World Cup start
in New Zealand and the whole trip there was awesome. It's an amazing country and
the races there were excellent.
When we got
there just before New Year I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to run any of the races
due to my injured foot but I was nevertheless determined to enjoy the trip
(which wasn't particularly difficult). First week I still avoided running and
concentrated on other stuff. We explored exotic forests, waterfalls, beaches,
hot water springs, hobbit land, mountain bike parks, national parks, mountains,
bubbling mud baths and other geothermal wonders. Model event just a day before the
first World Cup race was my first O-training for a long while and gave me a
needed wake-up before the first race.
It started
with a middle distance on sand dunes of Waikawa Beach. First look on the map and I realized it was
going to be a technically challenging race. "Just what I wanted" I thought slightly horrified because it
looked really tricky and I wasn't sure how I was going to cope with it myself. But
it was indeed really cool and I loved it! I tried to focus on simplifying
things and picking features from a distance. It worked pretty well all the way
to the spectator control where I forgot for a while what I was doing. My good
flow was disrupted and I did a couple of small mistakes at the end of the course
losing a few minutes there. But as a whole it was pretty solid race and I was
quite happy with my 12th place. After all I hadn't been able to run or
orienteer for a while.
Next day we
had a sprint qualification race on the Parliament grounds in Wellington. It was a typical city centre sprint
course and a good reminder for me what sprint orienteering is. My sprint mode
was totally off and I hesitated a lot but made it still comfortably to the final.
Unfortunately my foot protested quite a lot after running hard on hard
surface and racing again the day after wasn't very fun.
Sprint final started
from the very famous Dunharrow (from the Lord of the Rings) by the side of Mt
Victoria and zigzagged across the Wellington college area providing everything you can expect from a sprint course. After a decent start I messed
it up on the long leg to control 5 where I wasn't able to execute the leg as I had planned but instead tried to run through some buildings (didn't succeed though).
I lost over a half a minute there and after
that did some additional smaller mistakes. I wasn't at all happy with my performance but quite surprisingly made it
still among top 20.
Third World
Cup race was a combination of a prologue in the morning and a chase start in
the afternoon. Both races went on open grassy hobbit hills with some steep
climbs. I had an average run in the prologue with a few small mistakes. In the chase I went out as 17th with Venla and Outi just a few seconds behind me. We did a
good job in the beginning and reached soon all the girls ahead from 9th place
onwards. From control 10 to 13 it felt more or less like cross-country running
but then in the map change (#13) we split. Lina & co who ran it around from
the left were far ahead on the next control and we only reached them at the end
of the course. Sprint to the finish started from the second last control before
I had even punched it and I just felt I missed the whole thing. I don't know
whether it was the heat or the fact that I hadn't done any sprinting for
ages but I felt just helpless when it came to sprint and was unable to change the
gear. It had been a good race for me but after such a faint finishing it didn't
feel that good. I was 15th.
Overall it
was a great tour with some excellent races and I'm extremely happy that I was
able to run them all. With respect to my injury and a break from running and orienteering
I am quite pleased with my two top 15 results and my current 13th place in the
overall World Cup standing.
All maps are found here
Some random
pics from the trip..
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| Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland |
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| Beaches of Coromandel |
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| Shire and its hobbit holes |
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| Mt Doom looming behind the clouds |
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| Mt Ruapehu, Tongariro national park |
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| Cape Kidnappers |
