Fun

Unlike last year, I ran the long course at this year’s Billygoat, because it’s probably the longest course we’ll have in Israel this season, and “the more the merrier”. After several weeks of rain and mud, we had perfect weather on great terrain at Beit Anaba, so everything came together and this was probably the race that I have most enjoyed for several years.

The course was 12.2 km, with three controls to skip. I finished 14th in 1:30:51, which was more or less what I aimed for, and I had no problem coping with the distance – I’d love to see more long courses. I skipped controls 4, 14 and 26 – probably 8 was better than 4 for those in the leading pack, but I opted to skip a tricky control and also gained some planning time on the path from 3 to 5.

Despite the mass start, most of the time I was orienteering almost alone. For the first half of the race one of the juniors was running in front of me, and in the second half I was being followed quite obviously by a much faster runner, who showed little ability to find the controls by himself and usually appeared just after I had punched, then ran forward and lost contact again. I managed to run away from him at 24, then he caught me at the last control and outsprinted me to the finish. The truth is that I couldn’t care less – I was orienteering for fun and not for the competition.

Many thanks to my protégé Itay Manor for the mapping and planning of the course. I’m proud to be his coach, but he’s learnt most of this stuff without my help. And he’s still less than half my age!