Iten, Kenya - University of Champions

At least, that is what it says on the gate! Just arrived in Iten for a 4 week altitude training camp run by Lornah Kiplagat and her Dutch husband Pieter Langerhorst.

Here are some pictures of the centre, which is 2,400m above sea level, just on the edge of Iten, a town of about 4,000 people (of the Kalenjin tribe) in the Great Rift Valley which runs through Kenya. Iten is about 45 minutes drive from Eldoret, which is quite a big city, 45 minute flight from Nairobi.

Iten is a big centre for training for Kenyan athletes, with many of the best Kenyan runners living and training here on the plethora of dirt roads and 2 (dirt) athletics tracks. The HATC itself has a swimming pool and a gym, and lots of athletes from all over the world staying at any one time.

After a long journey without much sleep, we went out for a 30 minute jog to explore the town yesterday, and this morning I ran 50 minutes. You can really feel the altitude on these first runs - even small hills feel like crazy hard work...

I am looking forward to the next month!

Brutal!

Before heading off to Kenya, I took part in a race called the Brutal 10km at Bordon Heath. It was advertised as the toughest off road 10km in the country, and I guess it probably was. 10km of hills, waist deep marshes and swamps, mud, icy tank wallows, sand and tussocks. All in all pretty good fun for an orienteer! There was some fast running too, as transport between the tough sections.
I went off fairly hard, but had Harold 'Warwick' Wyber for company for the first 8km before slowly getting away at the end for the win. Really good fun, and can highly recommend the series which continues in January.

Website here with loads of pictures and movies from the race.

Smålandskavlen

Smålandskavlen 2011 2nd place

It was always going to be tough to match winning Smålandskavlen last year, but we came pretty close, finishing second to the mighty Kalevan Rasti. I ran the second leg, my first night race for a while, and I did a decent race, pulling SNO up to 2nd place overnight. I had company for a lot of the race, mostly from Jonas Gvildys and Thomas Carlsson, and in the end Topi Anjala. We quite often had different gaffles, but always came back together. Jonas had the fastest leg time, and I was second.

The terrain was tough, not unlike some Scottish areas, and hilly and stony. Nice way to finish a successful year for SNO, although it would be nice to start turning the top 5s, top 3s and top 2s into wins!


Results here

Swedish Champion! 2011 round-up

So it has been an interesting couple of months. Firstly, I am now Swedish Champion! Rehns BK were disqualified from the Swedish Relay Championships, elevating SNO to the gold medal. You can read about the disqualification here and see the updated results here. I don't really have anything to say about the disqualification other than that rules are rules, even if they are stupid, and that I am happy to be the champion!

Since SM relay, I went to Berlin to watch my girlfriend run in the marathon, and I went to Switzerland for a WOC 2012 training camp followed by the World Cup final. Unfortunately I strained my calf muscle training in Berlin, and then continued to run on it during the training camp, and the tough racing at the WC final was too much for it, so I could hardly run since then, and in fact I have had almost 3 weeks now without any running. I also had some stomach problems at the WC final weekend, meaning that I had pretty poor results, but as always they were some excellent races.

I have now been selected for the GB performance group for 2012, and I am about to start my winter training in build up to the 2012 Championships. I am always quite motivated at this time of year to start base training, and put into practise all the ideas I have been noting down during the year.

It is also time to look back at what I have achieved (or not achieved) during 2011.

Positives

Joining SNO, getting a really nice job and place to live in Södertälje with my beautiful girlfriend!

4th - World Championships sprint distance
11th - World Champs middle distance

3rd - Tiomila
5th - Jukola

Gold - Swedish relay champs
Gold - British middle distance champs
Silver - British sprint distance champs
5th - Swedish sprint distance champs
6th - Swedish middle distance champs

5km personal best (15:02)
10km second best time (31:54)
Gold - Bellmanstafetten

Negatives

Major foot injury in January, and consequent knee problems for much of the spring
I missed many Swedish races, British long distance and student championships due to injury
Poor World Cups including NORT and WC final in Switzerland

Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

Good day for SNO - 3 medals in SM relay

Last weekend I ran the Swedish Orienteering Championships in Middle distance and Relay, and in both races I had a good chance to win, and in both races I failed to do so.

Friday - Middle Qualification

Much more difficult both physically and technically than expected. Very bushy terrain with low visibility and wet marshes made this pretty tough. I was pretty scrappy, especially early on, but held it together to qualify 5th in my heat (top 6 to the final).

Results here

Saturday - Middle Final

With my usual cautious start in difficult terrain, I was slow but steady initially but I caught Jesper Lysell and Petter Eriksson at the second control. I probably didn't take the best route choices to the 3rd and 8th, and at the half way mark I was about 1 minute behind the leaders. Then after passing the competition centre and taking a new map, the course suddenly got really interesting again. Petter took a couple of controls before me, and our pace increased such that at the 15th control (after 31 minutes running and 7 minutes left) I was in the overall lead by 20 seconds. Then disaster. The speed was very high across the slope to the 16th. I was a little higher than Petter but with everything under control. We came to the hill where the control should be, and for some reason things didn't quite fit what I was expecting to see. Petter turned right, but instead of checking or following him, my instinct told me I needed to go left. I did that, ran 20 seconds, realised I had made a mistake and turned around. By then it was too late, I had lost 1 minute, Petter was away to the next control, and I had missed my chance to win the Swedish champs. I even made a 15 second mistake on the next control, probably losing a medal, when I almost ran into a forbidden area and had to go back on myself. Still, it was nice to see that my shape is quite good at the moment, and that I should get some confidence in my ability.

I spent a long time thinking about that 16th control after the race....

Results here

Map here

Varvning - photo SOFT

Sunday - Relay

After the middle distance, it was decided that I should ran the last leg, in the SNO first team with Erik Liljeqvist and Jonas Leandersson on the first 2 legs. They both did a really good job, sending me out in 2nd place, 1 minute behind William Lind of Malungs, and just in the front of a group of another 6 runners. The first control was really long, and when we got there, the group had tightened up considerably. I was happy to let others do the work initially, but I was not afraid to do my own thing (for example the 5th control I took a different route choice to the others, and came back out with the leaders). From about the 5th control, a smaller group of myself, Lysell, Johanson, Troeng and Lind had a gap to the others, and we maintained that to the spectator control. Then there was the biggest forking so far, and I took my controls well and was able to get a small lead. Then I pushed as hard as possible across the fields and through the next few controls. At the next radio control I had a 40 second lead. I was really nervous, especially through the technical controls at the far end of the map, but I managed with only some small hesitations to get through them. I could hear the group behind me, and at the end of the loop (which was forked), I caught sight of Troeng and Lysell. Lysell caught me at the 17th and then ran behind me until the second last. I was hoping we would have a different forking in the end, but he had the same as me. Then on the way to the last control, he changed gear and gave it everything. I put everything I had left into following him, but it was not enough, and in the end he won the sprint comfortably. I managed to stay clear ahead of the chasing teams though, for a 2nd place and Silver medal - my first in Swedish Championships.

Results here

Map here

Prispallen - photo SOFT

I was frustrated by my mistake on Saturday, but in general it was a really good, positive weekend, and now I am looking forward to watching my girlfriend run the Berlin Marathon at the weekend, and then to a nice training camp and World Cup Final in Switzerland.