David Healy was one of 3 Irish team members who made it through the World champs qualifiers this year in Trondheim. Here David gives us an insight into some of the thinking that goes into the big race.
Middle Distance Qualifier
This years middle quali started off great for me from the start flag. The Public Enemies film soundtrack was the pre-race music of choice for me. I talked with Kim Andre Sveen the night before and he gave me some race goals that i carried out pretty well. I was on the start line, looking at the clock 10 seconds before i started, 30 meters between me and the start flag, and my feeling was something similar to nonchalance. This was my strategy. I didn’t want to be “up” for the race, i wanted to be calm. I didn’t want an enthusiastic clouded mind because i wanted my natural O instincts to take over. It’s a world champs race anyway, when you get out there you can’t help but be “up” for the race. When the start clock signaled GO! my instincts took over from the second or third step and i felt a level of control, relaxation and confidance that i’ve seldom had since after my junior years. I climbed a steep 5meter bank to the start flag and here i did a few things really well: i was planning the first leg; i was having a glance at the next 1-2 controls; and i was having a glance at the general structure of the course. The structure i saw was a long leg early on and a batch of downhill technical controls to be careful on near the end. I decided at the top of the bank to plan the 4th leg, a long leg, on the uphill to number 3. The trap with this steep bank to the start flag on top was to hold off reading your map until you got up it. It is a WOC race of course and people feel the pressure to run fast. Also when you get to the flag on top of the hill the hill dropped downhill so everything is pushing you onwards weather you’re ready or not. But i let the two other starters race up the bank and away from the flag while i held my map steady to read. I felt that wasting 5-10 seconds now was a worthy investment. So i made it to the start flag, plan just made, bearing just taken, head up, smile on, and then the Belgian guy with me fell forward and face planted the dirt. He was unhurt. I was focused. This years middle quali started off great for me from the start flag!
The first leg was my best leg on the course. I followed my bearing from the start flag to my attackpoint which was a sort of marsh/open veg change. The marsh/veg was quite big on the ground to see and arguably only just big enough on the map to classify as an attackpoint. But it was all i had. I decided if i didn’t take a good bearing to it that i’d change my course a little left to hit the track which would also bring me to the veg. I disregarded the track when i got to it because the first thing i could see was the veg! A good compass bearing to build confidence me thinks. I ran into the veg and then took another bearing into the set of hills where the control was, aiming off slightly so that when i finished pacing the distance from the veg to the hills i just started looking to the left and then saw the flag. Now the race had started for me! You don’t need a good first leg to qualify for the final, but it helps, alot!
I’m doing ok here but i’m not settled in and planned ahead yet. I didn’t have a superb plan for the 2nd but i did have some plan. It turns out my bearing to the big crag was all that was needed because it was easy to see and simple to get into the control from there. I had two guys with me at the 2nd control who started 2 and 4 minutes ahead of me and also the Finnish guy who started with me. Choo chooooo all aboard! I used the uphill to the 3rd control to plan properly the long fourth leg and four or five other legs after that. Now i was settling in nicely and was very well planned ahead.
On the fourth i was struggling on the final part of the climb, i checked the map and saw that nearly all the climb was done for the race so i dug in deep to up the pace because i had dropped it a bit near the end of the climb. When i got to the top i got this strange surreal feeling like being awake in a dream. I had a quick look for Leonardo, just in case he wanted to steal something from me. But i relaxed: I saw i was in some crazy back arse of nowhere marsh in Norway running a world championship qualification race. And i wasn’t alone because i saw other nutters doing the same bonkers hobby as me. This sport gives the most intensely beautiful memories at times. This was a perfect point for taking a mental break. I only gave a few seconds to this distracting thought and then i told myself to FOCUS! I’m approaching the fourth control, i thought i now needed to gear up for the downhill section starting at the 6th flag. I took the fourth control really well but the legs were feeling dead when leaving towards the 5th. So what. Things are going well now! I knew i could maintain this speed to the end because it was a short race. But it would be a bit of a suffering nonetheless.
I had a bit of a melted brain and mushy legs getting up to the 6th control. I was prepared for the next downhill section but i’m not sure how i got my mind together for it after being melted 30 seconds prior. You had to focus your hardest on these potentially nasty controls. The trap was that you ran hard uphill before them so then you feel like you want to run fast on the downhill, but you will make mistakes because they’re very very technical. I upped the pace a bit on the downhill. I tried to spring the trap. And i did them well for the most part. Until the one mistake i had on the 9th.
Leaving the 8th i was at my most confident on the course… And i felt i had the navigation nailed at this stage. I failed to check my compass properly flowing down the hill to the 9th. I paced as usual, for backup, and when i reached the end of my pace count i realised i made a mistake. We came a little to the right in a different re-entrant. The Belgian and German guy who were with me kept going downhill. I think they knew we made a mistake but they didn’t know how best to relocate and rescue precious seconds within earshot of the commentator. I did not want to go further down that steep hill than the extra bit i ran beyond the end of my paces. And there weren’t any good details on the hill to relocate with, at all! Well played mister planner. I think to relocate in this area you had to run uphill or downhill, not to the side. I knew we came about 3-4 contours lower and 30-40 meters farther than we needed, because of my pacing. So i turned and contoured left a little and went back up the hill a bit. I had tried to guess the mistake i thought i had made rather than to relocate. Low and behold a few meters uphill i saw a man sitting with a radio. I punched and continued to the last two easy legs without the Belgian and German. This mistake was costly, about 90seconds, but i ran well up to this point that it was still good for qualifying i thought.
I punched the media control number 10 and felt i should be upping the pace on these easy controls. I pushed as hard as i could to the finish feeling wasted in my legs. I heard the Irish support and things felt great. I got a good feeling standing at the top of the hill at the last control that i had done a race that i knew i could look back on in the future and take some big positive things from. So then i just fell into the finish and waited to see if i qualified.
I returned back after a purposely long cool down happy that i achieved my technical goals for this race. And now i could focus on the secondary goal which was to hope that my performance merited a final spot. It did. Third time’s a charm for me in the senior WOC!
You can view David’s route here.
