WOC`10: WORLD CHAMPION! (map w/comments)
Friday 13. 22.15pm on Friday 13th of August 2010. 17 hours 28 min to the start of my first WOC middle distance final. On home ground. I have a dream of winning a medal. I know I am good enough. I know I could not be better prepared. Still (or maybe therefore) I am as nervous as I have never been before. My stomach hurts, my throat feels sore. I am lying in my bed having a peptalk with our coach Petter Thoresen. I tell him about my “bad” conditions. There is not much to say, we both know I am ready…
The smile. A lot of people have commented my smile at the start line. I have been told that when they saw the smile they knew I would perform well. That the smile and my attitude made me look confident and calm. But was it planned? Yes, the smile was planned. This race was my most important individual race this year, the one race I had been training for for a long, long time. When entering such a race you have (in my opinion) two possibilities: To be afraid of spoiling this single opportunity or to enjoy the race and the opportunity that you have been given. In my mind this choice was quite simple. I knew that if I did not manage to enjoy the race, I would not be calm enough to take the right choices during the race. If the word mistake came to my mind the most possible outcome was me doing a mistake. By “forcing” myself to smile at the start I gave myself the signal I needed: I am here to enjoy a race for which I have prepared for and dreamed of for (at least) 4 years!
The race. (You can also find this part together with my map in my map archive). My focus on the start (besides enjoying) was to perform attacking and secure orienteering from start to finish. The 1st control was an easy one. I managed to be calm and instead of rushing I had a look on the next controls and established my competition speed. Into the 2nd control I was a little insecure, but I was quite sure I was a little to the right and got
Flow
the control without loosing more than a couple of seconds. To the 4th control I was a little unsure of which routechoice was the best. I decided to go left of two reasons: to avoid some of the green areas and because this route was shorter than the right one. At first I planned to run more straight in the end of the leg (up on the top of the hill), but I changed my mind as I figured out the climb was a little to steep; our GPS analyses of the previous WOC-races told us that runners often lost time in short steep climbs (because of small cliffs, rocks and roots to small to be marked on the map – Thanks Jan!). Therefore I made a left turn into the 4th control, a good choice because of the good runability in the slope. This is possible to see on the map because of the small yellow areas which indicates that cattle/sheep have been in the area eating all undergrowth. For a second I was a little unsure into the 4th control, until I saw the control flag. This made me a little stressed and for some reason I ran 10 meters north out of the 4th control until I figured out the mistake and turned 180 degrees. With a good direction I got the 5th and 6th control without any problems. To the 7th control my original plan was to go left to avoid the steep climb, but I changed my mind and went more straight. The reason for this redecision was a feeling that a good performance straight on for me would be faster because of my physical strength in rough terrain. This was also a part of my offensive tactic and therefore important to make me feel I was in control of the situation.
Control 8 and 9 were made for TV and were therefore quite easy technically. On such controls I am often tempted to increase my speed, and thoughts about how my race has been so far and how I am placed often enters my mind. This can easily disturb the rytm of the race. By focusing on map-reading and planning my long leg I managed to stay in control of the situation and keep my good rytm. The long leg to the 10th control was also a difficult one (I felt); because of the forbidden area in the middle of the leg there were no really good options. I decided to go left to run as much as possible on tracks. The split times tell me it was a good choice. On the next short legs my focus was to be calm and take time for precise orienteering (where needed). Especially when leaving the skitracks it was important to invest time to establish a good direction. My feeling was that in this part of the course there were not much time to gain going hard, but I could “loose” the race by taking chances.
To the 14th control quite a few runners lost seconds by going to the left of the forbidden area, it was maybe one of the most decisive on the whole course. When preparing for the race I looked at the area close to the arena on the long distance map. I looked for possible ways of entering the arena and figured out that the road trough the forbidden area probably would be used. In high speed and pressure it could maybe be difficult to see this road, but as I knew about it on beforehand I had no problems finding it either on the map or in the terrain.
Arriving the arena was just amazing! The crowds` cheering were so loud that I couldn`t hear what the coaches were telling me; all I could hear Petter say was “it is a close race, 100% focus all the way to the finish!” – I knew I was in a good position, but I had no idea if I was 1st or 6th. For some seconds I left my focus on the race to let the enormous impression take my attention. I have watched a lot of championships of different sports on TV and as spectator, but I had never imagined how overwhelming it can be when thousands of people is cheering only for you. That short moment I will without doubt remember for the rest of my life!
When I got my new map at the map change my focus was back where it should be. Already on the start I knew what would be the first control after map change; the control description told the control was a pit and there were only one pit close to the arena (we knew after studies of the old map). Therefore I felt comfortable when picking up the new map. I also new it would be a physical though last loop, and I therefore i didn`t push too hard when passing the arena. 15th control I found without any problems. I pushed really hard to the 16th control because I knew this would be a physically decisive leg; time lost here would be hard to catch on the last short legs. Because of the dense forest close to the 16th control I had to stop to be sure about my attacking point and lost maybe 5 seconds there. My original plan to the 17th control was to go straight, but as I was a little unprecise on the direction in the beginning of the leg I realized the best was to touch the path and attack the control from the right. 18th control was the last tricky one. My plan was to go as straight as possible, but I got a little to the right and touched the path before I attacked the control. Nothing lost. Even though I felt confident I would hit the control it was actually quite a relief to see the control flag behind some large spruces. I knew this was the last difficult control and I had done an almost perfect technical race! But I also knew I could not leave my focus before I reached the finish line. There are a lot of
After I realized I had achieved my dream of becoming World Champion...
examples of runners who have lost their victory by missing the last control. I also knew it was a close race, every second counted. The last year I have focused on increasing my running speed downwards and I was quite sure I could gain some seconds till the second last and last control. And so I did! When I reached the last control I could hear Kjell Erik Kristiansen say something about 35 seconds to go. To be honest I didn`t know if I was fighting for the gold, silver or bronze, but I was quite sure I was sprinting for a medal. In the inrun I was lifted forward by the cheering, an amazing feeling. When passing the finish line I realized I had one the duel and a medal, but I had to ask Petter to realize my biggest dream had come true: I HAD BECOME THE WORLD CHAMPION!
Life as World Champion. The rest of the day was more or less surreal. I tried to be 100% present in every moment, tried to let all the enormous impressions catch me and stick to my heart. As the norwegian pop group Madcon sings in their song Glow: “Let`s enjoy this moment, let`s enjoy this night!” And yes, I did! I am still smiling when thinking of this fantastic day and bet I will for a long time. It is such a strong, fantastic feeling. A feeling that gives me the motivation and power to work even harder to reach my next dream: To defend my title as the World Champion on middle distance! I know it will not be an easy task, on which I was reminded last week: When I gave Thierry my congratulations on his two individual victories at MWOC his only reply was “You took the right one…”
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Vil du sponse meg, ta kontakt her.
Hei Carl,
Masse gratulerer med VM-gullet! Jeg fulgte løpet ditt på live-oppdateringene på nett, spennende! Jeg er imponert over hvordan du psykisk håndterte skaden du fikk i forkant av mesterskapet, og hvordan du åpenbart stilte til start med en fantastisk innstilling og et sylskarpt fokus.
Stå på videre, vi sees kanskje i skisporet til vinteren.
Hilsen
Johan
wicked sick! gratulerer fra sverige! Ryser när jag läser din historia. Det måste ha varit heeeelt awesome
Bra skrivet! Tackar