AOC #7, 8 and 9

Here's a short review of the last 3 Austria Cups.


AC # 7 took part in a new area in East-Tyrol at the end of September. It's wasn't just a new map, it was also the very first time a O-event took part in East-Tyrol!

The terrain for this AOC (at the same time Middle-Championships for the Elite classes) was really interesting and challenging. My course (about 5,5 km with 320 climbing) first offered a part with very good runability and after the spectator control a really challenging and detailed part with many rocks, boulders and so on. I just made one big mistake in the detailed part (a stone in a green area). I finished 4th. My best result this year so far.



Last weekend it was time for the last 2 national competitions in Austria in 2007.



Event: AOC # 8 (Austrian Night Championships)
Date: Sat, 2007-10-20
My Start: 19:23
Course: 9,3 km, 125 climbing
Weather: +1° C, 5cm snow, snowfall, no wind



This was my first night-run with a good headlamp since I started orienteering and also my first night-race since 2004. It was really necassary to buy this lamp!
The controls did not reflect.



Start-C1: fastest time: 5:01, my time: 6:08

I ran on the left side of the line in order to hit the path and follow it as long as possible. Just before the fence I turned right into the smaller path. Until here I had full control, but than I somehow had a little blackout and didn't know my exact position. I stopped and thougt "Oh shit, not already at the first control!". I decided to run back the the bigger way to relocate and suddenly I saw the flag in front of me. I think this is the best example for a BINGO-control :) I just lost some 30 seconds :)

C1-C2: (1:33 - 2:07)

Just straigth into the semi-open area until I reached the blue line on the map. No problem but not full speed. Didn't want to make a mistake.

C2-C3:

Fastest leg time 1:30! Easy control.

C3-C4: (6:05 - 6:43)

I used the road to keep my speed high. Snow fall increased and I just could see a small distance. It was quite a long leg, but just road-path-running. No problems finding the flag.

C4-C5:

Fastest leg time with 3:31! I first wanted to use the path, but after some seconds I decided to run straight because it was quite easy running in the forrest as well. I hit the crossing and ran onto the open area.

C5-C6: (3:27 - 4:49)

My first mistake. I first followed the path to the end of the forrest. Here I should have used the compass more precisely. I was a little bit south of the flag and needed some time to find it. I lost 1,5 minutes?

C6-C7:

Fastest leg time 1:58. This control was a big problem for many runners. I also lost about 20 seconds, so I don't know why it was enough for a best time. At this control I was in the lead the first (and unfortunately only) time.

C7-C8 (3:43 - 6:02)

A typical mistake for me! It seems that I can't handle parallel situations. Should have had more plan about how to run this control.....

C8-C9

Fastest leg time 3:28! Just headed out to the open area and followed the little path. No problem at all.

C9-C10 (5:08 - 5:43)

Just running along the end of the forrest and the fence. Afterwards little problems with the direction. Some seconds gone.

C10-11 (3:27 - 3:47)
Used the path as long as possible and turned into the terrain as I saw the fence. No problem.

C11-C12 (2:22 - 2:31)
Easy.

C12-C13 (2:22 - 6:01)
My personal Waterloo today. I crossed the open area and used the track. I think I saw the semi-open area and left the track. There were several other runners searching for a (maybe mine) control. I ran back and tried it again, but didn't find it...... FU..!

C13-C14 (1:23 - 1:25)
Just straight.

C14-C15 (2:58 - 4:02)
50 meters before the flag I ran through a thicket which kicked my headlamp from my head. I had to stop and put it back. I lost concentration and was a little bit unsure were my exact position was. One minute gone?

C15-C16
Fastest leg time 2:38! I just went straight and had no problems finding the flag.

C16-C17 (2:34 - 2:57)
Ok, but a little bit to slow.

C17-C18 (2:33 - 3:36)
I don't know where I lost this one minute. Maybe I should have pushed myself more!

C18-C19 (1:09 - 1:24)
Easy. I should learn to suffer more at the end of a race!

C19-C20 (2:12 - 2:14)
No problem.

C20-C21
Best time with 1:01. Just running.

C21-Finish
BEST TIME 0:45

I gained a 4th place in M21 Long just 17 seconds behind Alex Srb. Without this stupid mistake at C13 I would have been the 2nd spot. That's life! I have to be satisfied with this result. My club-mate Markus won the race.

Event: 9th AOC
Date: 2007-10-21
My start: 10:22
Course: 10500m, 165 climbing
Weather: 5 cm snow on the ground, + 5° C

I first wanted to make a summary as I did at the Night Champs, but that's too much work. Here's the short version:

I had a good speed for about half of the race but than it was just suffering. Some best leg times (one on a 1,1 km leg) and one REALLY big mistake which cost me 6 minutes. 2 times I was just 5-10 meters away from the flag and didn't see it (C 10). Just have a look at the Route Gadget!

I ended in 7th spot. Not really good.

STILL TO COME:

On Friday there's the Salzburg Sprint Championships in Hallein. Let's see what I can achive.
I'll take part at the annula O-event in Venice this year again. I'm really looking forward to the Men Elite course!

So, that's it! Have a good time!

PS: My english is really bad!

Summary

Hi folks!

I know - I should write more post, but somehow I always forget to to it or I just have nothing to say.... So after a long period some words to the last months:

School started really well and after more than 4 months I really think I made the right decision. Me colleagues and teachers are really nice and we have a lot of fun togehter. Of course I have to learn much (sometimes really much), but that's life!

In August I had 2 weeks holidays. We (7 people) started a 3 day trip to Italy (Lago di Ledro - a small but really beautiful lake in the mountains near Riva del Garda). The weather was a little bit ok and a little bit bad, but we made the best out of it! I also had my first experience in paintball!

Orienteering also goes on. The first weekend in September I ran TyrOL in Seefeld in M Elite. It was my first map contact since Chicken Challenge in June - quite a long time. TyrOL was a Middle Distance on Saturday and a Long Distance on Sunday. I did quite well, except 2 mistakes on the Middle and a bad route choice on Sunday.
Last weekend my club had a little training camp in Carinthia. On Saturday we trained on a really challenging map just across the boarder to Italy. The map "Laghi di Fusine" is probably one of the most interesting maps I ever run on.

Next weekend it's D-Day. The first competitions in autumn. On Saturday the Austrian Relay Champs and on Sunday the 6. AOC near Vienna.

Have a nice time!

What happend in May?

It has been a long time since my last post, and of course some things happend during this period.
The most important thing is, that I started working on May 1st. For 24 months I'll attend the police school in Großgmain (near Salzburg). We are 20 persons (out of aprox. 600 applicants) building "GAL 01/07/S". The first month already passed and I really like it!

I also did some orienteering in the meantime. The most important competition was the Chicken Challenge 07, organised by my club. A 3-day-event including the Austrian Champs in Sprint, another AOC and chasing start on Monday.
I gained a 8th place in the Sprint, held in Hallein on Saturday. Sunday was a bad day for me. It was the second time I had to give up a competition. Because of the work I had to do I just had no time for eating. After some 50% of my course I could just think one thing: HUNGER!

Now, that's no good english and I'm not really motivated to write anything more detailed. Maybe the next time.

My first experience in the elite class

From April 28th-30th there was a 3-day-event in Deggendorf (Bavaria), organised by Roland Vogls club SV Mietraching. I couldn't take part on stage 1 because I had to play music on saturday afternoon. So I started my trip to Deggendorf together with Florian on sunday 7am in Henndorf. After 2 hours drive we arrived at the finish area from where you had a good view over the bavarian forrest.
Normaly I run M21 Long, but compared to the AOC's I don't run for points or rankings, it was just training for me. So I decided to run the Men Elite class the first time ever.
Stage 2 was a 13,5km course with 685m climbing which ment to be the toughest race ever for me. I didn't make many mistakes, but running was quite exhausting and difficult because of many small stones covering many parts of the terrain. After 2 hours 18min!!! I finished my first Elite competition.
In the afternoon I relaxed a little bit in the sauna, which was really good for my tired and heavy legs.
Stage 3 was a chasing-start-race, where I had to start at the end of the field because I didn't run the first stage. This time it was 10,5km with 485 climbing meters. There were some long legs at the beginning and many short controls at the end of the course. After a big mistake at control #4 (the map really didn't fit 100%) I got a little bit unmotivated. From 5-6 I had to make 185 climbing meters which caused a total crash of motivation....
After 96min I reached the finish and was happy to drive home soon. I really don't like this terrain!

What did I learn in these 2 days? The Elite class is definitely too hard for me with my current physical shape, but I was a nice experience.

Tomorrow I'll do just nothing than relaxing. On Wednesday it's my first working day at the police.

Bye!

O-Weekend in Eberschwang

This weekend the austrian o-scene met the second time this year to compete against each other. There were two races - the so called "Bundesländerstaffel" on Saturday and the 2nd AOC on Sunday. The events took place in Eberschwang (Upper Austria), some 45min drive from Henndorf, which is located in the "Hausruck"-terrain. This means physical demanding terrain with many climbing meters and route choices awaited the runners.

Same like the previous years Salzburg nominated 6 teams for the Bundesländerstaffel. Our last leg runners were Warti, Norbert, Franz H, Tobi, Kungän and Mike Auer, so there was no more place left for me. I was not so unhappy about this because now I could save some energy for tomorrows race. Instead I ran in the Open category together with Warti II. and Lukas Scharnagl.
I decided to run the first leg, which was a nice and easy 3km course. Already on the way to control #2 I managed to break away from the rest and could run the rest of the course in the lead. I just left some 20sec at control #7. I overhanded to Mathias with a time of 21:01min which was enough for a 2 minutes lead to the second team. Mathias finished in 2nd position, some 30 seconds behind the team of HSV Wr. Neustadt, but Lukas was able to secure us the victory.
The Bundesländerstaffel saw a clear victory for Vienna in front of Lower Austria. Salzburg gained the bronze medal just ahead of Styria. Let's see if we are able to take part at this event with the full contingent of our runners. Unfortunately some were missing or are not in the best shape (Felix and Wolif stay in Norway, Robi Merl is in England with his school and Lucie in pregnant...)

The 2nd AOC on Sunday was a 8,5km course with 470m climbing and 16 control points. I started late (105), just Martin Veitsberger started 3min behind me in our class. The main problem this day was like expected - route choices. There were several of them throughout the whole course - well done by the course planner!
Unfortunately I made many (too many) mistakes, just read the following short analys:

Start-1: No problem, just stay on the track.

1-2: This was the first route choice. I took the more straight one with more climbing meters instead of the longer one with less climbing. I think I made the right decision, but I missed the flag and lost about 50 seconds.

2-3: Next control - next mistake! I wanted to keep my altitude which went really well, but than I didn't read the map correctly and made some extra climbing. Again a 1,5 minutes were gone...

3-4: Again - fucked up.... I just couldn't read the map and find the flag. I was about 10 meters under the control. Here Martin Veitsberger caught me, but he also had problems. Together we were searching a little bit. The control was behind a little hill and so he couldn't see me punching it (3min mistake). I tried to break away from him and run full speed downhill which ended in the next mistake....

4-5: Because of my hurry I got a little wrong direction and ended up a little bit out of the map! Thanks god I noticed it immediately and arrived at the 5th together with Martin again. I lost 20sec again.....

5-8: No problem. I managed to make a little gap to Martin.

8-9: Route choice. I think I got the optimal route and had no problem to find the flag.

9-11: No problem

11-12: My extra stupid mistake.... Instead of running on the path which would have give a perfect attack point I run straight without any plan which is no good way to find a control which is located in a hole in a green area. 3 minutes gone.

12-13: I took a suboptimal route choice and also had short problems with the direction. 1 minute lost again.

13-14: No problem. I saw Martin again.

14:15: The last long route choice. Again I took the second best one but had no problems to find the flag.

15-F: Perfect downhill.

As you see my race was a little bit fucked up. I was satisfied with my physical shape, but 10min mistake are far to much! I finished with a time of 1:22:51. Winner was Markus "Kungän" König with 1:12:??. No you can imagine how dissapointed I was about my technical performance. A least the 1 spot was take by a club mate :)
By the way: M20 Elite had the same coures this day. Warti finished with incredible 60:07min!! His current shape is really amazing. Let's hope he can keep it (or better improve) until JWOC in Australia!

Next weekend it's time for my first start in the Elite class. I run the last to stages of the 3-day-event in Deggendorf (Bavaria). 13,5km with 670 climbing is waiting!

Results and Route Gadget can be found here.

Austria Orienteering Cup #1 (Ultralong)

On Sunday the very first race of the Austrian Orienteering Cup (AOC) took place in Burgau. Departure from Henndorf was planned on Saturday 3pm, but me and 8 club-mates decided to take part at an organised training, held in similar terrain like the competition. So we startet our trip (3h 30min) at high noon. The training took place at a map I remember really good. Two years ago the Austrian Junior Championships were held on the same map - and guess who took the victory? Yes, it was me! *g*. The course was 5,3 km and very flat. I ran slow to save my energy for tomorrows competition and also sometimes went back to try the control from another direction. It was a nice training to get into this terrain again.....
Afterwards we drove to our hotel which was located in the middle of Burgau, just 3min walk away from tomorrows finish. Dinner and breakfast were really delicious, so everything was ready for a good competition.
In March I got 21 years old, so I had to choose which category I'd like to run this year. Men Elite is a little bit too long for me, 21 short is (as the name tells you) too short, so I decided to run Men 21 Long this year. Most of the AOC's you can compare this course with the M20 course.

The first AOC was also the Austrian Championships in the Ultralong distance for the elite classes, but also all other categories had longer than usual. I started early (10:02) on the 15,4 km course (235m climbing) and tried to not overpower myself at the very beginning of the race. Running down the way to the first control I took a look at the whole course and noticed a really long leg in the middle of the course.
Control 1 was no problem, but the next one was my only bigger mistake in the race. In fact it were two mistakes. The first problem was my route choice which could have been better and the second one was that I just didn't find the control immediately. I think the whole thing cost me about 1,5 - 2 min. Running away from control #3 I already saw Georg Sengtschmied, who started 2 minutes behind me. Because of this I pushed a little bit harder to make sure that he can't see me anymore. Controls 4, 5 and 6 was just running straight which I managed well. The leg from #6 to #7 offered a little route choice. One option was to go straight again, the other one was to make some more meters but run the whole distance on a street. I took option #2 because running on a street is not so exhausting as running in the forrest and because I could decide who to run the following leg (the long one).
7-8 was a 4,1 km leg crossing the whole map. I think this was my longest leg ever *g*. I decided ran quite straight but made a little mistake after 2/3 of the leg. First I missed a little path and than I didn't look at my compass exactly. After 29:34min I arrived at control #8. Due to this mistake I lost some time to the others. The following controls were easy but already at control #12 I lost time again. This time it was no real technical mistake, but I didn't have this iron will to suffer after 13km. Maybe I lost 1 minute? The last 3 controls was just running which wasn't so fast anymore in my case.
I finished 8th (of 23) with a time of 1:56:14. The winner was Stephan Seeböck (an ex-elite) with 1:34:55. I'm quite satisfied with my result. My goal was to complete the course in less than 2 hours which I managed. Goal number 2 was to beat Richi who started in M35 and had the same course. Unfortunately he was 9 seconds faster than me...... This is a sign to do more training!

Results, Splits and Route Gadget can be found here.

Next weekend are the next two races in Eberschwang. On Saturday the Bundesländerstaffel (Relay) and on Sunday the 2nd AOC. The terrain is steeper than in Burgau - let's see what I can do.....

Have a nice time!

LAGE 000

Welcome to my very first post as a civilian! Yesterday me and my 6 colleagues dropped out of the army after spending 18 months as soldiers. Last week was dominated by less sleep due to celebrations covering most of the week. It was a really nice feeling to give back all my stuff after such a long time *g*
But of course we also had to do our job a last time (at least from Monday to Wednesday). We recorded a new CD, which is quite exhausting (for you mind) if you are tired.

What can I say about the army after 1,5 years?
Looking back I have to say that it was the best time of my life (until now). Ok - the first 8 weeks were a little bit fucked up because of the basic training but after joining the military music it was just a nice time. The number 1 highlight was our trip to Hamina (Finland) in August 2006 were we took part at the Hamina Tatoo (an international meeting of military music bands).

What comes next?
On Tuesday I got a phone call from Mr. Bamacher, the one who selects the new policemen. He told me that I will start my career as policeman on May 2nd. YES!!! Now I have to tell Sony that I will not come to the final interview next week.

During April I want to try to train hard for orienteering. The first national run will take place in 2 weeks in Fürstenfeld. My course is some 15km. Let's try to perform well!

That's it for the moment. Have a nice time! LAAAGE!!