Junior World Orienteering Championships Sprint - 3.7km opt. - 65th, 1:40 down
I had high hopes today. In recent years I found that sprint was a good discipline for me and although my speed isn't as high as the best, I had the required technical skills to efficiently navigate whilst running at quite high speed. However, today was not my day.
My preparation had gone well and had surely been good enough to pull out a higher result than 65th. Together with some help from some of the team, I made the sprint map by endless hours of looking at streetview, pictures and google earth. Looking at some of the courses we had planned, we had almost nailed the shape of the course, even though we got quarantine wrong (but this didn't trouble anyone). I had got my way with a slot in the late start block, the model had gone well, and I found myself relaxing in a very nice quarantine in Samokov Arena (sports hall). In terms of nutrition, I was happy with it too. Everything was perfect.
Soon enough I was heading down some stairs to -3. Loved the atmosphere, indoor start. Start flag was on a backdoor and after seeing my -1 man heading across the bridge by a reflection off a window, I was off chasing him down. Quick look at the whole course, nice, had loads of time seeing as I was racing across the bridge with no other choice. Before this I had ignored all the heavy rain that had started during the middle start slots, there wasn't point of stressing over it. But out in the area there was no ignoring it. It was going to affect me on the slippery cobbles, wet grass, and deep pothole puddles.
I fought on nevertheless and nailed 1.
Safe route to 2 but possibly a bit slower. Not really noticeable on the splits.
3 was straightforward. Obviously put so we could plan 4.
I was told I took a bad route to 4, but I'm still happy with it and I wasn't far off best split.
50/50 route to 5, I chose 50.
6 was good but
I exited badly, distracted by 8, and took a long way round. Losing 10s.
8 could have gone worse, I slowed quite a lot because of slippery surfaces around the sports hall, nailed the route though.
Surprised that 9 wasn't more of a choice. Easy, but running speed was slowing down.
10 good, a well-geeked area.
And so was 11, but I lost 20s as I was planning 12 and ran right past it. Then, looking back at number 10, I confused myself and ran about like a headless chicken. Race over - if it wasn't already.
A bit of a longer route to 12, not really noticed on the splits though.
Then began to get exited for spectator, it was as expected, even the control before.
Bad exit to 13 but shouldn't have cost much and it wasn't my main worry. I got out onto the public road at 13 and it became treacherously slippery underfoot.
Slid about into 14 and then spectator. Had to pretty much jog into it to avoid a wipe out (as some people did apparently).
We had pre-planned 16 but I had almost lost hope. Thought I may have crossed something illegal, couldn't really be bothered.
Good to 17 and 18, just feeling sick, tired and helpless though.
Also fine to 19, hearing Jackie from assembly telling me to move it, but it was almost impossible on the slippery streets. 2 steps forward, 1 step back.
20 and finish, slowing down a ridiculous amount into the punches.
Very mixed feelings with this. I knew I had done rubbish, and I knew I could have done so much better in dry conditions. But I think something else was a bit off, and I reckon it's pretty simple. Lactate threshold speed, which comes with age, is lacking. Let's hope this changes by next season. I really shouldn't have made any time losses either, but I think the reason for my mistake on 11 wouldn't have happened with the obviously demoralising rain. I thought this was my best chance at JWOC this year, and it took some doing to change my mind about this after the sprint. Little did I know that this would be by far my worst result of the week...
Beat 5 Norwegiana, 1 Swede but was:
Kiwi'd (so was everyone), Aussie'd, Yankie'd, Brussle'd and Spain'd
Splits -
http://jwoc2014.bg/uploads/Split_times_Sprint_All_...
Map -
http://www.scottish-orienteering.org/doma/show_map...
Photos -