I just spent some great days training and racing in Jura Mountains
on the French-Swiss border. I went there for two reasons: to run WOC
selection races and to do some proper hill training for my next big
challenge: Jungfrau marathon and World Champs in
long distance mountain running. Oh yes I'm going take part to this panoramic
mountain marathon that they announce to be "die schönste Maratonstrecke
der Welt". This year it will also be hosting the World Champs in long distance
mountain running, which makes it all even more exciting. I'm proud to represent Finland there and I'm really excited (and scared) about it!
But back to the selection races. I didn't run World Cup at
St Gallen but I was really happy to get a chance to run the WOC selection
races. I didn't care if my chances to make it to the team were slim, I just
wanted to go there and give it a try. After all, WOC in Lausanne was my main
goal of the season and this was the nearest you could get it (literally) if not
selected to the team. I just wanted to see how it goes and get the project
finished. 
Middle distance race was held in Bois de la Pile just south
of the terrain of WOC middle distance final. It was a selection race for the
Finnish and Swiss teams but a number of other teams took also part, making it
an impressive international event that gathered together most of the world's
best orienteers. The area was small and seemingly easy on the old map but the actual
terrain and the courses were challenging. I had a good start (second overall on
the control 6), made then some small mistakes and got a bit tired but managed
to hold it together and was happy to finish as 3rd Finn and 10th overall. Results
Long distance in Grand Jorat on the other contrary didn't go
too well. It was supposed to be my better distance but I just had a really bad
day physically and lost time little here and there, especially on some nearly impassable vegetation zones. A few ditch ends in the nettles I searched for
minutes and I might have lost time on some route choices too. I haven't had a chance
to analyze them yet, so I don't know for sure my time loss on them. I tried to
go around as much as possible but not always in right places. Garmin showed
that I ran over 3km extra. That sounds like a lot. I was 5th Finn and 21st
overall. I was hoping for better, but it just didn't work out. Even with a
clean run I would have been minutes behind Simone, so there's not much room for
speculation. I just wasn't fit enough. After all, I came to these pre-games as
an outsider and was happy to make it at least once among the top3 Finns. I
would have needed a clear victory to make it to the team and with the day's
form I hadn't been able to do it. Results
So I didn't make it to the WOC but I'm still happy that I
made the trip. I got back some of my lost self-confidence, I could enjoy my
morning coffee in stunning scenery, I got some hill training for free and I got
used to the thin mountain air. In other words just great on-site preparation for
the Jungfrau. A few easy days and it's time to start some serious training
towards another champs!
