Sometimes you´re going for a certain goal and getting the opposite

This was quite what happened to me in the EOC long final race at Saturday in Pismenovo, Bulgaria. The longdistance was the one I´ve been aiming for at most towards this EOC 2010. After at okay performance in the middledistance I belived in my skills and my abilities to perform well in the long race.

When I got the map I took a quick check at the whole course. I saw the long leg to the 7^th and thought immediately that the route must be chosen with patience there. Beginning went nice and running felt pretty good. Towards the 6^th I looked closer at the long leg. After punching I stopped and double-checked it again. My only thoughts were either to the left or right around, never straight on. My choice to run left was made because it had the easiest approach to the flag in the end and big paths almost all the way. After half way the path turned bumpy and it was not very good to run. I started to realize this wasn´t the fastest, and it was also very far away from the line. After punching the 7^th and down in the surprisingly runnable “canyon” it came clear to me I made the wrong route-choice at the long leg. I tried to put these thoughts aside, but it wasn´t easy. Somehow you just try to push harder to gain seconds, but what happens is that the speed don´t really increase. Instead you´re burning more energy and orienteering becomes fragile.

In the butterflies I focused on taking the controls without mistakes and managed ok. After the butterflies I made a clear mistake on the 17^th when I run pass it on the right side in the slope. Definitely this mistake came out of a rush, should have run more slowly here. Towards the spectator control my legs didn´t feel so fresh anymore, I had burned the most of my energy already. The last loop, which was quite long, went okay and I didn´t make mistakes on the flags. Some route-choices weren´t the best thou, and the grass was high due to my early starting position. After finishing with the clock ticking at 2.02, I knew this was not what I was going for. Not at all.    

After analyzing the race I could have made a time at 1.50 but Daniels 1.44 I find more or less unbeatable for me. Maybe in another world…