Thea Lillehov

A couple of days have gone by since returning from the EOC and it feels really good to sleep in my own bed again. Flowers, tomatoes and strawberries survieved thanks to helpful neighbours, so I can still enjoy my balcony. At least if it could stop to rain.. In Ventspils we didn't see ONE cloud for 10 days and after only a couple of hours at home of course it started to rain. Well, as long as the weather stays nice during the EURO 08, which starts on Sunday, I'll forgive the weathermakers. Not because the EURO interest me that much, but if it rains even, more fans will go by tube and that will be a nightmare, since in Vienna they often tend to heat the wagons even at mid-summer;)

But, back to EOC then. It was a very nice week, even if I did not manage to reach my goal, which was to qualify for at least one a-final. I knew it would be hard, but when you're messing up a run like I did with the long qualification, then it is impossible. But, I learned a lot from it and there were also many positive things to be glad for. So, step by step, the competition summary:

Sprint Q: good race, but just not fast enough. Some minor mistakes and bad route choice to the second last control, but I was satisfied.
Sprint B-Final: good race, felt better than in the morning, even if not running at full speed. 2nd place.
Long Q: messing up things just a bit is no fun, so I made my best to do a complete worst-of-the-year-run. Not much more to say about that, except that it really hurts to mess up your favourite race... A big thank to some key-persons in my life, which suppoerted me a lot that evening!
Long B-Final: good race, good feeling, good legs, fun. I enjoyed orienteering again, which in the end is the only important thing.
Middle Q: good race, but to careful running combined with some unnecessary mistakes and I missed out of the a-final with good margin. The mistakes were'nt big, but a fast terrain like this don't forgive you a single mistake.
Middle B-Final: having had very good legs untill now, I was feeling tired for the first time in this race. But, it was probably more a mental tiredness than physical, since I knew the important races were done. I made a 1-minute mistake to the first control and a 30"-mistake to the 6th, but for the rest it was ok orienteering. The legs were heavy and I was not able to make speed, but still I was a bit surprised how slow my time was compared to the winning time of Seline. But, I hooked that race of pretty fast, I was satiesfied with the technical part and the rest wasn't that interesting.
Men's Relay: with only two girls you can't form a relay team, so we were put in a men's team with Thomas, the youngest of the guys. He was of course running first leg, me second and Karin 3. Thomas did not have a very satiesfying race, making a huge mistake at the 2nd control. I went out on my leg much behind the last guys, but that did not matter. My goal was to run a technical good race, even if head and legs were tired after so many competitions. It was also a good opportunity for a hard long distance training. Everything went fine all the way, my legs were really good, I managed to concentrate all the way and did only minor mistakes. On the fifth control I first did not see the control because it was hidden behind a tree and after the spectator control I had to make a short stop to sort out which control was supposed to be the next one. At the second last control, where allready many runners had problems, I did a minor mistake too. But all in all I was very satiesfied with the race. Afterwards even more, since our still-going-strong-coach Agoston was 6' slower:) Best of all was that all the three guys in the first team ran really strong, so they took the 12th place (10th nation!!). Congratulations to Kerschi, Felix and Markus!

The last and longest leg was of course the EOC-banquet. Some kind of different this year, taking place at a indoor track. Of course that had to be used for a beer-relay! Our trainer said afterwards that I am good at fast running but bad at fast drinking and he might got a point;)

So, to cut a long story short:

EOC 2008

- learning a lot about fine-detailled orienteering
- a mental challenge, but that make you stronger
- eating enough meat and buck-wheat for the rest of the year. And the Italians must have suffered heavily because of the cooked-for-an-hour-pasta!
- moskitos
- very wet marshes
- latvian waitresses cansmile - on the last day
- Ventspils: beautiful city, very green, lots of parks, flowers and cows
- hard to get good coffee
- beautiful forests, beautiful beaches
- cinnamons buns
- good preparation for the WOC!

So, this week I will take it easy, taking care of regeneration, sleeping and eating. Training will consist mainly of easy running and stretching. From next week on the last preparations for the WOC starts, including the Venla-relay in Finland. I will run in Västeraas' first team, which I am very happy to do!My Tiomila-run wasn't that convincing, so I have been a bit nervous about this, but now I am looking forward to do a good job again!