My OperaPortugal O'meeting
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 4:38:04 PM
Six years ago I ran my first Portugal O'meeting in Marinha Grande. It was such a nice experience... I remember that is was the first time that I ran a race under one hour and it was there that I started learning to read contours 
This year, six years later, Portugal o'meeting become one of my season's goal and I start to think to reach nice results in elite class. I was expecting nice long races but not so good middle distance because it would be very technical and a nice way to lost so many seconds! But things went on a different direccion and middle races were quite ok and long distance a complete disaster.
Day 1
It was held on a very green area a bit different than what we are used in portugal. My performance was ok, only some small mistakes in the end of the race. I didn't enjoy the map and the course was a bit boring.
Day2
Well I was feeling confident and my expectations for wre event were high! Unfortunatly I did such a bad race! Firstly I couldnt run very well with 1:15 000 scale. It's something really important that I have to improve on my orienteering, but in fact in Portugal we dont ran too much on that map scale. Besides that I think that I couldnt do an inteligent orienteering on that map. It was important to ran all the way on tracks, because the terrain was a bit dirty. I wasnt able to do it. And finally I dia two huge mistakes. First I ran from the 6th to the 8th control and forgot to punch 7th.Then when I was running to the 9th I realise that I didnt punch the 7th and so, I went back and lost so many minutes! Then I kept running my race, a bit desmotivated because of the huge mistake. On the final part of the race I lost about 9min on such a easy control..I didnt understand nothing about the area and just ran to the direction of the control..bad idea!
Day3
Another long distance and no motivation I started badly, completly unfocused and losting time in almost all the controls. Then the course went to another part of the map and I started to ran better and more regulary.
Day4
Last day of competitions and I went to the forest as a trainning. I was very desmotivated and just went running to enjoy the forest and the course. Actually I started bad because I think that the map sacale was not correct but the rest of the race was very nice, just a small mistake to the last control.I enjoy a lot this kind of terrain and during the race felt confident and relaxed. I finished 7th!
This year, six years later, Portugal o'meeting become one of my season's goal and I start to think to reach nice results in elite class. I was expecting nice long races but not so good middle distance because it would be very technical and a nice way to lost so many seconds! But things went on a different direccion and middle races were quite ok and long distance a complete disaster.
Day 1
It was held on a very green area a bit different than what we are used in portugal. My performance was ok, only some small mistakes in the end of the race. I didn't enjoy the map and the course was a bit boring.
Day2
Well I was feeling confident and my expectations for wre event were high! Unfortunatly I did such a bad race!
Firstly I couldnt run very well with 1:15 000 scale. It's something really important that I have to improve on my orienteering, but in fact in Portugal we dont ran too much on that map scale. Besides that I think that I couldnt do an inteligent orienteering on that map. It was important to ran all the way on tracks, because the terrain was a bit dirty. I wasnt able to do it. And finally I dia two huge mistakes. First I ran from the 6th to the 8th control and forgot to punch 7th.Then when I was running to the 9th I realise that I didnt punch the 7th and so, I went back and lost so many minutes! Then I kept running my race, a bit desmotivated because of the huge mistake. On the final part of the race I lost about 9min on such a easy control..I didnt understand nothing about the area and just ran to the direction of the control..bad idea!Day3
Another long distance and no motivation
I started badly, completly unfocused and losting time in almost all the controls. Then the course went to another part of the map and I started to ran better and more regulary.Day4
Last day of competitions and I went to the forest as a trainning. I was very desmotivated and just went running to enjoy the forest and the course. Actually I started bad because I think that the map sacale was not correct
but the rest of the race was very nice, just a small mistake to the last control.I enjoy a lot this kind of terrain and during the race felt confident and relaxed. I finished 7th!
