It all started with a speed up Copenhagen tour. (All city in 5 hours. A boat tour included.)
O-Ringen Academy; Best people that you can spend a wonderful orienteering week together. Academy is like the best team ever, even though you have just met with most of the people. It's a small step (not just one step, but it's just the way that saying goes..) for you, but a big one for developing the country you're willing to. O-Ringen is alone a life changing event, for an orienteer; especially who's coming from a small country in sense of orienteering, but combined with Academy experience, it's probably a dream come true for anyone.
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| Thank you so much to you all, for the unbelievable 10 days. :) |
I'm not going into the details of what happened in Academy, it's not a big secret, but I like to keep somethings to myself. :P (Just kidding, it's a little long story to mention every detail in a blog. And every detail is important, so it's not possible to pick up the important ones.)
What about O-Ringen itself?
You should sometimes listen to your instincts. Especially if there's someone else, who also tells you to think about it one more time. My instincts were screaming crazily that, D21L was such a bad idea, without training and not a single map in my hand for months. But I some how manage to make myself believe that, I can manage a 8,5 course, over 4 days. My points were;
1- I've already finished a L course in O-Ringen (D20L 2012), and it was 2 years ago, I'm so much better than that now. (I'm not, not without proper training.)
2- There're 2 days of rest after the second day. (That's not even something you can use to convince yourself to such craziness, if you're clever enough.)
What happened is; I've quieted the course on second day, and change my category to a lot more easier one (Open 5) for the last two stages. I can't say that the only reason behind this decision was that, I was too tired, or not thinking that capable of doing it. I was already prepared to be running 3 hours courses. Being tired is not even an excuse, if you're ready for that. What I wasn't expecting was the wounds on my ankles, after first stage. (Do not even consider using athletic taping, without under-wrap. Don't do it at all, you'll better of without it.) I was too tired of the pain, when I arrived at the 6th control, I decided to cut the course a little, then I couldn't found any meaning in going on, and decided to quit. End of the story. I regret somehow, but even now I know that, I wouldn't be able to continue. It was hurting to much to even let me think about the map for a brief second.
After that it was easier to move to a different category, I wouldn't be qualified for overall anyways, so I choose a lot more simpler one. Which was kind of fun actually. Even though it was a lot more easier technically, and also a lot less demanding physically, I managed to make some quite funny mistake. I know no limits, when it comes to dreaming throughout the course.
I've my lesson taken;
1- It's ok to not to choose the hardest option you can take.
2- The stuff that you're thinking would be too easy, may actually not be.
3- Stop summarizing the course all along the race, you got plenty of time for that, after the race. (It's the reason for my mistakes almost 99% of the time.)
What about JWOC 2012?
It's been over 2 years, since I've been in JWOC. Even though it's a long time, every time I think about it, my motivation drops, I feel like everything is falling apart, my heart is almost in pieces, and I'm feeling like I won't be able to breath once more. Some may think that I'm exaggerating, but I'm really not. I'm keeping all of my maps in files. I've been avoiding that part of the file for 2 years. I really do regret all of those races. It was a terrible part of my life. I don't know why it happened, or how, and with all of these experiences in hand, I still can't see how could I change it, when I just felt that it wasn't write. The last part was the part that pushed me to open up the file once more, check mistakes, see what went wrong, try to diagnose it. And I did it today. I've opened up the file once more, found split times from internet, checked the courses, checked my own route choices, tried to remember what went wrong, how did it felt like, what I was thinking. Most of my mistakes, I can still remember them, I can still see them in front of my eyes. I still don't have an answer for all that questions, but at least now I can actually visit them, to correct, to make sure they won't happen again, as I should do years ago.
