NOC Long Distance 2009

The long distance today was testing for everyone. As Rosalind said 'the terrain was demanding' and it was easy to lose map contact. In the women's event, World Champion Minna Kauppi gave Finland victory. Niamh 'had a steady race, except for one bad route choice. I wasn't running fast as this was my first race in Nordic terrain ever, so I was afraid of getting lost! I had a clean race, and now that I have a better idea of what it's like, I can't wait for the World Cup races.' An excerpt from the live GPS track of her route is shown below.

Ros tells us about her race: 'I got very confused on the way to number one but I got back on track and the race went well after that but it wasn't amazing. I used techniques of catching features and, to a lesser extent, line features and ran on my compass a lot. For the middle distance World Cup race on Tuesday I want to keep focussed the whole way on the longer legs, as number one today was clean most of the way but lost it at the end of the leg. For the record, I had porridge with jam and milk, fancy bread and butter, berries and tea for breakfast!'

Niamh's GPS trace from the butterfly loop on the women's course:
there is live online tracking on www.noc2009.fi

The men's race was won by Daniel Hubmann of Switzerland. Neil summed the men's results up by putting his head in his hands when asked about his race. For the record, he didn't cry. Neil was carrying GPS as one of the later starters. He found the terrain 'fun and fast, but then it got tough. I got tired at this point and it was harder then to keep good map contact. Technique-wise, I used my compass to control my direction, looked ahead to identify features like bare rock that I could run to, and slowed down when within 50-100m of the control. I tried to keep to areas of good visibility.' Dave finished best of the Irish men today. He tells us about his race: 'I started well and got into the map, maintaining a decent speed. Then I got too far ahead of myself and tried to run faster that I could orienteer, so I had some problems. Later in the race, my legs were dead even after taking in some food. I want to take what I learned today and apply it to the other races.' Dave learned that you don't need to read every detail, but that you do need to know where you are; and that it's hard to relocate, so don't loose map contact. Colm felt good physically, but not mentally. In his own words, 'my compass and me had a fight. I won, but the compass was right. I need to concentrate more on the map, and not be afraid to slow down and read the features more carefully. I'm disappointed as I know I can achieve better, but I'm not used to this kind of terrain.' Ruairi (pictured on the run-in) had a solid race in the M20 class.

The terrain was challenging for the whole team. The relay is to be held at the same place tomorrow, with Dave running first leg, then Ruairi and finally Neil will bring the team home. Neil and the other final leg runners will be wearing a GPS, and tracking will be online from about 10:30 Finnish time.

All the GPS tracks from today can be seen on http://www.gpsseuranta.net/eindex.php?sivu=tt&id=20090606

Below: the final loop of the men's long race showing Neil's route