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!