WOC Middle Qualification

WOC started today with the Middle Qualification race. Kerschi, Bindi and me were running.
Right from my selection it was my wish to run Middle at WOC because I thought it would be my best chance to reach a Final.
Although chances seemed to be quite low I tried to have fun and be careful all the time in the forest today. Immediately after the start signal and the first meters I realised that the map was extremely well drawn. This rose my motivation a lot. Even if I didn't felt that well physically it looks like I had a good pace compared with my running skills.
To first control my plan was to run over the charcoal burning ground and then along the contour line to the control. But unfortunately I was a little bit too high on the hillside and had to go down about 20 meters. Next controls were good and it was possible to develop some kind of flow.
Then the green area started and I knew that I should have a clear concept for every control inside this area. So I took it safely and had no problems here.
Finally the last technically challenging area was between 10th and 14th control. There I did a small direction mistake to the 13th and destroyed my shirt completely to the 14th.
The last controls were just fast running in my opinion.
In finish I saw that I am 6th and there was someone 2 secs in front of me. In the end there were 3 guys 1,2 and 3 secs in front of me. Therefore I waited quite nervously in front of the board till the end and then Per Forsberg salvated me by announcing the finalists.
So I made it to the final as 15th of Heat A with a time of 29:10 just 2 minutes and 34 secs behind the winner.
Puh that was close but now I am very happy about it because reaching a Final was my dream goal for this WOC.
Next is Long Qualification tomorrow with Markus, Warti and me.

WOC Preparation Hungary

As part of the WOC preparation the National Team spent 4 more days in Mikolc in order to make the last technical preparations in relevant terrain.
As expected the forests became much thicker than just some months ago, which will influence all distances. We started our training camp with a control picking exercise consisting of 50 controls. The following days consited of a WOC simulation with one middle distance training on the 2nd day, followed by 1 long distance, or two sprint trainings. The last day was devoted to the relay, where we completed 3 loops of about 1,5 kilometers together with the hungarian national team.

For my part the training camp was another step towards my top shape, as my running improved every day, with an extremly good feeling on the last day. My main focus was of course on the 2 sprint trainings which started both times really well. I securely punched the first short control, made the right route choice to the longer second control... On the first sprint, a parallel mistake costed too much time to run a good time, and at the second sprint I missed the "easiest" control with almost 1 minute... Analyising the control area after the race made Wolfis and my mistake clear, as we both entered the control area at the right place, not seeing the control flag, which was about 20 meters too much to the left. As all the others dealt with this situation without losing time, we should work on our flexibility in such situations.
I will learn of my mistakes , and after some more sprint trainings here in Austria I'm feeling very confident to show a good performance in Hungary!