National Swiss event, March 19th

March 19th, Swiss National race in Winterthur

Marc writes: Yesterday the swiss runners met in Winterthur for the 1st big orienteering event of the new season. The terrain was relatively fast, because the vegetation has not recovered yet from our long winter… actually, it was still kind of winter, as about 80% of the course was in snow, but there was never more than 10cm at the worst places.

Sandra is soon also going to post her impression of the race, but unlike me, she had to go to work this morning... so for the womens results and map you have to wait a little longer.

Men's Results:
1. Daniel Hubmann 83 Eschlikon TG OL Regio Wil 1:13:19
2. Matthias Merz 84 Beinwil am See OLG Rymenzburg 1:16:36
3. Marc Lauenstein 80 Cormondrèche CO Chenau 1:16:43
1. 11.05(20), time loss 1.25 min.sec
2. 2.29 (2), time loss 0.01 sec
3. 2.18 (2), time loss 0.01
4. 1.57 (1), time loss 0.00
5. 2.03 (1), time loss 0.00
6. 2.05 (5), time loss 0.05
7. 1.47 (6), time loss 0.04
8. 2.00 (19),time loss 0.15
9. 1.55 (23),time loss 0.21
10. 1.57 (1), time loss 0.00
11. 2.18 (4), time loss 0.05
12. 2.03 (7), time loss 0.16
13. 3.44 (8), time loss 0.26
14. 1.57 (9), time loss 0.10
15. 3.04 (3), time loss 0.04
16. 7.53 (2), time loss 0.06
17. 1.52 (2), time loss 0.05
18. 2.34 (18),time loss 1.07
19. 1.17 (2), time loss 0.04
20. 5.34 (7), time loss 0.20
21. 0.50 (16),time loss 0.12
22. 2.16 (4), time loss 0.10
23. 5.25 (18),time loss 0.31
24. 2.40 (4), time loss 0.06
25. 2.11 (3), time loss 0.06
26. 0.48 (3), time loss 0.02
f. 0.31 (5), time loss 0.03

4. Baptiste Rollier 82 Valangin CO Chenau 1:17:07
5. Fabian Hertner 85 Pratteln OLV Baselland 1:17:13
6. Benno Schuler 82 Oberarth OLG Goldau 1:17:23
7. Thomas Hodel 72 Horboden CO Chenau 1:18:25
8. Andreas Rüedlinger 85 Bülach OLK Rafzerfeld 1:19:08
9. Andreas Müller 80 Biel OLG Säuliamt 1:19:29
10. David Schneider 81 Wil SG OL Regio Wil 1:19:30
11. Matthias Müller 82 Oberwil-Lieli bussola ok 1:19:50
12. Felix Bentz 79 Uerikon OLG Stäfa 1:19:55
13. Dominik Koch 81 Eptingen OLV Baselland 1:20:32
14. Christian Ott 80 Auenstein OLK Argus 1:20:38
15. Urs Müller 76 Freidorf TG OLR Amriswil 1:20:49

Source (with everybody's splits time): here

Map (click on it to enlarge it):

My analysis:

Start-1
To the first control I made already my biggest mistake… a shameful mistake. I was running up the slope trying to push hard, but also not yet totally focused… maybe because I was quite in a rush getting to the start (I underestimated the time to run the 3 km to the start, also an elementary mistake), but getting quickly into the map is a common problem of mine. Anyway, what happened is that while running up the slope I had mistaken the top road where I wanted to go on with the smaller road just above control #10. I followed this wrong trail until the right turn… I was totally in shock to realize I was somewhere totally different than where I thought I was. Of course I was quite annoyed to start the race in such a bad manner, and actually, this mistake left behind a bad after taste for the whole race.
Time loss: besides a good feeling I also lost 1min25
Take home message: 1. Plan more time going to my start
2. Be tough on myself in the beginning of the race to read everything, force myself to find the focuse and this way avoid such lapse of concentration.


Despite the uncomfortable situation to have to start the race with a mortgage, I did ok the following controls.

8-9
I left #8 without a concept how to nail the next control, and I wasn’t careful enough to find my exact position while moving along. So I rushed in the control region 9 without an attackpoint… by the time I relocated myself I had lost several valuable seconds.
Time loss: 21sec
Take home message: Always have a concept on how to nail the next control. Here the concept should have been to do fine orienteering from the beginning of the leg.

12-13.
I decided on a quite radical route... climbing straight to the big road and making a big detour. Climbing only to the trail, than climbing up gradually, and even straightening the angles of the road (running through the flatter valley) was faster.
Time loss: 26 sec

19-20
Not following the trails on the middle third of the leg was a bad idea, especially because of the snow.
Actually I decided to cut through the forest really spontaneously at the moment where I left the road, letting my gutt feeling make the decision instead of my head.
Time loss: 20 sec
Take home message: Route choices ought to be made by the head, and not the stomach…

22-23
Similar to 19-20, I didn’t make up my mind for a route I would go for. I just told myself “yeah, yeah, go ahead as fast as you can, you will find a quick way”. For several reasons this is a very bad attitude: 1.You can’t run with a flow, because you always have to think about the micro route choices 2.You don’t run the fasted route choice, because you haven’t looked at the whole picture.
Here I should have taken a route more to the left in the first half of the leg.
Time loss: 31 sec
Take home message: Again: 1.Think 2.Run


So I did several mistakes in this run. Mainly they were stupid ones, where I didn’t run enough with care. It is a mental thing to enjoy so much what you are doing, that all your senses are only focused on nailing the next control.