Bohu & Robert & kids…

another reminder how the time passes us quickly…

5 years old blondie

3 girls...

DERBY VLI-TJN-SNS

again as last year a special and “very prestigious” race on the old maps around Liberec/Jablonec (this year 1979-1998), this year’s edition was spiced up after previous night Mr. Horáček’s varpajaiset. To punish myself even more I forced myself to run all the way, even the hills I would normally prefer to walk. Victory as last year, but absolutely flat out in the end… results

Anyway I really like this old fashion orienteering, when every control is a some kind of  “expedition” and it is never clear where the post in fact is… The terrain was an absolute paradise and it is a shame that the O races in CZE are seldom held in such beauties… yes it would be too demanding and it is “better” to force us to run in the bushes full of nettles and other shit…

HROB 2011

after 2.5hrs absolutely, totally empty, the legs simply said NO, although the head could/would love to go on… The remaining 1.5hr was a nightmare, hanging by a grim death on Vegan’s back, felt really sorry for him. Of course dropping from the lead down to rock bottom… results and splits No way I could start the following day…
HROB normally, in Czech O terms, means Mountain orienteering, but it is also a Czech word for a grave. Fits perfectly…

Our lovely kids tend to surprise us every day, either way, bad or good (I guess every parents would agree). Yesterday was one of those days when they even astonished us…
3hrs trip up to Paličník from Bílý Potok, climbing approx. 1km/400m climb. including “via ferrata” was even too hard for some of the parents… There was no argument about the ice cream or candies after that

map

via ferrata

Paličník conquered!

Jizerka

monkeys

Me on Friday, T4P (Tour de 4 pasy), col de Krizany, col de Vyprez, col de Rasovka, col de Zaskali. The last race this season and finished with a style, victory, oh yeah! route and results
And lastly another season is over, the end of the story! Ridden, run and skied more than 13.000km, which is perhaps more than I have driven by a car (some green guys would love me for that…). More than 640hrs of training, yes it’s possible, but needs some sacrifices, less sleep in my case
3 crashes (only?), one rather big one, the other 2 just a minor ones… not so much orienteering (2 races). BUT most importantly no injuries, feels soooo great! So all in all rather an OK season I would say.

Again, as always, as usual, so much have happened in the past weeks. I don’t even remember all of it. Some o-races, a bike race, World Cup in O, Tenerife, 5BV etc. But I guess one event stands high above the others, the World Cup in orienteering. Perhaps not in away one might see it, yes it was a great O-event, successful in fact, but in a way I personally see it. I see it as we orienteers are CRAZY, even stupid one might say, ENTHUSIASTIC, STUBBORN people.

Imagine, one day (approximately) three years prior the races, some people decided that it would be a splendid idea to organize a World Cup race on a home soil. Which means to find some crazy bunch of people (CBoP), who would be stupid enough to agree, bow down and say: “Yes, what a fucking great idea!”

And so the CBoP starts the preparation (either during the free time or even better during the working hours). The time goes by, in fact it flies, and before you know the races are just in a month time. By this time, the CBoP realizes, that it’s impossible to organize such a big event in such a small number of people and starts, finally, redistributing the enormous workload among the club members (before that most of them had no clue or some, that there will be some races held in “their” forest and organized by the club they happen to be members).

Now, there is no free time for the CBoP, they pretend at work to be working, in fact they work like hell (funny how many real hours we really spend working for the company which do pay us for the work we are supposed to do), have so many phone calls, which before that, they haven’t got any or a few. Back at home, back to the PC, phone calls or heading into the forest.

Time flies even faster and THE week is here, no turning back, everything works somehow by its own nature (controlled or uncontrolled). More phone calls, printers, PCs and some members of CBoP “crashing”, unexpected, of course obligatory, schooling at work or some other out of blue tasks (yes, we didn’t give a damn for the past month so each task at work seems to out of blue these days). And the Day is here, it’s not Saturday (the 1st race day) of course, but Thursday, teams are arriving. The CBoP takes the days off from work (it really couldn’t be done otherwise), and starts the final, final preps. Tents, fences, corridors, Finish, Start, Prestart, Parking, toilets, cables, showers, restaurants, security, controls, flags, Si, all the printing, IT and everything which goes with it (A LOT!), etc. The CBoP is on a verge of collapsing, the rest doesn’t know much what to do since they haven’t been told, so they do as usual, improvising like during every normal race.

SUNDAY afternoon at last! What took years to prepare is over, within two hours, there is no start, finish area, the TV is gone, people are gone, only memories… On Monday for most of the CBoP the alarm rings and back to work, to normal live… For some, unfortunately, there’s still a lot to do, either to return borrowed stuff, which means with no motivation driving around the city loading/unloading/thanking/moving on/unloading/thanking/ etc. or the bills, invoices, money, blablabla…

On the contrary, imagine, you are organizing some particular races at some particular time (same as in orienteering so far), BUT there is only one work,  you don’t have to pretend working at work, you do what you should do, you get even paid for it. There’s even a normal life, meaning a spare time, hobbies, etc. Yes there’s pretty goddamned stress in the final week (same in orienteering), but still you have time to do the job. You know that all the suppliers or other people involved (only for the races) are professionals, who do not improvise they do it by routine. Everything, of course almost everything, simply works as it should…  Sounds boring? Well, not for me…

So once again we should be thanking all the Gods who stood behind us, that nothing, really nothing went wrong (as normal there were some flaws, but minor ones). We, in fact, were all professionals for that particular time.

And what sport am I talking about? Cross Country Skiing! And why it is possible in XC Skiing but not in Orienteering? Because the FIS unlike the IOF has money! And why do they have money? Because the XC is a TV sport whereas the O is (at the moment) NOT-a-TV sport. Well one could argue now after a great TV production in Liberec, but that’s just a drop in the ocean… So if the IOF wants to be a TV sport, they should rather think hard, how to achieve it, instead of firing the guns first and thinking about the consequences next… I might be getting too political here, but the recent changes/suggestions are absolutely crazy and will never achieve the desired goals. I simply don’t like the IOF as a governing body of “our” sport, their lack of their own work is striking, they basically do live only from the fees they charge the World Cup/World Champs organizers, and believe me, they are sky high!!!
I remember some years back, when the IOF came up with a stunning idea of the national quotas, so many discussions and protests followed. Do any of you still remember it? Honestly no one gives a flying fuck about some national quotas these days, who would want to run the NORT or the POST-FINANCE-MY-ASS-CROSS-COUNTRY-RUNNING, no one except the few “rich” nations. We were happy to welcome any nations by any numbers, the more the better (more income, and so more money stays in the organizers pocket).

Here’s a good example, the difference between the O and XC:

Orienteering:
Thursday in Vesec approx. 7PM
Robert (me), Lukas one the guys behind all the “data process” (start lists, Si, TV graphics, etc.)
R: Hi, I’ll soon be heading home, where are you?
L.: Aaah, still at work, should be leaving soon, about 11PM in Liberec.
R: OK, I’ll leave one of the doors open, find a place to sleep you know where, see you tomorrow.
L: OK, no problem!
1AM a phone call, fast asleep of course!
L: Hi Robert, sorry to wake you up, but all the doors seems to be locked…
R: Aaaah, sorry mate, probably the house keeper locked them when leaving home (shouldn’t have done it BTW).
L: OK, we’ve got a tent, we’ll be OK, no probs, good night!
R: OK, thanks! CU later…
and what the guys need from us organizers during the day, a constant supply of a beer and some snacks would perhaps do…

XC
how it usually works on Thursdays in Vesec with the Swiss Timing, the company paid by the FIS to provide all the “data process” (start lists, split times, TV graphics, etc.) usually represented by Stefan. 3-4 star hotels, 2-3 hot meals a day is a normal standard…
R: Hi Stefan!
S: Hi Robert!
R: Long way here again, eh?
S: Yes, tired, Robert we need 3 volunteers to help us unload the car, then we need a skidoo and another 3 volunteers to help us fix the cables, where are the electricity sockets, where is our office…
R: Yes, yes, as usual…
S: OK, thanks! Then we need everyday a skidoo by 8 in the morning only for us for approx. 2 hrs, and 2-3 volunteers along.
R: Roger that!
For the the dismount the same way, of course… You don’t feel like being order, you are order, and should do as you are told…

PS: for Bohdana who doesn’t understand what I wanted to say: nowadays the organizing big O-event doesn’t mean to make a map/course and put the controls into the forest, that’s it the end of the story. It involves a lot of other difficult tasks which the organizer must do and have basically nothing in common with orienteering itself. And it’s a pity that the IOF is unable to see it (or perhaps they see it, but do as they do not). They are incapable of find big sponsors, which they would then pay the IOF and so the organizers as well via the marketing money (meaning TV rights) .

If the IOF wants really to become a TV-friendly sport (which I’m not so keen of) they should NOT “invent” new race formats, which some day might perhaps be TV-friendly, BUT to work on the current formats, learn race by race and eventually become a TV-friendly sport. So easy

Well normally I hate Guidelines, whichever, but here I would like see some organizers-TV-production-Guideline issued by the IOF… Amen!

doing the job, courtesy of Kade

doing the job

doing the job

2009 XC skiing

orienteering 2011, courtesy of Kade

off to the sky soon

aaaaah

My Teide, spectacular views, eh

camera attached and making pictures all the time like the Japs do...

my precious...

2009

2011

2009

2011

And lastly, I participated last weekend in should-be-a-most-challenging-mountain-marathon in Czech, 5BV. The route consists of 5 hills, which are unknown and revealed one by one. The expectations were pretty high, since the race was held in “my” mountains (Beskydy). But Dano (my teammate) warned me beforehand, don’t expect anything challenging in a way of orienteering, it will be as always, following the marked-tourist routes. Yes, unfortunately he was right… Boring route, did it several times already (in parts of course), no route choices, 15km of asphalt (we are in the mountains FFS!!!), and the best/worst of it: the 5th hill, to be correct the route from the 4th to the 5th was just a same as from the start towards the 1st (how dumb the course setter must be!!!). The only “thrilling” part of the race was the weather (snowing, around 0C and foggy). No more for sure! results and the route

I think I don’t have any more mental power to dwell on this particular race. In short, thanks to a stray dog I ended up rather shaken on the asphalt, “normal” road rash (somehow not bothered anymore), but unfortunately the RIGHT wrist pretty bruised. The bike needs some fixing, of course… results
The dog has in fact an owner, does run away all the time as the local people said. But as it appears, it was actually all my fault riding at that particular time a bike on that particular road, where normally the dog takes its stroll every now and then… sue the bastard!

courtesy of mAk

On the O part of our family live, Bohu run here normal standard @Pěkné prázdniny, see the results. Anna & Erik are both in the kinder garden now (time indeed flies). The Summer is gone for good, cold and dark mornings are back (which I really appreciate while biking to work), and only 23 days left to OWC in Liberec (which we both happen to be a part of)…

WOC: (should be) the  most challenging race of the year, one could assume…

from WoO
Today’s terrain was in many ways similar to the extreme terrain people have been training on ahead of the championships – but the courses were made in such a way that it was possible to run more than 60-70% of the course on paths and tracks.

- This is a guideline given for the qualification races in the World Championships, one of the organizers told when asked about the course layout. – The qualification courses must be made in a way that ensures that all the runners on a lower level also get through.

GUIDELINE my ass!!!

I prefer to push 100%, empty myself totally and finish 4th, instead of racing “tactically” not changing or only when it would be really ridiculous if not to, and win in the end…
Fighting with the heat, the cramps, lack of liquids and some “real”-cyclists-wankers… Rather tired in the end, back stiff but could walk “normally” this time…
After cold and rainy month +30C oh yeah! results and the route

If  August won’t spoil it we will have quite nice and long Autumn… Yes, weather sucks big time, especially if you are on the vacation in the tent on the open field and on top of the windy ridge Advanta Cup, what an experience… results

Summer begins!?

which place is the best...

the best place is mine...

Sid the Sloth

One of the sunny days in July, and of course off to Doksy…

Master & Commander

cheeeers!

hmmmmm

The dream has come through, dinosaurs…

Jurassic park

Jurassic park II

Beskyd Bike, OMG what a race!!!
The tempo in the beginning was killing! Wonder why, 180km ahead and racing like the world is coming to an end… Reaching the hill at last (after 2hrs, avg 38km/hr), and plenty of guys already cooked, perhaps too fast tempo in the previous 2hrs, hmmmm??? Down before Solan (90km) the lower back started to hurt and it went from bad to worse all the way to the finish (barely got of the bike)

“Hit the wall real hard, gone through it and got so far that couldn’t even see it”. Recovery time a nightmare!
results and route

totally fucked up...

Our rainy vacation continues, two days without the rain, well we got caught eventually… and so traveled south to Slovenia…

run Forest run!

Cervena Lhota

Being almost by the Adriatic coast, one would expect  a warm weather, sunshine, perhaps even some bathing… well not this year though… rain, about +10 C, luckily not all the time, and even 20cm of a freshly fallen snow in the mountains. Luckily the day we went home the weather improved (just a T-shirt and shorts…)

maps #1 #2 #3 #4 #5
results

water

more water

and some more water

Ahoooooj!

Black&White

Most na Soci

Most na Soci

Geronimo!!!

kids race...

And so to “kill” the remaining vacation days, we went to Doksy, hoping at least for just one warmer day, even half would do… next year, sorry

Captain Morgan and his boat

Another year checked, story by Bohu maybe comes later, she’s now unpacking
results
splits
map

1000 eager ladies to hit the forest, thanks to www.jukola2011.kuvat.fi

there must be some fancy clothes deep down there for free , thanks to http://www.hevoskuuri.fi/

On the bike frontier, I had a final uphill TT (Malinik 8km 320m asc.) last Thu, and this time I suffered every single meter…
results

Middle CZE champion, at long last!
results