So I
screwed up NORT but it was still a good week in many ways. I got what I wanted:
international race starts, more routine, and confidence in my abilities. I
wanted to run well the forest races but didn't expect much of the sprints.
Ended up doing 3 decent sprint races (practically clean, only a few bad route
choices) but underperformed big time in the forest. In Norway I still felt
tired from a recent training camp and a few sleepless nights before the race
didn't help much. Still I could have done quite well if I hadn't lost 3 minutes
in total on two controls (3 and 10). When the tour came to Finland I was
feeling better and had a really good start in the sprint qualification (10th
after the first part) but after some hesitation and a slower route choice I lost
8 places at the end. In the final I lost over a minute on two legs (3 and 11)
and didn't get many bonus seconds there. So when it came to the chase I was further
down on the list than I had hoped for.
You should
perhaps watch the GPS tracking of the chasing start to follow my description of the last race. Just to make it
clear, I'm not very proud of it. But here we go.
I started 20th,
nearly 12 minutes behind Simone, but in almost reachable distance from the
top10. Maybe top15 had been more realistic but because ALL I WANT IS EVERYTHING I went all out right from the start. Maybe
a bit too aggressively, but I could still read the details on the hillside on
the way to control 1. Path, crag, vague re-entrant, gray hilltop, a distinct
bolder, gray crag on the left side and track above it. Last look at the compass
and down towards the control site behind the open rock. There it is! I check
the code just before punching. 45. WTF?? I should have 31. I realize something
has gone really wrong and suddenly I have absolutely no idea where I am. I know
I've just been to the gray crag but can't understand what has happened after
that. I try to read in but get stressed about other runners coming from all
directions. I make a vague (but correct) guess about the location and continue.
But it's only a guess and I'm LIVIN' ON A
PRAYER that I'll find my control some 100m further. But no, I'm in such a
hurry that I just slightly miss it. "Ok I wasn't where I thought I was, so
where am I??" Again, without a second thought, I get an impulsive idea that
I'm by the cliffs just below my control and I should follow them up (in reality
I'm about 20m southeast of the control). I climb up along the steep edge but
find there no control whatsoever. I'm too stressed to think logically and make
another ridiculous guess that I'm by the re-entrant just 20m north of the
control and go on further to south. I find a control in a re-entrant (100m
north from control 2) that mimics the control site I'm searching but the code
is wrong again. Another DAMNED attempt.
THIS AINT A LOVE SONG but I should KEEP THE FAITH and continue. I look
around and realize that I have to be on the open rocks between controls 1 and
2. So back again. "IF THAT'S WHAT IT
TAKES, that's what I'll do". I check the places I've already been to,
I check the big cliffs in the hillside below me, and once more I check the code
of the control I've been to. 45. My race starts to taste like BITTER WINE. Suddenly it's all quiet in
the forest. Others girls in the chase are long gone and I'm all-alone in empty
forest feeling like an ARMY OF ONE.
Finally I give myself enough time to figure it all out and pick the hiding
control without a problem. It laughs at me and says NO APOLOGIES. It's taken over 9 minutes to find it and I know that
I'm out of the game. So "WHAT ABOUT
NOW?" I ask myself. "Should I quit or should I continue?" "WHO SAYS YOU CAN'T GO HOME?" "IT'S MY LIFE after all". "Ne-ver give up" shouts the other
half of my brain, the fighter me, and tells me and my stupid ego to go on. BECAUSE WE CAN it assures me. Sometimes
that's the best way to make up your mistakes. To continue and do it properly
again. But sometimes if you're mentally broken it's just BAD MEDICINE. Nevertheless I decide to go on for a while and see
how it goes. "HAVE A NICE DAY"
the control shouts sarcastically when I ran off. Fuck you too. When I come to the
butterflies the terrain turns to a real nightmare. Like I hadn't had enough already!
I've lost my racing spirit long ago but seeing a few fellow runners (most of
them one loop ahead) feels comforting. I catch a Swedish girl to control 13 and
let myself to hang the next leg. But it clearly isn't my day and we end up
making a 2 min mistake on that one. I realize it's better to continue alone in
order to stay focused. A few controls later I see Emma Klingenberg, which is
quite a surprise (she went out 10th). I don't pay much attention to her (she
has clearly had even worse day than I) and after a while I'm alone again. When
I come to the map change I see an empty stand and hear Annika Billstam coming to
the finish. Oh crap. It's quite depressing and I hesitate whether to run the
last loop. Our team doc gives me a bottle of sports drink and says that I've
kept a good pace since the big mistake in the beginning. She persuades me to continue
and so I do. I'm tired but not dead tired and I can now slow down a bit when
there's no one to race against. I pick the rest of the controls without a
problem but feel still somewhat embarrassed when running into finish. I hope
that the speaker wouldn’t notice me but he does and surprises me by telling
that I'm 21st. That's only one place down where I started. What the hell has
happened to all those girls who passed me in the beginning?? It has been an
awful race but at least I got SOMETHING
FOR THE PAIN. Maybe I was 8-10min slower than I could have been but it was still
worth running. 21st is much more than I thought I deserved.
If you're
too young or old to understand a word of that, go and check the best rock songs
over the past 30 years. It should open up ;)
Results,
maps, tracking etc. found in the Nordic Tour webpage
Analysis of
the races, route choices etc. in World of O
 |
| Sprint qualification, Turku (Jukka Liikari) |
