WOC 2014 Long (10/07/2014)

First WOC Long. Like the sprint, the absence of preparation was clear with a very poor physical performance. Altitude didn't help, struggling with breathing for portions of the course. I think this limited my capacity, as the race did not seem 'that tough', and I could get through it at what felt like slower than training pace. 52nd placing, which I do not really have a feeling towards, given that I found out that I was running the WOC long a week before the race. Next year I will focus on WOC, and it will be my main focus for the year, but now I am just satisfied to have finished my first forest WOC race, of hopefully many to come.

S-1: Small mistake at the end of the leg where I ran to far to the right, and had to run around the depression.

1-2: Plan was to run quite straight, below the green in the open. In the beginning of the leg I ran too far to the left and had to correct, so a small mistake.

3-4: I had planned a similar leg in my limited preparation. I new I should run quite straight and then contour around the major hill, and try find the path which connects to the southern most drinks station. I was pretty good in the first part of the leg, but for some reason I couldn't 'find' the path I wanted and instead ran much straighter, up and over the major hill. This was probably a poor investment in energy, worsened further by the green after climbing the hill, and poor entry into the control.

4-11: Mostly ok, some small wobbles with my direction. This chinese guy started following me, and because I felt so shit, I couldn't drop him. He just followed me, all the way to the map change in fact (@20). Did not read his map once, I even asked him where we were and he didn't reply. Really hated that part of the race, which was further encouraged by the 2 minute start interval.

11-12 & 14-15: The other two long legs for the course. Satisfied with my route choices and executed them well.

I think for the rest of course there were no real mistakes. I had the orienteering under control, just ran so fricken slowly. A lot of lessons to take from this race and my first WOC long experience. The baseline has been set for future years now, and I have some appreciation of the difference to the top guys. Now I can begin to reduce this gap!