Takas day 2. Weather is perfect - sunny and hot, lovely open forest, 5,8km course. I'm a bit angry about yesterdays race so start off fast, first few controls are simple, I hit them. Midcourse I overtake few runners who started earlier, and one starts following me which annoyed me so much that I tried to speed up even more and in 3 controls I ran away from him. Final few controls and im at the finish without any big mistakes. Third time (36:17) for the day and I move up to the 10th in standings.
Takas day 3. Sprint day in a Chernobyl type of town. 3,4km course, terrain is purely urban. Yet again I made no serious mistakes apart of having trouble reading the map while running few times and had to stop to double check. Time 17:45, 4th for the day, and only russian torpedoes were ahead of me. These guys are pretty sick at running... In totals I stay in 10th position, but closed the gap by 2mins.
Takas day 4. Long course day. Rainy, cool weather, terrain mid runnability but not too bad, no swamps, no big climb. 8,4km course. I have several guys starting before and after me (2min start interval) who are close in standings so I know I cant allow them to get me so I take few first controls by choosing safe, longer routes, but trying to run fast. Mid course there is 2.5km long extremely boring leg which I tried to run straight but lost 2mins, most likely I started to get tired. On next couple of controls I took with two guys who started ahead of me so I knew it cant be too bad and started pushing the end, which had some really interesting and technical short legs. No big mistakes there, and my time 1:03:44 was 4th again, and again only russian dudes were ahead of me :) Moving up to 7th place in standings.
Takas day 5. 6.9km course. It is raining non stop for 15hours already and its still raining hard... Chasing start day. This means leader starts first, and everyone else starts depending on time difference during first 4 days. So whoever crosses the finish line first, that takes higher final place. I started 7th, 22:31 behind leader, second place is far ahead also, and I'm 7mins behind third and 3,5mins behind 4th. After me first guy was 4mins behind, so no worries about him. Knowing that I just stormed from the start and got the visual on 6th place already at the first control. Not really looking at the map I just run faster, and punched 3rd control already right next to him. On 4th control we make a small mistake, but got 5th place guy, who made big mistake, so we are running threesome. On 5th control (~2km into the course) we get 4th place guy. I start studying last few controls knowing there might be run-in battle. We all run together and mid course make big 3 min mistake in green ("thick") forest when missed open marsh. It turned out the marsh became 20m wide knee deep river with water rushing fast downhill... Should be pretty funny sight - 4 completely soaked and dirty guys rushing through endless swamps and bushes with rain pouring hard all over them... Lovely :) With 1.5km left at the spectator control one guy tries to get away by pushing into the hill, I stick to him, but two other guys break a little and are 30secs behind already. With 3 controls to go I punch the control first, but make big 30sec mistake to the 2nd last control missreading the map slightly, and other guy breaks away. I finished second of our pack. Then we found out that one russian mispunched and got disqualified, and that we overtook 3rd place starter somewhere in the course, so finally it turned out we 4 raced for 2nd place. So all in all I took 3rd. And despite I had damn good chance for second, its really nice to have moved up all the way from 19th to the medals :)
Now there is 1month summer break between competitions, so I will have time for some rest, to heal up small ankle sprains, and hopefully will train somewhat to keep the shape I'm starting to get :)
Takas day 3. Sprint day in a Chernobyl type of town. 3,4km course, terrain is purely urban. Yet again I made no serious mistakes apart of having trouble reading the map while running few times and had to stop to double check. Time 17:45, 4th for the day, and only russian torpedoes were ahead of me. These guys are pretty sick at running... In totals I stay in 10th position, but closed the gap by 2mins.
Takas day 4. Long course day. Rainy, cool weather, terrain mid runnability but not too bad, no swamps, no big climb. 8,4km course. I have several guys starting before and after me (2min start interval) who are close in standings so I know I cant allow them to get me so I take few first controls by choosing safe, longer routes, but trying to run fast. Mid course there is 2.5km long extremely boring leg which I tried to run straight but lost 2mins, most likely I started to get tired. On next couple of controls I took with two guys who started ahead of me so I knew it cant be too bad and started pushing the end, which had some really interesting and technical short legs. No big mistakes there, and my time 1:03:44 was 4th again, and again only russian dudes were ahead of me :) Moving up to 7th place in standings.
Takas day 5. 6.9km course. It is raining non stop for 15hours already and its still raining hard... Chasing start day. This means leader starts first, and everyone else starts depending on time difference during first 4 days. So whoever crosses the finish line first, that takes higher final place. I started 7th, 22:31 behind leader, second place is far ahead also, and I'm 7mins behind third and 3,5mins behind 4th. After me first guy was 4mins behind, so no worries about him. Knowing that I just stormed from the start and got the visual on 6th place already at the first control. Not really looking at the map I just run faster, and punched 3rd control already right next to him. On 4th control we make a small mistake, but got 5th place guy, who made big mistake, so we are running threesome. On 5th control (~2km into the course) we get 4th place guy. I start studying last few controls knowing there might be run-in battle. We all run together and mid course make big 3 min mistake in green ("thick") forest when missed open marsh. It turned out the marsh became 20m wide knee deep river with water rushing fast downhill... Should be pretty funny sight - 4 completely soaked and dirty guys rushing through endless swamps and bushes with rain pouring hard all over them... Lovely :) With 1.5km left at the spectator control one guy tries to get away by pushing into the hill, I stick to him, but two other guys break a little and are 30secs behind already. With 3 controls to go I punch the control first, but make big 30sec mistake to the 2nd last control missreading the map slightly, and other guy breaks away. I finished second of our pack. Then we found out that one russian mispunched and got disqualified, and that we overtook 3rd place starter somewhere in the course, so finally it turned out we 4 raced for 2nd place. So all in all I took 3rd. And despite I had damn good chance for second, its really nice to have moved up all the way from 19th to the medals :)
Now there is 1month summer break between competitions, so I will have time for some rest, to heal up small ankle sprains, and hopefully will train somewhat to keep the shape I'm starting to get :)
Newest addition to my pyre of honor
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