5th at European Universities Orienteering Championship
It was so close I would not take part in the European Univeristies Orienteering Champinship. And it resulted in my best individual result in orienteering and one of the best orienteering events ever!
Some 300 days to go
The 1st EUOC will be held in the Czech Republic, Olomouc! Sounds great to me to race in my hometown. The goal for 2019 has been set.
Some 200 days to go
One of the rules to participate at EUOC is that there must be minimum of two athletes from one university. As I’m the only one, I can’t participate at EUOC. Sad face.
Some 60 days to go
Rules has changed. It is enough if only one university representative takes part in EUOC. I can compete and represent my uni - the Mendel University in Brno!!
5 days to go
The last hard training with Terez Janošíková done. Shape is on, we can't wait the championship to begin.
4 days to go
Plan from coach says „some longer roller ski training, easy speed“. I plan to do about 2hours. After cca 45min my heels start to hurt. Could there be blisters? Nooo, not accepted. I’m not made of suger, I will survive at least 1hour and 45min of skiing. I did survive. But when i took boots off, guess what the result was...
...5cm big blisters all over both heels! Johano, gratuluj si. Forma jako vyšitá!
The race against time begins.
3 days to go
Every single step (even without shoes) is so painful. I spend the day in bed.
2days to go
Blisters are obviously not enough. Sharp back pain has arrived.
1day to go
Walking without shoes is finally OK. But I am supposed to run prolog sprint tomorrow. And flip flops don’t seem to be the best running shoes. I give a try to put running shoes on. Failed. I put blister plasters on. Failed. I make shoes as loose as possible. Failed.I try another shoes. Failed. I take insoles off. Passed!!!! It hurts to wear shoes but endorphins from being able to run exceed the pain. If my back doesn't get much worse, I will be able to run prolog tomorrow. Happy face is back!
Day Zero - Prolog sprint
Back is good and I jump in the bus to Prostějov. What a nice surprise to see so many familiar faces. This is gonna be a very good week!
The prolog sprint went over expectations. Also my speed and effort were probably slightly higher than planned. I just felt super good!
And it results in 2nd place!
Day 1 – model middle and opening ceremony
Being able to wear sprint shoes and run in a town did not necessary mean running in forest hills works the same well. While others practiced how to navigate in terrain of Cechy pod Kosirem, I practiced how to run in order to limit the pain from blisters.
The event was officially open in the evening. Me and other ski-orienteers were honoured to carry the EUSA flag.
Day 2 – sprint qualification and final
When my alarm rings I feel like having a flu. I am sweating like I slept in sauna, I feel sorethroat and I am totally done. This is not exactly how I expected the day D to be. I try to drink a lot, limit the use of energy to minimum and believe that I will somehow get better by afternoon's final. I am more than happy that everybody makes it to the final from qualification because I don't feel like I could run fast this morning.
Qualification went good. I avoided any mistake and despite running slow I got a pretty good starting position for the final. Then I took a nap, the only thing I could do to get better for final.
And it worked. Finally, I don’t feel like a walking zombie. But I have to face one more challenge. The heat. It is same hot for everyone, but I am aware my performances are usually really poor when the "ovan" is on. I put so much effort to keep my body cold.
The effort pays off. I got in a perfect flow for the race, did no mistake performance and managed to give it all out. I crossed the fnish line on 2nd place in the finnish just one second ahead of Deborah from Switzerland! Thank you all, who were there to cheer for me at last metres of the race!
More and more runners coming to the finnish. I am surprised many favourites end behind me. It looks like I could be in TOP10, my goal for this championship.
Some minutes later, there is only the last runner missing – Terez Janošíková. I am currently at 4th position. Pitch me if I’m dreaming. Will it be really TOP6 result for me?!!? Terez is coming to the finnish and she’s going to win this!!!!! Which means I am 5th today!!!!!
In addition, our clubmate from IFK Mora, Flo Attinger, takes silver medal! What a day for Mora!
Day 3 – middle
Overmotivated and with zero respect to the "home" terrain I jumped in the middle distance race. What a begginer's attitude! A HUUUUUUUUUUUUGE mistake to the first control (8min loss) makes the possible fight for a medal to be over. It was really frustrating to be four times about 10metres far from the control but not to see it. It was very hard to persuade myself to start over and run as this fail hadn't happened but inspired by Denča Kosová I put effort in it. My performance was not any great one, but it was fun to chase girls who started behind me. I was clearly last from all girls at first control and I chased down 34positions and ended at 24th place in overall.
Congratulation to Terez for her second gold and super strong performance! But the biggest surprise of today is Petr Horvát who vypálil rybník to all favourits and won the mens' race! Impressive and big congrats! Legs were getting soar and Swiss guys came with a great idea - making leg massage for eachother. A high level of creativity and improvization has been recognized - we were doing massages in the dormitory corridor laying on the bed mattress which was on the table. In order to strenghten international friendships we hanged out in the evening eating ice cream (without spoons) and some junky food. Some of us were working on tactic for the last race, some were learning foreign words, some shared a word or two about life in their country. It was really lovely atmosphere and this friendly attitude is something I really love about the orienteering community.
Day 4 – sprint relay
With fresh legs from a massage and good tactic preparation from the international meeting I was ready for the last EUOC race - sprint relay. As I was the only representative from the Mendel Unviersity in Brno I could not be included in official results and got a random relay partner. It was really nice to team up with Kitti (from Hungary, living in Germany, studying in Austria and speaking some Czech!!).
I got to run first and third leg which gave me an opportunity to practice something I don't do during relays - lead the starting group. It was a good experience but Katrin from Switzerland was faster and took over the lead. I did some minor mistakes at both legs but generally, I was satisfied with my performances. It was really cool to race in the centre of Olomouc, my hometown. And big thanks to organizers who made really good courses for the sprint relay.
And who won? It was tight but Terez made the gold hattrick as she won the mixed class together with Marek Schuster. So happy for her success (which made it much easier to persuade her to stay for the final party)! And Alča and Pítra won silver in women class, jupíjou!! Despite each of us Czechs represented a different university, we sticked together as a team. A team with a good relations, atmosphere and a honest support of eachother.
I think I can say on behalf of all athletes a GREAT JOB to all organizers. It has been the first European Universities Orienteering Championship and it has set a very high level for upcoming years.
I had friends in the organizing committee and they worked almost 24/7 to make the event as awesome as it was. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR PUTTING YOUR ENERGY IN, WE HAVE REALLY APPRECIATED IT! By this moment the official EUOC event was over. But some (most) of us did not have enough of orienteering. So why not to organize one more race ourself? Suit up, get some non-alcoholic drink and run!
Czech TV made a document about the European Champ which can be watched here
It was so enjoyable week with so great people from all over Europe. Despite being deadly tired, we did some fun things together until the departure of last athletes. Once more, thanks everyone who made this first EUOC so awesome - organizers, athletes, my university and supporting friends from Olomouc.
Happy end :)
