Life IS all guns and roses!

My birthday weekend (October 19 and 20) was very - let's say - intensive. Saturday "Les 10 Bornes de Courtelary", a 10km race, and Sunday the final race of Elite League. And between these competitions I said to myself that my birthday is not meant to give me enough sleep.. No, it was definitely a coffee-weekend. But it was worth it!

In any case, at the moment my life rocks. Every day I have a highlight! Monday a heavy rain jogging with a view over the whole Seeland. Tuesday a 22km-training followed by a swim in the cold lake of Thun with the view of the snowy mountains... Friday a mountain jog. But there are not only highlights in sporting terms. For example there are so many funny situations at work. One I can remember: at 9 a.m. this morning, the customer who had bought her packet of cigarettes said: "Danke, schöne oobe, adjöö." (means: "Thank you, have a nice evening, bye.") Haha, the same to you!

I'm getting more and more convinced that life IS all guns and roses! To my English-speaking readers: If you can't say this - I just want to say that life is a permanent party.. For example today. I competed in the short race of "Gurten Classic". 8.4km, about 300m climb. It's incredibly funny to give everything during the race and win with a almost one minute better time than last year (35:07,2 instead of 36:06,5 in 2012). And it's quite practical, that the pain of the muscle stiffness in my right upper leg disappears for the 35 minutes of my race... before it comes again after the finish.. I've never done such a slow cool down before! But still the whole day was fantastic. All the friendly and helpful people, the ego party at the railway-station, the gorgeous sunset at 5 in the afternoon... etc.

results Bürenlauf October 12
results 10bornes de courtelary October 19
results, GPS final race elite league October 20
results Gurten Classic November 3

Now it's time for some pictures. Please don't think I'm smiling like this all the race long! Fact is: when I see a camera, I spend maybe one second trying to smile, before I suddenly change again to my normal running face (which is not beautiful at all - look for example at the picture in the newspaper-article below), and thereby, for example, I miss the course record by 9 seconds, as it was the case on october 19 in Courtelary. But, who cares, the important thing is, that I had fun and that now there's a good picture ;-)

Bürenlauf, October 12

10 bornes de Courtelary, October 19

Article in the "Bieler Tagblatt" of October 14. We learn: don't believe what you read in newspapers!! (The text is full of mistakes)

Me almost dying in the finish of Gurten Classic on November 3

I'm glad that I can also look more or less normal.. :-)

I hope that I go to bed early enough now, because tomorrow I have to get up at 4:45, so that the k kiosk in the neighbouring village opens on time at 5:45! :-) Here are some more pictures:

Now 23 years old. Always ready to eat a whole Black Forest cake. Or maybe better the flowers??

Haha, this is my typical 22km-and-cold-water-smile

mmmmmm!!!!

autumn season

The swiss orienteering autumn season has started (when I started to write this post.. now it's almost finished ;-)), and I'm quite satisfied with my results. I reached my main goal, which was basically: keep your mistakes reasonably small and give all the time everything physically. These goals seem simple, but sometimes help me a lot! First, I made 7th place at the 2nd elite league competition (long distance at Melchsee-Frutt), 8th place at a national competition in "Les Lavoirs", and 6th place at the swiss sprint orienteering championships. Whereby in the latter sprint, I had the impression, that with a better phyical shape, I could have been much better. During the whole sprint I felt my tired legs. That was special! What I learn from this? For example: Enough sleep can be deciding. Sometimes it's funny to watch me handling the new job situation (About 20 hours per week, I'm a sales woman). I'm absolutely not used to it, which sometimes leads to less sleap. And everything happens blow on blow, but I like this! Sometimes I even don't take time to check my e-mails for a few days. And the competitions this autumn are so delicious (if you compare it to meals..) that I'm always almost high in the finish. Somehow very happy about what I'm able to. Even after a race with some big mistakes, like the swiss long distance championships, where I had so much fun in the second part of the race. Last weekend I made another crazy action: half-marathon swiss championships on saturday from 14:45 to 16:07:55,8 and then swiss middle distance orienteering championships on sunday from 13:04 to 13:40:17. Impossible is nothing. About five minutes before my start on sunday, my very very (very!!!) tired legs decided to give their best. Then I fighted and focussed all my race long, which ended up with only little mistakes. And this meant: world cup on 5th octobre, I'm coming!! :-)

Below are my latest results. More maps and pictures may also be interesting but unfortunately there are better things to do than sitting at my computer. Maybe I will add them later. For the sake of completeness ;-).

Emmenlauf, Bätterkinden, 10.5km, 39:31min:
Result list women overall

6.Nationaler (long distance), Melchsee-Frutt:
result list DE
map with my GPS:














7.Nationaler (middle distance), Les Lavoirs:
Result list DE

Swiss sprint orienteering championships:
Result list DE

4foulées étappe 3, Saignelégier, 9.8km:
Result list overall

8.Nationaler (sprint distance), Colombier:
Result list DE

Swiss long distance orienteering championships:
Result list DE

3000m on track with the regional orienteering junior team, Bern:
10:18

Internationaler Greifenseelauf (swiss half-marathon championships), Uster, 21.1km, 1:22:55,8:
Result list women overall

Swiss middle distance orienteering championships:
Result list DE

Lang mae yer lam reek!

Hello again! Here are some news from me -  in a short version because the awesome swiss summer is waiting outside. ;-)

Two months ago, the Mathys-family won the 100km-relay of Biel in 6 hours, 18 minutes and 27.6 seconds. Sorry, but I'm very proud of us. Congratulations to Stephan, Chriiiis, Vero, me and Hansruedi. (result list here: http://services.datasport.com/2013/lauf/biel/RANG222.HTM)

This is me after the 20.6km and my brother who ran the last 23.3km. At about 4 o clock in the morning in Bibern.

One night of sleep later I ran the Frauenlauf in Bern, 5km through the city in 18:10.4, place 17. (http://services.datasport.com/2013/lauf/frauenlauf/RANG091-001.HTM)

Then, there were the two test races in finland, which didn't go very well, but okay. I qualified for the Euromeeting, yeah!

Right after the testraces (around Joensuu) we moved to Jämsä, where I ran the Venla relay with Järla. Place 15! Finally, it seems that I learn how to avoid huge mistakes on the first leg. (see http://www.jukola.com/2013/en/)

Järla on the podium after place 15 in Venla relay 2013. Nu kör vi!

After Jukola (and two running trainings in Helsinki - now I know the city by heart ;-)), I tried to get my dream job. I haven't got it. For a few weeks I was quite disappointed, desperate and hopeless. Moreover my physical shape seemed to be fallen in a deep hole. I needed something completely different and became a farmer for one week. An incredibly impressive and important experience! Details are given personally. ;-)

Fortunately, I had a next goal: the Euromeeting in Moray, Scotland (see http://www.scottish6days.com/2013/euromeeting). I could get okay results in varying terrain and on interesting courses (best was the sprint in Lossiemouth, place 12), and I learned a lot! Furthermore, I got to know the gorgeous scottish highlands! And a little bit of the nice-sounding scottish language: lang mae yer lam reek!

On the hill "Meall a' Bhuachaille" at about 6 in the morning before our flight back to Switzerland. It was windy and cold.

Four days after my arrival in Switzerland the first race of the Elite League took place in Bremgarten. Such a nice sprint! Unfortunately I overlooked an impassable fence on the map and crossed it through a gap. When I realized my mistake I went my way back, which saved me from disqualification. But about 20 seconds were lost. This is almost everything in a sprint. As usual I hadn't got enough after this race and added a second training... My physical shape can't be that bad at the moment... ;-) To my technical shape: I use the graph below as a motivation. I know, one shoud not ignore one's mistakes. I'm aware of the fact that I'm not yet good enough to regularly avoid such stupid mistakes. But it shows me somehow, that I'm a little bit better in sprint orienteering, than certain people sometimes tell me. :-P
Here are the results: http://www.o-l.ch/cgi-bin/results?type=rang&year=2013&event=Aargauer+3-Tage+OL+1.+Etappe&kat=DAL

Graph of the first 11 in the Elite League Sprint in Bremgarten. I'm number 9, Bri.

10mila, GP Bern, Finnland, Strongmanrun, Biennathlon, ... that's life!

I've done many funny things recently, some of which might be of interest for this blog... ;-)

Let's start with 10mila: Our Järla Team finished on place 39, 27:38 minutes behind the leader. We made too many mistakes. Personally, I had a race very similar to the Venla relay last year: good start (great fun!), but then to control number 4, I guess I did slightly too little prospective orienteering. And then, lost about four minutes, trying to find out where I ended up. Sad but true. It was very important for me to do a good race, and I tried hard to reach my technical aims. The concentration was high most of the time, but I didn't succeed in being concentrated 100% ALL THE TIME. To reach this, I need more experience. More relays, please! :-)
result list 10mila womens relay
10MILA 2013 Women's relay Arena production (I recommend the start and the section after minute 21 :-P)

After 10mila I went home to prepare seriously for the best race ever: the "Grand Prix von Bern", 16.093km. It was my big aim, to run a race time better than 1h, and my running training was geared to this competition. I think I succeeded in reaching a good form this day. Also by reducing the training conciderably before the competition (for the first time longly I managed to do no single running training during a whole day!!!). My legs felt good. But that's not all, unfortunately. I got a side stitch, and problems with my stomach. After 8 kilometers, when my legs started to feel very good, I couldn't use them anymore. I shouted for a toilet. :-) And I couldn't enjoy the race. 1h 04min 01sec was my race time.
Result list "Grand Prix von Bern"

exhausted and not able to cool down because of my stomach after the race. only able to take pictures of my Brooks Racer ST 5 ;-)

The next day I already flew to Kajaani, to join the training camp with the swiss team in Vuokatti. Every training was very nice! When the swiss team training camp was finished, I started my own "survival training camp". Three and a half days orienteering trainings in Finland without a car. The first training I could imagine to reach, was almost on the way to Joensuu. I said to myself: It's not impossible, so try it! In Juuka, I knew there was no official bike rental to get to the orienteering terrain that was 15km away from Juuka. But there were many very helpful people! (Like everywhere in finland!). So I did it. It was absolutely worth it.

nothing is impossible. with this cool bike lended from keijo.

the proof ;-): my training on the map "Aisus" (a bit short; I had to catch the last public bus to Joensuu :-P)

The next days I stayed in Joensuu and gave everything to do 3 WOC long distance trainings and 2 Sprints. One Training was about 30km away from Joensuu, but the weather was nice and I wanted to know if I'm able to do it. I was completely exhausted when I arrived at the training -  in the middle of nowhere. So, it was a "slow motion" training. But: who cares?

"Wir machen den Weg frei. Ihre Raiffeisenbank."

One training was just beside the airport, so I did it in the night before my flight to Helsinki at 6 in the morning. What an adventure!!
Finnland was not only a big adventure, now I'm also prepared for the WOC-Testraces next week.

The next big race was the Strongmanrun in Engelberg. Because of the terrible wheather in Switzerland and the fact that Engelberg is about 1000m above sea level, I was afraid of freezing to death on this saturday in June. But then I rather died of the strain! 15 minutes before the start I got to know that they shortened the course down to about 10km. So it was a full speed race. With plenty of funny obstacles ("Simi rückwärts" was the hardest) and masses of water and mud. Just fantastic!! By the way: I could win the race, like last year! Now I'm the Strongman in womens category. Because Strongwoman sounds weird...
I'm waiting for more good pictures. But these are also not bad for the moment:

this is not me. unfortunately ;-)

Homepage Strongmanrun

As if I didn't have done enough, the next morning I could start in a very good team in the Biennathlon (a relay with inline skating, swimming (this year running), biking and running. This was another great competition, Biennathlon rocks! We made the second place in the category mixed team. Thank you Jeanine, Adrian and Christian!

our finish. adrian is missing.

result list Biennathlon Mixed Relay


Next: 100km relay in the night from friday to saturday! Our team: (Mathys)^5=100 sponsored by Brooks
Then on Sunday: Frauenlauf Bern 5km
Then on Monday: Flight to Joensuu to the WOC testraces and Jukola!

now more than ever

Last weekend, there were two test-races counting for the selection for the Nordic Orienteering Tour (NORT) in June.

Saturday, middle distance, solid race, place 6. Sunday, some bad route choices and one mistake of about 10 seconds, place 9. The NORT is still reachable, I thought. But the coaches found that it makes more sense to give me the possibility to attend the training camp in Finnland in may, instead of the NORT. I was completely disappointed, but tried to see all the positive things out of this decision. For example the Strongmanrun june the 1st. And maybe there will be a family-team at the 100km race june the 7th, like last year. But it's hard, when I think about what I will miss, and how much experience in orienteering competitions I could have gained.

Now I realize that I have difficulty accepting the "No" of the coaches. I think it would be much easier if my results would have been clearly too bad. Or if another one could take my place. Unfortunately it were some seconds that made the decision.

So, the only thing I can do, is to say: NOW MORE THAN EVER! ...and keep smiling :-)

Why not?

In this first part of 2013 I did not only train hard, I already ran quite a lot of races! And I spent 11 great days in Portugal with 19 orienteering trainings, 9 of which were competitions (the Portugal O-Meeting POM in and around Idanha-a-Nova and the "meeting de orientação do centro" MOC in Osso da Baleia). I really liked the terrain there! Often there was not much vegetation on the floor, so that I could run fast. And at the last competition I handeled my race quite well, so that it felt like surfing through the terrain. It's so nice to be healthy all the time and be able to experience so much!!

Actually I don't need to summarise my achievements to stay motivated.. but you may be interested... And I think the most of my results are good enough to be shown here ;-):

The results of Portugal:

POM Stage 1 Long Distance 9.2.2013 W21E place 39: result list
POM Night Sprint 9.2.2013 W21E place 3: result list
POM Stage 2 Middle Distance 10.2.2013 W21E place 4: result list
POM Stage 3 Middle Distance (WRE) 11.2.2013 W21E place 12: result list
POM Stage 4 Long Distance 12.2.2013 W21E place 23: result list
POM Overall W21E place 16: result list overall

MOC Long Distance 16.2.2013 WE place 19: result list
MOC Night Urban 16.2.2013 WE place 3: result list
MOC Middle Distance 17.2.2013 WE place 7: result list

Some pictures of Portugal:

it was still february...

me on top of one of the numerous castels: the one in Castelo de Vide

Järla sprint competition preparation ;-)

SANDY beach in São Pedro de Moel ;-)

me during the MOC middle distance race (the last day)

the terrain near Osso da Baleia

evening ambiance in São Pedro de Moel

My orienteering season started one week after cyprus with the Effretiker Stadt-OL, two sprints (qualification and chasing start), which I could win. Then, almost every weekend I did a race, which was fun!

Here are the result lists of the races I've done:

13.1.2013 Effretiker Stadt-OL, DE place 1: qualification final
19.1.2013 Cross de Vidy, 5km place 4: overall Elite Dames / U23W
26.1.2013 Bärner Cross, 5.5km place 1: results
27.1.2013 Indoor athletics meeting Magglingen, 1000m in 3:03.74: results all events (see page 35)
3.2.2013 Indoor athletics meeting Magglingen, 800m in 2:20.63: results sunday (see page 13)
23.2.2013 Bremgarten Reusslauf, 11km place 7: overall women
3.3.2013 Swiss Championships in cross country, 8km place 8: overall women
10.3.2013 survival run Thun, place 1: results, also men
16.3.2013 Kerzerslauf, 15km place 11: results

A very special event was the survival run in Thun. An approximately 16km long cross country race with 25 different obstacles, part of which you have to cross twice. As last year, I loved it! A lot of dirt and variety!  During my "cool down" after the race I couldn't stop running anymore. I thought: Why not cross the wet marshes again and swim in the dirt? Why stop running when I still have pleasure and energy left? The only thing that could stop me was the fact that the organisers closed the showers soon... It was about four o'clock, four hours after the start. The last two "runners" already had finished their race. I cheered for them, they enjoyed the race for about 3hours 45, while I only had 1 hour and 23 minutes. RESPECT for their endurance!

survival run 2013: first 3 women and the head of Gudrun, my new boar

Me during the Bremgarten Reusslauf. It's always important to get good pictures! No matter how much time it costs :-)

back from cyprus

159.16 km habe ich meine GPS-Uhr laufend in den 7 Tagen in Agia Napa, Zypern, weit getragen. Dazu kommen langsame Joggings, bei denen ich auf Akku-Sparen setzte. Eine schöne Zahl! Die Trainings waren auch qualitativ super und haben mich sicher einen Schritt vorwärts gebracht!
Und die ganze Reise war einfach unvergesslich. Mit ein bisschen Betonung auf "Reise": etwas mehr als zwei Tage verbrachte ich auf der Hin- und Rückreise. Ich liebe es, mich in einer wildfremden Umgebung durchzufragen! Dank einem Missverständnis bin ich durch halb Zypern chauffiert worden! Und ich habe hautnah erfahren, wie schwierig es ist, vom Griechischen Teil Zyperns in den Türkischen Teil (wo ich meinen Abflug hatte) zu gelangen! Aber auch der Aufenthalt: So etwas mache ich nächstes Jahr sicher wieder. Laufen, Klippenspringen, doofe Spiele spielen, sünnelen, crowlen lernen, Gangnam Style im Musik-Fernseher hören, vergeblich gute Kafis in der Stadt suchen, gigantische Büsi-Herden entdecken und ablichten, ....usw....