I was in Stockholm for the week doing biz-ness … Lucky for me there was a 3 hour rogaine orienteering (running) race on Saturday so I teamed up with Daniel and Kristin of Team FJS. The three of us took it as a team training before the China Baise Outdoor Quest race, which we’re doing together in two weeks (together with Emil Dahlqvist).
Friday afternoon we practiced paddling in a really bad kayak with really bad kayak paddles, just like we’re gonna have in China. Check out this fine craft …
We had a fine Friday night filled with multisport planning for China (gear, gear and more gear…).
Saturday morning we got the maps at 10 am and had 1 hour to plan the best route to accumulate the most points. We had three hours, but if we came back 1 minute late, we’d lose 30 points; two minutes late, 60 points … Given that each of the approximately 20 controls were worth between 20 and 80 points, coming back late was a lot to risk !
But Daniel was spot-on with his orienteering. I had hoped to follow him with a copy of the map so I could practice my navigation skills behind an expert … but there were no extra maps. But it took all my energy to keep up with Daniel, who had no problems running first through the deep snow … while also reading the map ! Despite taking most of the winter off from running due to an injury, Kristin was strong and steady. We had a good race.
We ran faster than we thought we could through the frozen forest, so halfway through Daniel had to do some “on-the-fly” change of plans to maximize our points. He nailed it and we got every point that was reasonable to get and still made it back with 5 minutes to spare. We look a little dazed in this finish line shot, hey?!
We were happy to jump in the sauna after this race … cold and wet and temps around 4 degrees C. We had plenty of snow-melt ponds to run through and jump over. Usually by this time of the year the forest is open in Stockholm, but not this year !
Here’s our route — We covered ~30 km in 2 hr 55 min. (stopped the watch by accident for about 15 minutes in the middle of the race…)
http://www.movescount.com/moves/move12535560
Most of the racers chose the MTB Rogaine. Given the conditions, I’m impressed ! There were a lot of happy muddy faces crossing the finish line on bikes !
Lots of hard interval sessions on the schedule this week in prep for China, where the temps will be 25 to 30 C and the competition fierce. Might have to train in the sauna to simulate race conditions …
Train hard
Scott
