Friday, 18 April 2014

Too much too soon?


It's been a busy month and I've barely had time to absorb everything that has happened. After things started to roll, they've rolled really fast. I've just enjoyed the flow and at some point I lost the grip from reality while trying to reach for the sky. Ever since I started to run again (less than two months ago), everything has gone dancing forward so fast and smoothly that I believed to be a superwoman who would never get tired. But I wasn't. After some serious hammering I finally met with the wall. But let's back up a bit to the World Cup in Spain where I reached my personal best World Cup result.

So after good runs in the Danish Spring I got selected to run World Cup in Spain. When I got the call I had no idea where, when and in what kind of terrain it would be. Initially it wasn't in my calendar and I hadn't thought of running there because it was so close to the European Champs. But now that I wasn't in the EOC team, I had nothing to lose, and I was thrilled to get there. Then, just a few days before going there, Minna announced that she wouldn't run EOC because of her injuries and it opened up a new possibility to get into the team. Message was clear: do a good run and you might have a chance to get Minna's place in the team. Suddenly I was very motivated to run well.

The overlong long distance race on the hills of Murcia under the hot Spanish sun was one of the best and most challenging international long distance races that I've ever run. As hard as it felt while running, I really loved it. I could have taken a few more drink stations on the way and a few extra gels, but still, it was quite amazing race. I cannot describe the feeling when I opened the map and saw the first leg. After some consideration I rejected all winding route choices and went straight. I lost quite a bit of time by doing so, but managed to keep my head cool, hold my orienteering together and push hard until the end. As a prize I got my first ever top6 position at World Cup, and a reserve place to EOC as a bonus. Results

a masterpiece of a course

On the following day I was still too exhausted to race and I probably should have skipped the middle distance, especially if I wanted to recover in time for the European Champs. But once you're selected to run for your country, you're supposed to run.

After Spain I got back home for one day before traveling again to Portugal. And in the next morning I was already running the middle distance qualification race at EOC. My head wasn't really there and I felt a bit stressed but qualified safely anyway. In the long qualification I felt already better and did a good run except a leg where I got badly stuck in some brambles. But I saw from the splits that my speed was good and I felt fairly confident before the finals.

In the middle distance final I had a good run except two controls where I lost a bit over a minute all in all. Not bad but too much on such an easy course. I was 18th but only 30sec behind the 10th place, so it wasn't that bad. Just awfully many girls within that half a minute. "I can do better on the long" I thought. Results



I had a good feeling before the long distance final but once I had started to run I noticed quite early that the springy legs I had had before were gone and my running felt slow and ineffective. I tried to tell my legs to go faster but they wouldn't listen. I did technically a very good performance but physically I was really struggling. Because of the tired legs I used paths more than necessary and lost therefore even more on the long legs 6-7 and 11-12 because the straight route was always the fastest. I did my best on that day, but still, 19th place felt disappointing in the light of my previous long distance performances in Spain and Denmark. On the other hand, just making it to the team was an achievement for me so soon after the injury. Considering where I was two months ago, I guess I should be happy with my two top20 positions. Or as my aunt put it: you did pretty well in the disabled class. Results



It's easy to be smart afterwards but it was indeed a pretty tough combination to run both middle and long at EOC. None of the women who did this combination celebrated on the long distance. Signe Soes, who won the middle on the day before, was the best of us with her 6th place in the long final. Even fewer athletes ran first the World Cup events (long + middle) in Spain in the preceding week and then the same combo with qualification races at the Europeans. A few of the very best tried that, but even they failed. So it's no wonder that I failed. Take home message from the European Champs is clear: focus only on your main target and forget everything else. Don't be greedy!

One more thing. After all negative feedback, big thanks to the EOC organizers trying to solve everything the best way even if there was more hassle than usually. Especially pulling off two new long distance courses overnight and getting it all right was impressive. Finals were fair and the best athletes won.

All results, maps and tracking from EOC here