I’ve now won the Israeli Championship six times since the age of 35 – out of nine attempts (I organised it three times). The other results were second, third and fourth. Is it because I’m always a better orienteer than everyone my age? Probably not. I think that some of my success is due to the fact that I take the championship more seriously than most of my competitors, put more effort into my preparations, and basically treat it as the main goal for nearly every season. Another reason is that no-one runs in the right age group any more, and neither do I. The top four in H40 are all over 45, and there were at least three eligible competitors in H35 who could have beaten all of us.

The weather was better than expected, but I still started on Friday in about 5°C and heavy rain, which cleared up during my run. The 1:15,000 map was in my opinion over-detailed for this scale, and barely readable by my aging eyes, but I managed to orienteer really well, with very little time loss, up to control 11. Then I tried to go straight to 12, lost contact, and lost at least 2 minutes. I finished the 7.7km course in 1:06:57 and second place, 2:11 down on first and way ahead of third. The course was a classic distance, but I didn’t like the long legs – they were all about finding the controls, with almost no route choice

Saturday was the shorter day, a middle distance event on 1:7,500 at Timrat, and the weather had impoved significantly. An hour before my start I was still at home, trying to lull Matan to sleep, but I still had time to arrive, check out the finish, and warm up properly. Again, I had a really good first part of the course, in very tricky (but enjoyable) terrain, but messed up (3 minutes?) at 16 and a bit more at 18 (I wasn’t sure that I was on the path). When I finished I was sure that the result, 42:38 for 3.6km, wasn’t good enough for a win, but it turned out that most people (at all ages) had more problems with the terrain, and I won my category comfortably by almost 5 minutes.

I’m happy with my performance. I gave everything physically (notably on the climb between 6 and 7 on day 1) and felt the benefits of some anaerobic sessions from the last month. I had one large mistake (by my standards) on each day, but considering the conditions and lack of practice I performed as well as I expect of myself in a championship. I also need to thank Roni, who ran on both days but had really bad results and took most of the burden of caring for the children.

It’s championship time again – the coming weekend is the Israeli Championship, and this year it’s also the Mediterranean Championship (MCO), with orienteers from an unprecedented 21 countries due to participate.

However, we’re due for some very bad weather. February is the coldest and wettest month here, and we’re going to get soaked, not for the first time (2009 comes to mind). Until 2006 the championship was always held in March, but in that year it was moved for logistical reasons, and for no obvious reason it never went back. Now it’s too late.

The forecast is for heavy rain on Friday, lighter stuff on Saturday, and snow from 500m. Luckily the races are at an elevation of up to 300m, so that should be OK, and they’re also really close to home. I’ll be running H40 and trying to win, but competition from both my regular rivals and a few visitors is going to be stiff. The first day is a longer course than usual, because our course is also D21A for the WRE (which Roni is running, but only because it’s her regular category), and the second is a middle distance. I was actually toying around with the idea of running H35 in order to do the men’s classic 12.5km on Friday, but I decided that I prefer the competitive challenge in H40.

Last weekend I ran a warmup event at Alon Hagalil, adjacent to the championship terrains but not really representative. It was good practice for running on soaking wet terrain, and I took it easy and still managed to fall (on a path) and hurt my wrist between 18 and 19. According to the statistics I had the lowest mistake percentage on the course, but that’s not how it felt. My route is below: