Flying Pig 2011 Cincinnati Ohio US

Flying Pig was a debut event for VO2 Orienteering Team and start of my O-season. My trip to Cincinnati began with locked keys in the car and minor problems at the US border. I was waiting for a long time to participate at this event, so I was happy to get out of Toronto city and was enjoying my travelling no matter what.

Day1
I had a great warm-up at model map around Miami University campus. From the start of my first middle course of the year, I had to take a sec to check for the best route to CP1 (left or right). I went right. Running from the top, I saw another CP, which was just 50m higher than mine. The Fool’s Day course had some tricky spots :) I had pretty clean run till CP9, when I took a straight route. I realized the mistake only when compared the splits :( Forest at area CP8-12 was really similar to the map in Ukraine- Stalker. I felt motivated to run harder, which was a main reason I did a mistake at CP14. I should go right closer to the building. The rest of the course was nice running. I finished 5th with 9sec to 4th and 29sec to 3d place. I was really happy with my race because it is my 1st middle course in few years, which I ran without major mistakes.


Day2
Long Classic- US Ultra Long Orienteering Championship

I have raced Long course not Ultra Long. I did not want to race 20k course because I had GRR 30k next weekend. My long course was 10.5k simple course with the road running route choices. It was boring to run for some time, but after mistake at CP12, I realized that this course was about a clean run and test of my concentration. I failed it. Good catch by the course setter. So from CP11, I did not realized that there is a trail under electro lines, I went left and met with horse riders and their dogs- lost some time. Passing the electro line, I was so negligent to the course, so I started to think how the forest in Cincinnati is similar to my home forest in Ukraine and ran into the parallel stream. In 2 min, I realized that I got caught. Oh, well better now than later ;) I finished 2d behind Serghei Zhyk, who is in a good physical condition and should be in the US National team this year.

Day3
Another middle course-> 5.2k-170m-21CP. It was a great day for orienteering with +14 and sun. Same as at long, I came right on my minute before the start. I ran in the pace where I really enjoyed my orienteering. I tried to push few times, but each time, I get stuck at rose bushes. The area was really interesting with lots of horse/bike trails. During the course I stayed focussed and was running clean. I finished 7th, but the feeling and enjoyment of the orienteering was priceless.


It was a great racing weekend for me and for VO2 team. We got 5 people representing the club. In best 2 out 3 races: Serghei Logvin got bronze at M20, me and Andrei Logvin finished 5th at M21 and M40, Eugene Mlynczyk and Galyna Petrenko got 6th at M40 and F21. It was a great start and lots of fun.

"Nothing Comes for free" -Spring 30k Raid

GRR 2011: "Foreigners" Nick Duca and William Hawkins

First of all I would like to say thanks to Mark Adams and GHO (Dontgetlost.com) team for such an adventure on all of the Caledon maps. I did not know that they connect so well :)

Next is the team performance. We finished second overall with only few seconds behind and it is after 3 hours and 15 min of the race. As Nick mentioned, we had a lead (~5min) for all 30k till the last kilometre, but lost it at the last route choice to the last CP.

Lastly about my performance, I started the race with the Nick's words: "Nothing comes for free"- he said them when we were planning our route choices and strategies before the race.


The start was on the line-O, where most of the people was chatting and positioning their teams. After the 1st CP, we started our regular Orienteering course. As long as routes to CP2-3-4 and 5 were really steep and icy, and my choice of shoes was not the best for it, all teams were not far away from each other. CP5 was on the top of the really steep hill. As Nick said "Nothing comes for free", I knew that after that hill we can gain advantage on the flat area and we should not waste it for nothing.

I was really slow on that icy hill, but when I heard that teams started to make jokes (about me being too died after only first 30 min), I knew that it is the moment when they are discouraged and I should push. At the same moment, I heard Nick shouting to me to tell them the "F" word and start pushing. I think I got my wings :) We ran crazy to CP6 and CP7 and got 3 min gains right there.

As I wrote on my last blog note before, my main focus for this year is psychology of the race. I think it is the key for a good orienteer to feel your-self and to know how to react in the particular situation. Our competitors got distracted and we used it.



After CP7, we had Line-O again- that’s where I started to look at the map. I want to be honest; I did not have good winter trainings and not fit yet to such 3+hour of adventure. Most of navigation was done by feet and Nick (who as a local knew few spots). Next part was Score-O and Matrix, after which we had the long run on road to the last map. I ran out of my water- the reason that I read that we will pass water station several times; I thought it will more than twice. My lesson here is to take the water when you can, but not when you ran out of it ;)


Last map- I have a good feeling that not only I was in my team, who thought that we were done, so we did not push and walked on the hills to CP17. Plus, we were slow on route choice to CP 18 and even started to chat to other half-raid teams. "Nothing comes for free" comes against us now. After running around the lake, Nick saw another team catching us, so panic started (at least for me). Before that point, I was hoping not to do any fast moves to avoid cramps b/c I was running for 5k without the water already.


"Click" moment: in a sec, our team started to rush, lost its confidence and focus on the course. At that point (in my opinion), our team was about placing not about clean navigation. We agreed before that we will run to CP 20 on left route to trail, around the lake and trail again- done. But as feet said, at that moment he could not remember about that route choice, so we ran to the right. I was struggling behind my teammates, and even though I knew we are doing a mistake, I could not do anything, but just moving one leg in front of another :( We punched last CP20 only 1 sec after competitors. We got still a chance to win, but I think misunderstanding in the way to the finish killed our chances (we were too disorganized). But really, coming strong from behind is more motivating than trying to run away after thinking you have already finished the course.

So, even thought I saw better prizes from GRR and Hammer raids in the past, I still want to thank for the lesson that "Nothing comes for free!"

I am back to blogging ;)

It is a long time since I have reported my orienteering adventure on this blog. After my injury last September, I took some time to think about my goals for short- and long- terms. I have decided to take navigation and physical out of my main focus for 2011. There are several psychological/mental barriers that stopped me from performing even better in 2010. As many professional orienteers comment that it is about a mental focus on a course, I have decided to spend some time to deal with such issues. I will focus more on mental preparation before/during/after the race rather than on technical and physical conditions.

I believe I should comment about the change of my blog. On December 2010 few great Ontario orienteers gathered together and decided to create a new orienteering club in Central Ontario based on Toronto, Aurora, Newmarket cities. We named it “VO2 Orienteering” with a slogan “Run to the Max.”




VO2 max is the maximum capacity of an individual's body to transport and use oxygen during incremental exercise, which reflects the physical fitness of the individual. The name is derived from V - volume per time, O2 - oxygen, max - maximum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VO2_max

After five out of six Winter Thomass series races, VO2 team was leading at club ranking, and even though VO2 finished second with a few points behind the club, which won it 4 years straight, our team did a great job with only few members. VO2 cooperated with Ukrainian Orienteering Club, which raised its membership to ~40 members. I will expect to see more members coming as soon as the real spring comes and orienteering season starts.

In the end, it will be interesting to see how my new focus will cooperate with a developing of a new VO2 team.
See you in the woods ;)