2 win weekend!

Well, on the weekend we had a nice OL weekend away in Lungau. Lungau is a valley in the province of Salzburg, and a truly spectacular (scenery and forest wise) place. I must say we really enjoy going there, and over the last few years this is the place where I have got my best wins!

And so it was again on the weekend. The first race was the Salzburg relay championships and here we have developed a system whereby we are able to keep the race as interesting as possible by creating teams that are quite evenly matched. This year was again no different, except that the guys who created the teams might have under estimated me :) So they decided that being as though I was the weakest OLer of them all (in the elite Cat - I normally run H35) they should put me with Warti (the strongest runner). I must admit I didn't really think this was fair to Warti but then on the other hand I knew that if I did my best we might be able to get a podium finish.

I was the start runner, and surprised myself and a few others by being the first to the first control :) Cool! After that Norbert took control and started to run away from me. I didn't see anybody else until Mani caught me up at control 5. Norbert was still just ahead, but I was getting tired, and thus I made my first big mistake. I kept pushing though and ended up 4 minutes behind after the first leg - the teams I favored were all ahead. Warti took over, and after 19 minutes came back in second place behind Robert (Norberts partner). Wolfi and Luki were at this stage just behind us in third. The question was, where was Phil?

Points to the mistakes: (1min 20s)

1x about 20s as I ran 20 to 30 m too far

2x about 20s as I got off track on the compass, about 20 s for going the wrong route

3x about 20s to relocate and then find the control

I must admit I was quite bushed. I took off after Norbert for the second leg and after he made an uncharacteristic mistake at control 5, actually catch him up again. However he started to pull away from them on, and I lost him on the way to control 6. I kept pushing and although I didn't make any mistakes, the gas was gone. Control 9 to the finish was walk / run / walk / limp / stop / breath / carry on! After anaylsing the watch data I had a max pulse of 193 and an average pulse of 183 (over 26 minutes) - this was way over the limit. Again I reached the finish behind Norbert, but this was the telling thing, this time I was only 3 minutes behind him. Sandwitched between us was Wolfi.

Points to the mistakes (1min 20s):
1x about 10s as I had climbed too high

2x about 30s due to bad route choice - should have gone straight

3x about 20s, missing the road and going back after short relocate

4x about 20s - to tired, didn't go straight


The last leg was then a nail biting experience. Lukas was on the other loop, so Norbert and I knew it would be between Robert and Warti. If Warti caught him, then it would all be over :) And so it was, Warti caught Robi at control 10 and then it was just pure running until the finish, and thus it was that the old fat slow man and the young thin fast boy won the Salzburg relay champs - cool :) Norbert and Robi were just behind (less than a minute) and Wolfi and Lukas about 3 or 4 behind. On reflection, the teams were quite even, and had Phil given it his best shot, there would have been 4 teams fighting for the gold! Excellent - well done to all.

On Sunday was the 6th Salzburg Cup, where I was allowed to run H35, although after a technical problem with the software, I wasn't sure I would be able to get a run in. However, Leo and I were able to solve the problem and I started 30 minutes late. The course was long and hard (well for me it was) 6,3 km with 280m Climb. After the relay I was feeling somewhat empty. In the end I tried to keep it slower but constant, and was able to keep this pace until the end. A few small mistakes, but some really good route choices. I was able to run the fastest time in the H35, just piping Florian by 3 minutes. It seems that he gets stronger and stronger. However, all the elites where ahead of me.

Points to the mistakes (3 min 10 s):
1x about 30s as very tired after "sprinting to the start" - small control circle mistake

2x about 10s came down to far west, otherwise excellent route

3x about 40s as you can see the map has no north lines, small compass error and then went right instead of left

4x about 90s twisted twice, once while crossing the river, two small map reading mistakes

5x about 20s missed the pit on the way up, had to come back for it


I felt my route choice 1-2 and 4 -5 could not have been better. All in all an OK race without any major errors or mistakes - I was happy!

And that was the weekend - sorry no photo's, didn't take any. I'll post something on the other blog later this week,
Richard.

P.S: You can find the results on the SOLV website!