Full Weekend

This weekend was a pocket full of choices regarding competitions I could have ran. There was on Saturday night, the Municipal Night Championship. A very good opportunity to test my new lamp and my rusty old night-o skills. I started the race motivated but I lost the path to the first control due to some big bushes and I lost around 3min. Then I got back on track to second control but at the 3rd I passed it by a few meters and lost again some big minutes. After this it became a race to catch up with the runners that passed me. And so I did even if my lamp`s battery was almost dead. Near the 9th control I caught Cosmin Georgescu, and he was running with a friend and they had 2 lamps so I changed mine with his and continued very fast. I caught Costica Bulgaru in the 9th and continued with him until the finish. I think I was 3rd (beating Cosmin with 20 second). Overall it was a nice run before the National Championships from Cluj, two weeks from now. Hope I can do some more night training until then.

Night Map

For Sunday I had to chose from 3 events ( The Aloe Vera Cross Race, The Cross Race organized by the Bucharest University and the In Memoriam Cup in Orienteering).

 I decided to run the Bucharest University`s Cross. It was a short a race (2.3 km) with a lot of students from all over Bucharest running. There was a big interest also from the media for this race and the as the Mayor of Bucharest gave the start. I also gave a interview for a national tv station just before the start. In the end of the race I was 7th (7:17), just outside the top 6. It was nice to see somewhere around 1000 students coming on a Sunday morning to run!!!

 

Because my Google account was suspended for some time I didn`t post any photo albums from the competitions I attended recently, so be sure to check my Picasa Photo Album to see photos from EcoMarathon, Velikden Cup and Brown Cup.

P.S. Please also check this new project out (Velo Compass)!

More info soon to come so watch out!

                              

EcoMarathon 2011 - Moeciu

UPDATE: Results EcoMarathon 2011 !


A few hours ago I got back home from my second Mountain Marathon I have ever run: EcoMarathon. Unlike my first one, for the marathon in Moeciu I trained hard along with Daniel and Pasol. So this Marathon was my main objective for this spring (outside orienteering).
Friday morning me, Daniel, Pasol and Bulgaru left for Moeciu. There we met with Marius Anghel and Ionut Zinca.After registering for the Marathon we went for a easy run on the first loop of the Marathon.

  

The night was awful. I just couldn`t sleep ( I was to nervous). In the morning i tried to eat some cereals but even that seemed difficult. As we were getting closer to the start the pressure seem to vanish. The start was fast, the guys in the front setting a fast pace. I did my race and on the first loop I had a time of around 76 min. 

On the second loop I knew the decisive part would be the road running (around 7km with somewhere around 350m climb). I was scared of that part but I pulled it out just good, with a good speed, managing to get away from one of my rivals (Silviu Balan). Finished the second loop with a time of 95:17. The difficult climbs were on the 3rd loop. After the half way in the second loop I remained alone (I knew that my friend Gica is behind me). I asked what my position in the race was and i found out that I was 11th. So for the 3rd loop I just had to go safe and not push my body to the limit. I knew that my time will be good and that I will be on the podium in my category (18-22). I had some small muscle pains after that last climb to Gutanu but I did a small streching session and all was good. Even though most of the race we had a lot of Sun, on the last kilometers it started SNOWING!!! (yes, it`s May)...My time in the end was 4 hours 34 min and 02 seconds. It`s a lot better than my first performance in a Mountain Marathon. With this time I was 13th overall (even though everybody told me I am 11th) and 2nd in my category (18-22). I felt positive all the time and very focused on my own race and I think my result shows it. This shows that I didn`t work in vain all winter and that the ankle injury was just a minor setback (that also made me look like Robocop).

I`m very happy also for Daniel and Pasol who run good race with very good times. And also glad for Marius and Bulgaru who ran their first mountain race. 

The organization of this Marathon was spotless, and it proved that even in Romania we can have great events. Thank you all!

P.S. Today when I woke up it felt like December, and the breakfast at Mihai Orleanu`s house was just perfect for my tired and starving stomach!

Photos and official results will follow in the next days! HERE is my track from the Marathon!

www.ecomarathon.ro