Discussion: Swisscheese spreads his cheese on the www
in: Orienteering; General
Aug 26, 2005 2:54 PM
#
Time flies by, and this is not the first time I am saying this.
It is know already one week since my return from Japan… after being captivated by the intensity of the book I was reading, the unpacking, the treatment of patients who I had to see during the vacation, I could finally write an analysis of my long distance race at the world champs. I offer you a close look into my most intimate sphere, so maybe the underage shouldn’t keep on reading! I hope an analysis of the qualification race for the long distance and of the relay won’t take me another 10 days to write.
Leg
Time loss
Comments:
Sart
I feel really confident at the start line. Wondering even a little bit how well I have achieved my main goal of the season… which was to stand at this very start lane, knowing that I will perform at the optimum of my capabilities, which I have specifically trained for this year.
S-1
30’’
Taking my map on the little start table, I somehow manage to get my security cord for the emit badge caught on a nail or something. I loose the badge, but fortunately it is still hanging on the security cord. Leaving the start I first need to fix this little problem. Unfortunately I can’t take the usual time to prepare the leg, so I start on the first route choice I see, which is the left one. But I am not convinced of it because I didn’t examine the others, so I had to drag a bad feeling in my stomach with me to the first control. In retrospective I don’t know if the right or left route choice was faster. But certainly it doesn’t make a big time difference.
1-2
20’’
Running up the first nose, I miss the nose intersection. This does cost me maybe only 10’’, the remaining time loss is due to my usual slow start.
2-3
19’’
I go maybe a little far down, but I think I mainly loose my time because I am going slower than Matthias Karlsson who has here the best split.
3-4
0’’
Easy control, I just let it roll this time.
4-5
22’’
The route choice to the left route can be discussed, but I believe you make too much climb for the distance you are winning. Furthermore, on the right route I had plenty of time to prepare the next few legs and have a glance at the route choice to #11.
5-6
6’’
Well, easy control. You can choose to spare some climb running a little bit around the top of the hill. But staying absolutely clean in a long distance race is more important than to bother with such details.
6-7
0’’
Having well prepared the leg, I could run it in a nice smooth rhythm.
7-8
18’’
Well, well, this nice smooth comfortable rhythm is also dangerous. I miss the nose departing on the right of the ridge. Obviously I am not totally concentrated yet. But I know that’s ok, I haven’t done a big mistake, yet. Just some little annoying stuff.
8-9
116’’
When I was reading in advance I had been looking forward for this leg. We were leaving the area with many small legs where you were just able to loose the race with bigger mistakes (similar with the butterflies on the usual long distance races), but you can't win the race in this section either. I knew that race would seriously start only now. Feeling physically quite good I pushed quite hard running up the longer valley. Attacking the control from the side of the hill seemed smooth to me. My big mistake here is that I attacked the control without a better strategy than just letting myself surf the side of the hill, trusting my subjective feeling. What an elementary mistake. Exactly on this type of errors I have put most of my focus this year. It is OK to do a mistake when your technical skills are at their limits, but not because you are not concentrated enough. On the side of the slope I slid too far down. Because I wasn’t aware of what I was doing, I lost map contact. Ouch, what a bad feeling, for the first time in Japan I was standing still, not knowing where I was and what to do. It took me a long while to relocate. Finally punching the control, I was quite baffled. This was the biggest mistake I've made in any race or training in non Scandinavian terrain this year.
9-10
6’’
Running to the water point, my thoughts are running wild; I have troubles finding the focus again. I spend a longer time at the refreshment, and the cold water over my face clarifies the situation. I had a disappointing start, I can’t erase it and I will be upset about it. But, this can happen, and the race is still long, I still felt confident about my abilities to orienteering well in this terrain and my legs feel really strong today. So I took a second start, focusing on doing accurate orienteering and waiting until the end of the course to push physically.
Running up the valley to the control, I saw for the first time Andrey ahead of me. He was climbing in the green up the nose. Running further up the valley until just before the control I could catch up quite a bit to him. Little things can make differences, taking this better micro-route choice boosted my mood. I forgot about the time loss I had done before and got really motivated about the remaining course. Finally I found this inner joy for orienteering, which had been so present the last month and helping me to orienteer well.
10-11
56’’
For me there was just one route possible to #11. Going more or less straight. But obviously the right route was the much better one. Bravo to those who did see it, like David. Andrey and Michele who were now 18 seconds ahead of me didn’t see it either. Slowly I could get closer to them.
11-12
9’’
At the control 11, both Andrey and Michele didn’t spend as much time at the control drinking. I lost a little bit the contact there, but by the control 12 I was again closer to them, as my speed tended to be a little bit faster.
12-13
0’’
Again an easy control.
13-14
4’’
My favorite type of leg… the ones on a rolling downhill. I could pass Andrey here, and fifty meters before the control I crossed Emil who was running to # 15 all around the valley. I got super exited. For the first reason because I believed I would have a good chance to run away from Andrey and Michele: 1. Because Emil had taken the route around, which was slower but might influence either Andrey or Michele to take it. 2. The next leg was very physical and there I could maybe run away. And of course I was excited to have seen Emil, which meant that I might be able to catch up with him, and doing this so early on the course was a clear sign that I was doing well. In the excitement I looked for the control on the wrong side of the nose, loosing 5 precious seconds.
14-15
0’’
As my tactic was to force the pace, I didn’t stop to take a bottle and drink. Running down the steep valley was wonderful, I felt deliberated. While running up the slope on the other side I could take this feeling with me. But as I got on the ridge I was astonished that the valley which was separating me and the control was so wide. I got a little hesitant, and decided to stay high while traversing the valley. When I got on the nose where the control was, I almost ran into Emil, who was coming down on it. Unfortunately I had done a little loop to find the control, and lost some time I had made good on Michele and Andrey.
15-16
3’’
Easy leg.
16-17
4’’
There were only two main route choice ideas that I saw. Run to the left all the way down, going down and up and down and up again, or taking the right, having a continuous climb on the ridge, some flat trail, a rolling part on the side of the hill and finally a very fun and fast descend to the control. It didn’t take me long to make up my mind for the second option! I tried to push hard on the whole leg. I knew very well that this was a key passage of the race. Running down the steep slope to #17 I didn’t run precisely the correct direction and ended too much on the left. I had to stop to read carefully my map to go the control. What a shame after such a nice high speed downhill to break the flow and not nail the control. I knew Michele and Andrey were really close behind, as on the trail further above we were all together. But I didn’t seem to really care anymore. The so called “long distance” syndrome as I like to call it, had found me. What happens is that all the surroundings get dim, and there is just myself and the very next leg focused in my thoughts.
17-18
25’’
Running down in the valley I miss the beginning of the trail and get stuck in the lianas trying to get on it. Running towards the control, I walk a few steps to eat a gel, and I am anticipating with great pleasure the drinks which will be served. At the control, I meet up again with Andrey, who comes from above, having obviously chosen to come to the control from above. I spend a lot of time drinking, Andrey goes away and Michele also passes by. Somehow, it didn’t seem to affect me at all that they were passing me, those cups of Aquarius felt like the elixir for long life to me. After 3 or 4 glasses, I felt satisfied and ready to attack the last part of the course.
18-19
14’’
With my belly so full, my body didn't want to push. I had to wait a few moments until I absorbed the water to be able to get back into the cruising speed.
19-20
6’’
In the climb leaving the control I start to feel more aggressive again, I could catch up with Andrey and run a little faster. Running down to the control I let myself roll full speed.
20-21
7’’
I saw just one way of running this leg, running down to the valley, following it as much as possible and climbing back up to the control. Actually, there was another possibility, which was to climb slightly from the control and to follow the ridges. But I don’t believe that it was faster (for the women’s course it is different, because their #14 is higher up). Once I left the trail on the bottom of the valley, I could see a man running ahead. Seeing that he was fighting (fatigued) made me aware that probably not everyone felt as good as I did this far in the race. I felt motivated by how fresh I felt. Unfortunately I was not very clean in the approach to the control and went into the wrong reentrant. While running back to the control, I ran into a whole group punching the control with me. Still Andrey, Michele, but to my surprise also Marius. He was probably the person I had seen ahead.
21-22
4’’
Well, this leg was plain road running. After a short look at the controls ahead I realized the finish shoot had started. There was no more big challenge ahead, neither technical nor physical. So I started to go full speed.
22-23
0’’
Welcome to the last loop I told myself!
23-24
0’’
I decided to stay low and not to do the supplementary climb to the trail. The runability seemed quite good.
24-25
0’’
Stay clean and run fast
25-26
0’’
I decided to wait until the end of the green to have fast descent to the control. On the ridge I passed Jamie. I was concerned, as he didn’t seem alright. Later I heard he injured his knee, what a shame.
26-27
6’’
I didn’t know if the trail following the field was in the forbidden area or not. So I went around the green to the right.
27-28
6’’
Now I give really all I have. Climbing up to the control I tell myself to stay focused and to read very carefully the map to get into the right reentrant. So absorbed by my thoughts, I don’t notice that we could see the control from far away and I start to run one reentrant to far up. Andrey running clean passes me in my little mistake.
28-29
0’’
The last of my favorite Japanese controls; the type on a downhill slope, even this time with some green to make the visibility lower. Incidentally, it is also the last control. Running up to the pass I read the map and than run full speed downhill. Great to see that Andrey cannot keep up.
29-F
11’’
RUN!!! Leaving the last control and following the stripes in the forest the race passes by again in a flash. Because of the one almost 2 minute mistake at the beginning I can’t be very satisfied with my race. But besides this, it was not too bad, and passing so many people at the end is a good sign. Furthermore, Andrey wasn’t faster and I know that he is one of the fastest in the field. When I get out of the woods I notice people are suddenly jumping up and down. I realize by the frantic expressions that I am going to take a really good placement. Quite quickly after I am out of the woods Andrey zooms by me. I don’t even think about trying to keep up with him. The last 8 controls I was already going full speed.
Well, well, funny feeling to achieve a second place at a WOC. This is actually a dream which comes true. Unbelievable! Great!
The ironic thing is that it didn’t take a miracle run, but just a normal performance. And exactly this gives me a great, deep satisfaction. I know that for those championships, I have achieved a level that was higher than what I have ever been on.
It is know already one week since my return from Japan… after being captivated by the intensity of the book I was reading, the unpacking, the treatment of patients who I had to see during the vacation, I could finally write an analysis of my long distance race at the world champs. I offer you a close look into my most intimate sphere, so maybe the underage shouldn’t keep on reading! I hope an analysis of the qualification race for the long distance and of the relay won’t take me another 10 days to write.
Leg
Time loss
Comments:
Sart
I feel really confident at the start line. Wondering even a little bit how well I have achieved my main goal of the season… which was to stand at this very start lane, knowing that I will perform at the optimum of my capabilities, which I have specifically trained for this year.
S-1
30’’
Taking my map on the little start table, I somehow manage to get my security cord for the emit badge caught on a nail or something. I loose the badge, but fortunately it is still hanging on the security cord. Leaving the start I first need to fix this little problem. Unfortunately I can’t take the usual time to prepare the leg, so I start on the first route choice I see, which is the left one. But I am not convinced of it because I didn’t examine the others, so I had to drag a bad feeling in my stomach with me to the first control. In retrospective I don’t know if the right or left route choice was faster. But certainly it doesn’t make a big time difference.
1-2
20’’
Running up the first nose, I miss the nose intersection. This does cost me maybe only 10’’, the remaining time loss is due to my usual slow start.
2-3
19’’
I go maybe a little far down, but I think I mainly loose my time because I am going slower than Matthias Karlsson who has here the best split.
3-4
0’’
Easy control, I just let it roll this time.
4-5
22’’
The route choice to the left route can be discussed, but I believe you make too much climb for the distance you are winning. Furthermore, on the right route I had plenty of time to prepare the next few legs and have a glance at the route choice to #11.
5-6
6’’
Well, easy control. You can choose to spare some climb running a little bit around the top of the hill. But staying absolutely clean in a long distance race is more important than to bother with such details.
6-7
0’’
Having well prepared the leg, I could run it in a nice smooth rhythm.
7-8
18’’
Well, well, this nice smooth comfortable rhythm is also dangerous. I miss the nose departing on the right of the ridge. Obviously I am not totally concentrated yet. But I know that’s ok, I haven’t done a big mistake, yet. Just some little annoying stuff.
8-9
116’’
When I was reading in advance I had been looking forward for this leg. We were leaving the area with many small legs where you were just able to loose the race with bigger mistakes (similar with the butterflies on the usual long distance races), but you can't win the race in this section either. I knew that race would seriously start only now. Feeling physically quite good I pushed quite hard running up the longer valley. Attacking the control from the side of the hill seemed smooth to me. My big mistake here is that I attacked the control without a better strategy than just letting myself surf the side of the hill, trusting my subjective feeling. What an elementary mistake. Exactly on this type of errors I have put most of my focus this year. It is OK to do a mistake when your technical skills are at their limits, but not because you are not concentrated enough. On the side of the slope I slid too far down. Because I wasn’t aware of what I was doing, I lost map contact. Ouch, what a bad feeling, for the first time in Japan I was standing still, not knowing where I was and what to do. It took me a long while to relocate. Finally punching the control, I was quite baffled. This was the biggest mistake I've made in any race or training in non Scandinavian terrain this year.
9-10
6’’
Running to the water point, my thoughts are running wild; I have troubles finding the focus again. I spend a longer time at the refreshment, and the cold water over my face clarifies the situation. I had a disappointing start, I can’t erase it and I will be upset about it. But, this can happen, and the race is still long, I still felt confident about my abilities to orienteering well in this terrain and my legs feel really strong today. So I took a second start, focusing on doing accurate orienteering and waiting until the end of the course to push physically.
Running up the valley to the control, I saw for the first time Andrey ahead of me. He was climbing in the green up the nose. Running further up the valley until just before the control I could catch up quite a bit to him. Little things can make differences, taking this better micro-route choice boosted my mood. I forgot about the time loss I had done before and got really motivated about the remaining course. Finally I found this inner joy for orienteering, which had been so present the last month and helping me to orienteer well.
10-11
56’’
For me there was just one route possible to #11. Going more or less straight. But obviously the right route was the much better one. Bravo to those who did see it, like David. Andrey and Michele who were now 18 seconds ahead of me didn’t see it either. Slowly I could get closer to them.
11-12
9’’
At the control 11, both Andrey and Michele didn’t spend as much time at the control drinking. I lost a little bit the contact there, but by the control 12 I was again closer to them, as my speed tended to be a little bit faster.
12-13
0’’
Again an easy control.
13-14
4’’
My favorite type of leg… the ones on a rolling downhill. I could pass Andrey here, and fifty meters before the control I crossed Emil who was running to # 15 all around the valley. I got super exited. For the first reason because I believed I would have a good chance to run away from Andrey and Michele: 1. Because Emil had taken the route around, which was slower but might influence either Andrey or Michele to take it. 2. The next leg was very physical and there I could maybe run away. And of course I was excited to have seen Emil, which meant that I might be able to catch up with him, and doing this so early on the course was a clear sign that I was doing well. In the excitement I looked for the control on the wrong side of the nose, loosing 5 precious seconds.
14-15
0’’
As my tactic was to force the pace, I didn’t stop to take a bottle and drink. Running down the steep valley was wonderful, I felt deliberated. While running up the slope on the other side I could take this feeling with me. But as I got on the ridge I was astonished that the valley which was separating me and the control was so wide. I got a little hesitant, and decided to stay high while traversing the valley. When I got on the nose where the control was, I almost ran into Emil, who was coming down on it. Unfortunately I had done a little loop to find the control, and lost some time I had made good on Michele and Andrey.
15-16
3’’
Easy leg.
16-17
4’’
There were only two main route choice ideas that I saw. Run to the left all the way down, going down and up and down and up again, or taking the right, having a continuous climb on the ridge, some flat trail, a rolling part on the side of the hill and finally a very fun and fast descend to the control. It didn’t take me long to make up my mind for the second option! I tried to push hard on the whole leg. I knew very well that this was a key passage of the race. Running down the steep slope to #17 I didn’t run precisely the correct direction and ended too much on the left. I had to stop to read carefully my map to go the control. What a shame after such a nice high speed downhill to break the flow and not nail the control. I knew Michele and Andrey were really close behind, as on the trail further above we were all together. But I didn’t seem to really care anymore. The so called “long distance” syndrome as I like to call it, had found me. What happens is that all the surroundings get dim, and there is just myself and the very next leg focused in my thoughts.
17-18
25’’
Running down in the valley I miss the beginning of the trail and get stuck in the lianas trying to get on it. Running towards the control, I walk a few steps to eat a gel, and I am anticipating with great pleasure the drinks which will be served. At the control, I meet up again with Andrey, who comes from above, having obviously chosen to come to the control from above. I spend a lot of time drinking, Andrey goes away and Michele also passes by. Somehow, it didn’t seem to affect me at all that they were passing me, those cups of Aquarius felt like the elixir for long life to me. After 3 or 4 glasses, I felt satisfied and ready to attack the last part of the course.
18-19
14’’
With my belly so full, my body didn't want to push. I had to wait a few moments until I absorbed the water to be able to get back into the cruising speed.
19-20
6’’
In the climb leaving the control I start to feel more aggressive again, I could catch up with Andrey and run a little faster. Running down to the control I let myself roll full speed.
20-21
7’’
I saw just one way of running this leg, running down to the valley, following it as much as possible and climbing back up to the control. Actually, there was another possibility, which was to climb slightly from the control and to follow the ridges. But I don’t believe that it was faster (for the women’s course it is different, because their #14 is higher up). Once I left the trail on the bottom of the valley, I could see a man running ahead. Seeing that he was fighting (fatigued) made me aware that probably not everyone felt as good as I did this far in the race. I felt motivated by how fresh I felt. Unfortunately I was not very clean in the approach to the control and went into the wrong reentrant. While running back to the control, I ran into a whole group punching the control with me. Still Andrey, Michele, but to my surprise also Marius. He was probably the person I had seen ahead.
21-22
4’’
Well, this leg was plain road running. After a short look at the controls ahead I realized the finish shoot had started. There was no more big challenge ahead, neither technical nor physical. So I started to go full speed.
22-23
0’’
Welcome to the last loop I told myself!
23-24
0’’
I decided to stay low and not to do the supplementary climb to the trail. The runability seemed quite good.
24-25
0’’
Stay clean and run fast
25-26
0’’
I decided to wait until the end of the green to have fast descent to the control. On the ridge I passed Jamie. I was concerned, as he didn’t seem alright. Later I heard he injured his knee, what a shame.
26-27
6’’
I didn’t know if the trail following the field was in the forbidden area or not. So I went around the green to the right.
27-28
6’’
Now I give really all I have. Climbing up to the control I tell myself to stay focused and to read very carefully the map to get into the right reentrant. So absorbed by my thoughts, I don’t notice that we could see the control from far away and I start to run one reentrant to far up. Andrey running clean passes me in my little mistake.
28-29
0’’
The last of my favorite Japanese controls; the type on a downhill slope, even this time with some green to make the visibility lower. Incidentally, it is also the last control. Running up to the pass I read the map and than run full speed downhill. Great to see that Andrey cannot keep up.
29-F
11’’
RUN!!! Leaving the last control and following the stripes in the forest the race passes by again in a flash. Because of the one almost 2 minute mistake at the beginning I can’t be very satisfied with my race. But besides this, it was not too bad, and passing so many people at the end is a good sign. Furthermore, Andrey wasn’t faster and I know that he is one of the fastest in the field. When I get out of the woods I notice people are suddenly jumping up and down. I realize by the frantic expressions that I am going to take a really good placement. Quite quickly after I am out of the woods Andrey zooms by me. I don’t even think about trying to keep up with him. The last 8 controls I was already going full speed.
Well, well, funny feeling to achieve a second place at a WOC. This is actually a dream which comes true. Unbelievable! Great!
The ironic thing is that it didn’t take a miracle run, but just a normal performance. And exactly this gives me a great, deep satisfaction. I know that for those championships, I have achieved a level that was higher than what I have ever been on.
Aug 26, 2005 3:08 PM
#
Opla, in the fury to get the formating right, I forgot to send you my kind regards, Marc
PS. By the way, is it possible to post my drawn course on the discussion forum? Uhm, would kind of help to see the map to find at least a little bit of sense in my course analysis.
I saw that there as been already some pictures posted before, how did you do this.
PS. By the way, is it possible to post my drawn course on the discussion forum? Uhm, would kind of help to see the map to find at least a little bit of sense in my course analysis.
I saw that there as been already some pictures posted before, how did you do this.
Aug 26, 2005 3:14 PM
#
As I know all posted pictures so far are simply clickable links to other (in most cases personal) web pages.
Aug 26, 2005 4:05 PM
#
You need to have the image hosted somewhere on the web, and then you need to insert an HTML link to the image in your post: for example: <img src="http://www.yourwebsite.com/yourimage.jpg">
If you need somewhere to host the image, just email it to me and I can put it up on TheWaterStop.
If you need somewhere to host the image, just email it to me and I can put it up on TheWaterStop.
Aug 26, 2005 4:10 PM
#
By the way Marc, woud you mind if I put this up as a news article on TheWaterStop for the Juniors to read? They don't tend to read the discussion board here.
Or you could submit it yourself if you want: http://thewaterstop.org/submit_news.html
Or you could submit it yourself if you want: http://thewaterstop.org/submit_news.html
Aug 26, 2005 4:23 PM
#
Thanks for posting it here, Marc, and WELL DONE!!!
As other champs have said (see TG's WOC '03 analysis for example), medals don't come from miracle performances, just normal runs. It just happens that your normal run is a class (or five) better than the rest of us. Chapeau bas!
As other champs have said (see TG's WOC '03 analysis for example), medals don't come from miracle performances, just normal runs. It just happens that your normal run is a class (or five) better than the rest of us. Chapeau bas!
Aug 26, 2005 5:16 PM
#
You can find a PDF with the top 3 routes through the 11th control here:
http://www.woc2005.jp/ganbare-0814-web.pdf (go to page 4).
The entire course (without routes) is here:
http://www.orienteering.com/event_report/2005/0812...
http://www.woc2005.jp/ganbare-0814-web.pdf (go to page 4).
The entire course (without routes) is here:
http://www.orienteering.com/event_report/2005/0812...
Aug 28, 2005 7:31 PM
#
And here is finally the map to the comments:
http://epsilon.verkkomestari.com/~vehkalah/copperm...
Salutations, Marc
http://epsilon.verkkomestari.com/~vehkalah/copperm...
Salutations, Marc
Aug 29, 2005 3:25 AM
#
Sorry Marc, I just got your email. I'm glad you got it up though.
This discussion thread is closed.