Swiss Night-O Champs

NOM
Pfaffenweiher 9.1km + 75m 27c
9th/11--- Mass start.

The start went well. I was running with the top girls to control number 4. Coming from the south into the control made this control pretty hard, and we all searched around in the green for 2’30”. I didn’t find the control with any other elite women, so I am not sure if they all found it before or after me. It’s hard to keep track in the dark. Anyway, I had a different forking to the next control. I managed to switch gears into orienteering alone to number 5 well, but then became over confident to number 6. I wasn’t far off, but lost 5’30” trying to relocate in the dark. Most of this mistake was due to not having my night-O shoes on yet. Later in the course, I saw the features much better and judged distance correctly, but at this point I wasn’t yet able. Leaving number 7, I came up onto the road just next to the control. For some reason I thought I was on the trail directly south of my control and dove into the woods to cut the corner to the next trail. This led me, obviously, very wrong. I managed to relocate at a trail junction, but I certainly stood there for a while trying to figure out what had gone wrong and where I could be, lost 10’ in the process.
At this point I was pretty disappointed with myself and completely unmotivated. Luckily as I was coming into control 8 (finally) I saw another DE runner, this gave me some new motivation. I stayed with her and even passed her on my way to the map exchange. Here, when I looked at the next map I thought, oh no, I have so much more. Seeing that there weren’t many maps on the wall left was also a bummer. But I should have expected that after such big mistakes.
Anyway, I kept going and noticed that I had a total different first control than the other DE runner and at this point my brain really switched on and I told myself to concentrate. I made a little mistake to the second control on this loop, but after that I finally got into a good rhythm and flow. The whole experience was saved by these last 14 controls. I am happy that I could concentrate and get through the course on my own without any more major mistakes.
Night-O is really an experience if you don’t do it very often (this was my first night-O of the year). I had to pull myself together and concentrate on a much higher level than during the day. O-ing in the day allows your ability to see far enough to check your direction and distance. At night, your compass has to become your very best friend, and estimating distance has to come from a feeling. This I find very tough, especially because running in the dark also feels different, so estimating the speed you are running is also a challenge.
I am certain that last nights race was a great training and I am happy that I made the best out of it.

Map part 1
Map part 2
Results

WRE in Neuchâtel 2.4.2006

How to loose ‘The Flow’!

Today we raced in Switzerland the first WRE of the year, which also counted as the long distance selection race for the European Orienteering Championships and also counting for the BioFarm cup (national cup... with quite a bit of prize money for Swiss conditions).
So, even if I don’t plan to race the EOC, it is easy to believe this was an important race for me, and that I wanted to do well. Oh, and another important motivation… my club organized the race!

The map and my route... Tête Plumée

I started the race well, with a few hesitation, but actually quite smooth, under control, feeling how I was pushing myself just the right amount. Yummy, I felt like today I would be able to join all the elements to do a satisfying race.

…But than came the approach to # 4. I contemplated carefully the control approach on the long running section on the road, left the trail with confidence to hit the control, slid out my magnifier not to miss any detail… and then “black out”… I didn’t get any of the features on the way to the control… I then thought: “OK, just keep the height, than you can’t miss it”. Well, thought wrong … I searched it for over 3 minutes!!! Those 3 minutes wiped away all the self confidence I had and the good mind set… on the next controls I was more running like a headless chicken, with full speed and with many emergency stops or hooks. Uh, orienteering like that really hurts ones feelings… though I had a really tough time stopping my bad habit.
It took me to jam my foot hard between two rocks on my way to #14 to pull me out of that frantic orienteering pattern I was in. It didn’t help me orienteer cleaner, but instead of my berserk mindset making it not possible to do smooth, clean, nice orienteering, it was my foot with its firing sensory nerves to my cortex, which made my brain unable to flow with the elements.

Wow, this was a hell of a fight, this race! But honestly, I am self responsible that the race turned out to be a battle. First it was bad of me to not nail #4, than it was really inexperienced of me not to snap straight back after the mistake into the same rhythm I was in before the mistake. As a result of my “hyper” running, I probably also jammed my foot.
I guess the problem of “braking a fuse” after #4 is that my heart is also orienteering, instead of only my legs and brain… which is not a bad thing, it gives me the extra power needed to make the difference, but I need to be able to control it better! Using a lasso is not a good idea; I need to let my heart free, wild and strong. But it needs to be better trained and listen to my orders.

Quintessence:
Don’t miss controls!
Shit happens, accept it, and take on the challenge to continue the race cleanly.

Results of the race here: http://www.solv.ch/cgi-bin/abfrage?type=rang&year=2006&event=3.Nat.A+Neuchatel&kat=HE