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