Season opening

Initially Danish Spring was supposed to be my season opening and I was quite excited about it. To be honest I took a bit of head start already in Portugal a few weeks earlier but it was still part of my recovery and I wasn't really racing there, well at least not before the last day... In contrast, Danish Spring was all about racing. I had told everyone so. I had even told our head coach in the Finnish team (when informing him about my pelvic fracture months ago) that if everything went well I would start my season in the Danish Spring and try to do well there. This of course meant that I suddenly had enormous pressure to perform!

I didn't have a clear execution plan before the middle distance but thought that it would be eyeballs-out-type mad racing. Everyone knew that it was going to be fast but no one seemed to care about the technical challenge. It turned out to be fast but at the same time quite technical with short legs, sharp turns and well-hidden controls. I was lacking confidence in my speed and felt that I needed to run a bit overspeed if I wanted to keep up with the other girls. This meant that I was a bit in a rush most of the time and wasted quite a lot of time and energy in unnecessities. But I am proud that I managed to hold it together even if I lost 15 seconds here and there. Some small errors, slight overshootings and hesitation but no major mistakes and as a whole a decent performance and a respectable 8th place. A result that gave me confidence for the long distance.  

Next morning I felt much more confidant before the start because I didn't need to worry about my speed anymore. I knew it was good enough and it would be all down to technical performance. Still, a few minutes before the start I was again very nervous and had butterflies in my stomach. But in a good way I guess. I didn't get the first control quite as beautifully as I wanted to but after that it started to roll. It was important to get the short legs in the beginning right and after that I accelerated and enjoyed the flow. I enjoyed all about it: the course, the terrain, and the feeling to push hard. At the end I was quite exhausted (the way you should be after a good race) and had some difficulties with the second last (contours getting more and more vague and amorphous in my eyes) but apart from that my run was near to perfect and I was very happy with it. My smile got even wider a while later when I realized that I had beaten everyone except Maja and Eva. Another hard-to-believe result after the injury!

Last but not least, I want to thank people around me (friends and rivals) for support and patting on the shoulder! I had some pretty hard winter months and it was great to see fellow competitors being genuinely happy for me for my comeback (I guess we've all been there and know how cruel life can be sometimes...). Sappy or not, I'm touched by the fact how supportive our competitive society is!

Interviews with the top3 women right after the race here

All results, maps and tracking here

Secret weapon of my preparation: searching toughness from the north!

P.S. There are many ways to the top. Those lazy athletes relaxing on a parking slot in my previous blog represent the very best athletes of their countries and you will find them all running European Champs. Go Lillomarka!

P.P.S. My good results were indeed noticed(!) and I got selected to run World Cup in Spain!! It's not EOC but it's still great!! :D 

Strålende Treningssamling

As soon as I got the result from the second scan I headed to Portugal. Sacrum had healed well and I got permission to start to run again, gently and cautiously with care. Doctor told me that I should still avoid contact sports and anything where I might hurt myself. I wasn't really sure whether orienteering counted as a contact sport or not but thought that it should be alright as far as I didn't fall or hit myself. Easier said than done.

I was offered to join training camps of Lillomarka OL, Halden SK, and Team Finland. Obviously I chose Lillomarka. First days we spent in EOC relevant terrains around Coruche before moving up to Viseu.

Lovely Lucy and sunny Sao Bartolomeu do Outeiro

I knew only a few from Lillomarka before the training camp but they were a wonderful bunch of fun and extremely friendly people and a fresh mixture of different nationalities. Most of them were Norwegians but spoke so good English that I got confused which of them were really Norwegians. I also tried my best in Norwegian language and they did their best to destroy my Finnish (by repeating a stupid Finnish word that sounds awful in English). Despite that, they were really awesome and I can't remember when I last had such a good time or laughed so much on a training camp. So thank you all!!

Lillomarka style sprint preparation

I must admit that I had my doubts when I travelled there with my inflatable round cushion and other special equipments for disabled and had my restrictions to drive or sit in a car. What would they think of me? Would they make fun of me? Luckily, they barely noticed my disability and I was treated like one of them. They even waited patiently for me after each training as I walked around courses, spending twice as much time as the others. Not a word of annoy. They just had this wonderful we-are-here-to-train attitude, which meant that everyone had right to train as much (or in my case long) as they wanted.

Lillomarka style strength training

Social nights with different games were a big hit but I'm not sure whether it is appropriate to write too much about them.. More details about the Lillomarka training camp with maps and pics by Ingvild Wang (in Norwegian) here and by Helen Palmer (in proper English) here.

After a week it was time for goodbyes and I was almost in tears when they left me. Nothing to do with the fact that I was dropped in the middle of nowhere with no good plan what to do next. I hugged a guy next to me so hard that I was afraid of breaking his bones. Sorry Helmut, I hope you're okay!

But no worries, my dear club mates Lotta and Tytti were already on their way to rescue me from the threatening outskirts of Coimbra. I had barely finished my espresso when they already wheeled their sporty Nissan in front of the cafe where I was sitting. Next four days I spent in Figueira da Foz together with my very best club mates Lotta, Tytti, Sonja and Suvi.

Their enthusiasm was infectious and I forgot my homesickness and tiredness immediately. On Wednesday they announced that they've entered us all to a relay competition. I hadn't thought of racing before Danish Spring but suddenly there I was, standing in the line with other first leg runners. It was quite extreme relay opening where I lost quite amount of time in crossing some lakes but still it was a victorious season opening for us.

Invincible

On Friday we made an attempt to get 5 persons, 5 big bags, 5 smaller bags and 5 bags of food into a small 4-person car and drove to Mangualde to take part to Portugal O Meeting. It became quite clear that we couldn't possibly do another trip like that, so we decided to send Suvi home earlier so that we would have more space on the way back to the airport. Suvi had some exams coming up and was happy to do so.

I had somewhat mixed feelings before Portugal O Meeting because it was supposed to be Finland's selection races for EOC but I knew that I shouldn't compete. Weeks before I had already made myself clear that I couldn't possibly try to qualify for the team. It was far too early for me to race and I should still take it very cautiously. But still, it felt weird to be there and not to race. First day I started very carefully, avoiding falling on the rocks, but increased the pace towards the end as the course turned more runnable. I was surprised by the result and felt more and more tempted to race. Fortunately the terrain in the second day made it very clear that I shouldn't. It was perhaps the most dangerous and most challenging course that I've ever run. I loved the technical challenge but it felt more like an obstacle race than orienteering. Third day was slightly easier but still filled with stones and reduced visibility.

My favourite terrain - but not for disabled

Forth and last day was a long distance race in a chasing start form. I didn't think that I could run a full long distance race after only a week of running but decided to start and then quit whenever I wanted. I ran more offensively than in the previous days and enjoyed the fact that it was more runnable. Initially I had planned to stop before the last loop but because I was still feeling fairly good by the time I got to the spectator control I decided to continue. In the butterflies I made a mistake on one control but apart from that it was a very good run. Still, I was more than surprised to catch so many girls in front of me. On the third last control I got along in the bronze fight but lost it in a downhill race to the second last control. My legs were filled with lactate and I was afraid of taking any risks. In the last climb I had no power in my legs to close the gap. I was just extremely happy with my run and I didn't care about the sprint. I finished 8th in the chase with a big smile on my face. In the day's results I was 3rd after Simone and Annika. I couldn't have wished for a better comeback!

Portugal O Meeting results, maps, tracking and photos here

More about second part of the training camp in Suvi's blog

And one more thing. Suvi and I both lost our trousers while we were running the POM. Suvi lost her dark blue Noname running pants and mine were black wind- and waterproof Haglöfs trekking pants. Both were very muddy. Please return them if you find them!