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!