34 where I lost my direction (180°!!) and was a bit lost for some time and 60sec at no.35 where I passed the small stream without recognizing. And finally, the worst comes at the end, another 120sec loss at the LAST CONTROL! I just didn't see the (on the map big, in nature very indistinctive) path and ran along the wrong stream. After realizing and re-orienteering, I found myself close to the pre-last control again...
So at the following 40mins I missed 4min30, normally way too much for a good place at the End. I was a bit surprised when I saw that I was the first runner crossing the finish line. When changing clothes I got already the first congratulations without knowing for what - but in the End it turned out that other runners had even more troubles and I could win a silver medal behind Gernot! Just unbelievable!!
The only sad thing was the very, very late and poor price giving. When it came to elite classes, there were maybe 20 people in the room giving applaus - that's definitely not the way it should be!
After a very bad night without proper sleep I felt quite tired but tried to enjoy the last race of 2011. The expected middle turned out to be an Austrian middle-long something with a winning time of 55mins. After 22mins I had already missed 4mins15 - what a disaster! I was caught up by Wolfi at no.5, or better said overtaken to no.6 and had to fight until no.20 behind him - my motivation was down after the bad start.
At that point (no.20) I woke up and started to push a bit harder, losing Wolfi to no.24 when he struggled with his just overcame cold - no power in his legs for uphill. And no power in my brain when I was searching for no.31 for almost a minute - putting Wolfi back in business. Last control was this time no problem and I could finish with a big smile on my face, knowing that the silver was still lying in my bag and waiting for me :-)
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen