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!