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.