Maria Sá

III Open de orientação do ATV- was held in Peniche last weekend (1st-2nd December)at a very nice terrain close to the beach.On 1st december it was the middle distance race. There was a lot of very good competitors because the spanish runners also came to Portugal to run this nice competition. I was looking forward to that competition but wasn't feeling ok because I was sick (bladder infection), so it was a bit painfull to run for me. However, I tryed to do my best and take the 4th place. Usually, I lost a lot of time in middle distance races on aproaching and leaving the control but besides that, I also did several mistakes, that made me lost almost 6minutes. I was not happy with my race, but always expecting better race on sunday 2nd december...


On sunday I was really focused to run a perfect race because I was really motivated and my legs were quite ok to have a nice speed on that flat terrain. So I started a bit fast than what I'm used to, but was also very focused on my orienteering. I catch Lidia Magalhães (who started 2minutes before me)on the first control and kept my pace and concentration on the course so I ran alone and left Lidia.I ran very weel until the 5th control, where I made a huge mistake loosig almost 2minutes! There Lidia catch me and we punched together the 6th and 7th control. Then we have the long leg! I pushed hard and left Lidia again. I was very focused on my running and on my orienteering, but I lost a few seconds close to the control.Besides that I did a good and the best split time. Then I kept running alone and pushing hard my pace. Then, my batteries started to going down and I started a painfull part of the race. I was really tired and have 6 controls to run!!Well, I tryed to do my best but was not so focused and started to loose time in many controls. Then I Finally reached the finish line! I did the best 2nd time, and the best portuguese time!





Congratulations to every competitiors and also to the organization that was absolutly amazing!!