Lost and won silver medals
Wednesday, 24. September 2008, 21:11:37
You can win and loose medals at the same time, it is not even very difficult. You just need to make a "minor" mistake of more than 5 minutes and then you end up with a bronze instead of a silver medal.. Tja, that's how the Austrian relay championship last weekend ended for our team. But, before that, Uschi and Jutta delivered very solid races, sending me out in second position. The first seven controls made a lot of fun, hearing loud chearing from the finish area and later on enjoying the nice mountain-like area of the Postalm. Then the big bang came, I was a bit too lazy with the compass from 7-8 and came too far to the left. I managed to come back into the right area again pretty fast, but I just could not find the control. I even went on to the 9th control and back again before I found it. I saw Ursi, which went out in the third position passing me, which of course was not very funny. The bigger the surprise was when I met her again at the 12th control.. From the 8th control back to the finish I tried to keep as high a speed a possible, but in the end it was not enough - with only some seconds margin. Lost on the run-in so to say.
But, we made a medal and are of course happy for that! Also it was a nice competition, the area is just beautiful! Maybe one of the most fascinating areas this season. And since the snow very friendly decided to stay soem 200m higher up, it wasn't too cold either;) But, there were some things to be questioned... The courses were way to short - only a bit more than 3k! The fastest time was 26', that's not really relay-times. It would be interessting to know the reason for this. Also, the run-in was pretty dangerous..
When I woke up Sunday morning, I was really looking forward to the long distance championship. During the relay I had really good legs but since I had pretty hard trainings the last week, I was a bit unsure how my legs would react to the long distance. Indeed, climbing up from 1-2 control did not feel very good, but after that everything was fine. We had a nice course, without surprises, but in a really beautiful area. It was great fun to run through the nice forrest and over the beautiful open areas. Technically it was a more or less clean run, only on the way to the 10th control I lost time, since I ran too far around. In the end I knew it was a good race, but I also had the feeling that the speed had not been high enough. Maybe I did not dare to push hard enough? It was a relief to hear the speaker say I would for sure get a medal and I tried to speed up a bit more for the last 3 controls, even if my legs weren't so happy with that move;).
I was satisfied with the race when I finished with a new best time, but also pretty sure that Ursi would be faster. In the end she was - even with a sprained ankle! - but I am still very happy with the silver medal. Long distance is my absolut favourite and to make a good race at a long distance always produce a big smile on my face:).
But, we made a medal and are of course happy for that! Also it was a nice competition, the area is just beautiful! Maybe one of the most fascinating areas this season. And since the snow very friendly decided to stay soem 200m higher up, it wasn't too cold either;) But, there were some things to be questioned... The courses were way to short - only a bit more than 3k! The fastest time was 26', that's not really relay-times. It would be interessting to know the reason for this. Also, the run-in was pretty dangerous..
When I woke up Sunday morning, I was really looking forward to the long distance championship. During the relay I had really good legs but since I had pretty hard trainings the last week, I was a bit unsure how my legs would react to the long distance. Indeed, climbing up from 1-2 control did not feel very good, but after that everything was fine. We had a nice course, without surprises, but in a really beautiful area. It was great fun to run through the nice forrest and over the beautiful open areas. Technically it was a more or less clean run, only on the way to the 10th control I lost time, since I ran too far around. In the end I knew it was a good race, but I also had the feeling that the speed had not been high enough. Maybe I did not dare to push hard enough? It was a relief to hear the speaker say I would for sure get a medal and I tried to speed up a bit more for the last 3 controls, even if my legs weren't so happy with that move;).
I was satisfied with the race when I finished with a new best time, but also pretty sure that Ursi would be faster. In the end she was - even with a sprained ankle! - but I am still very happy with the silver medal. Long distance is my absolut favourite and to make a good race at a long distance always produce a big smile on my face:).
WIDGETIZE