12 May 2006

Loooooooooooooooooong Final

16.2km, 111 minutes, 35th place - a long race. A new PB in classic distance easily beating my 55th in Italy last year. We don't have the maps back yet so can't put it up, and am really tired after the race so not really got much to say. A few points though-
Ran a steady pace, not too many mistakes, and pushed a bit harder at the end.
Never really ran at my maximum as was slightly afraid to hit the wall, so maybe should have pushed a little harder (although I'm not sure I could have really).
Was caught by an Estonian guy and couldnt get away from him - every time we took different routes or I pulled ahead he caught me again.
Caught David Schneider, got away from him, let him catch me again and finished with him.

The course was long and tough, the forest was very green and quite vague in places. Supposedly quicker than winning times due to dry marshes turned into a bit of an epic with only a few people breaking the 100 mins mark in the mens.

British team -
Oli, blew 4 mins at first 2 controls, then turned it around and had a really good race.
JD - running in a good group, hit the wall and blew up. Also forgot to punch the drinks control
Jamie - 'lacked inspiration and never really got into the race'
Craney - lost most of his trousers on the way to the 4th control and struggled to keep his motivation up (although he got a lot of lady attention after the finish)

Sarah - 23rd, relatively satisfied, maybe could have been a few places higher

Relay tomorrow, I'm running team 2 leg 1.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

You seem to have run away from Novikov, Carsten, and Schneider during races this week. And merz and Bartak during Tiomila. Given this, maybe your results at EOC should be even better or your head a little smaller....

Anonymous said...

Did Schneider let you hold hands with him?

gg said...

Or maybe I need to run a little slower and make less mistakes?

Anonymous said...

I suppose running faster with less mistakes would bring even more success.

Anonymous said...

speaking as a different 'anonymous', i can honestly say i don't know what the other anonymous is on about.

Anonymous said...

this is getting confusing...

Anonymous said...

who said that?

Anonymous said...

'Hit the wall and blew up' - can u clarify this technical term gg? u mean he gave up, collapsed,..?

gg said...

He pushed himself so hard that he hit the wall which basically means that he ran out of energy completely. He basically had to walk the last few controls. It does not just affect the body, but also the mind, making orienteering very difficult.
Something similar happened to me at the JK last year.

Anonymous said...

You anonymous posters are such softcocks... you come on here to slag, yet you can't put your name to it. No one cares what an anonymous person thinks...

Anonymous said...

mark - speaking as the 'anonymous' who wrote the posts at 11:26am and 3:16pm, I feel if you are voicing congratulations or general q's, it doesn't matter if you are anon. However I agree that if you're going to criticise you should certainly put your name to it. I really don't understand the first post, considering what gg has accomplished, his head is remarkably 'small', unlike many other orienteers who have achieved far less than him