Basel City Race

I know I´m a little very late, but this event deserves it´s own post. After 10 years there was again a race through 3 countries. I´ve already run in the first race in 2012 and now it was back. This time the race was part of the City Race Euro Tour. The race started in Switzerland, crossing the border to Germany and ended in France. It was a nice course, even the most special about is was crossing two borders.

Part of the course. See full map in my map archive.

Back on the list

WE got the first WRE events since 2014 in Germany. National middle champs and a long distance NRE gave the opportunity to go for points. Jakob got injured at middle race and had to skip the long distance. One weekend later I run also the Swiss sprint champs so I was also able to put me back on sprint world ranking. You find us at the bottom of the list but it’s great to have the names back on the list.

I want it 24 hours

With one year delay the legendary 24 h Thuringian orienteering relay host it’s 23rd edition. I run my 8th time with my team “sechs Schwaben” (six Swabians). Even with the event held end of May the competition night was really cold with freezing temperatures. Team perfomance was not so good. With 2 MP and one DNF we run total 31 courses and end up in 41th place our 2nd worst result ever. After the race I didn´t had the mood for another endition but my team said that running the 24th edition in 2024 is a must. So we will see. You can found the results on the organizers webpage:
https://24h-ol.de/en/

långa natten*

*long day for me
This year I was able to run at my first TioMila. TioMila was always on my bucket list but I was never able to fill a team. This year I was able to join the second team of my friends from OK Älvsjö Örby. We already had planed this for 2020, but you know. I was chosen for the långa natten (mainly because I was the only that could survive the distance), a 14.8 k unforked straight line through ugly green forest . I had heard a lot of stories about what could happen through the legendary long night. But it has come different. As the long night was moved from 4th to 5th leg it was clear I wouldn´t get much night. Unfortunately our 2nd leg runner has trouble with his headlamp and lost a lot of time. This brings us behind our schedule and I started my leg at 05:42 in full daylight and into a empty forest. Running a long distance in an empty forest was also an interesting experience but not what I had been prepared for. So I made some unnecessary mistakes and was out for other 3 hours. You can find my route here:
http://doma.leberkaesbriegel.de/show_map.php?user=Steffen&map=1480

TioMila arena before the start

Trail-O / Pre-O

Have you ever tried precision orienteering (Trail-O)? If you have the chance you should. Pre-O means no stress about you´re running speed but a loot of technical work. In Pre-O you following trails so that also people that cannot run can competed.

You´ll have to solve the orienteering problems. At every control you´ll find a set of flag from whom you have to decided which one is the right. Something that sounds easier than it is as you have to follow the control description detailed. You can find some information about Pre-O here. Unfortunately in most countries there isn´t much Pre-O but you can try it online at TempO Simulator. They have also regular competition series.

timed station
Sample Pre-O station at a event in Bavaria.

Luxembourg Forest and City Weekend

After 2 successful city races in 2017 and 2018 Luxembourg OC brought an combined forest and city race weekend in 2021. Middle distance race in Bambësch forest and Saturday and long distance city race in Luxembourg at Sunday. The city race was part of the City Race European Tour. Normally this will attract a lot of runners from UK. This year the international guest were mainly from continental Europe.
Saturday was in nice open runnable forest we some steep valleys and technical areas. The nice forest leads to a lot of direct running.
Sundays main race area covers the old town, Rham and Kirchberg plateau and the Alzette valley. This means old town, fortifications, some modern parts, a little forest and a lots of climbing. Route choice were tricky and often it wasn´t easy even to find a route. Elite course has 38 controls, ~15.2 km to run and 310 m to climb. So it was hard to keep up concentration other the whole race.
It´s definitely worth to run in Luxembourg city so keep an eye on upcoming events.
You can find all information’s about the weekend on Luxembourg OC homepage.

ArgeAlp 2021

After one year break the ArgeAlp was back. This year Bavaria was the host of the orienteering competition. As co-team leader it was clear that I will be there. With over 50 runners our team from Baden-Württemberg was one of the bigger teams entered. The event consist of a relay and a individual competition, spanning a age range from 12 to 60. Relay is the first competition of the event. After 1 and a half year with nearly no competitions it was quite difficult to set the relay teams. Our Team made 4 podiums so it looks like we did a good job. Same number of podiums at the individual competition leads to a 3rd place for the team in the overall ranking.
My own performance wasn´t that well. I was 2nd leg runner of our M35 relay. I started as 5th and came back as 6th. In the individual race I finished 11th in M40 being the worst runner of our team.
Jakob’s performance was better. Running men elite he finished the relay tam in 7th place. In the individual race he finished 17th place.
Here you can find the official page of the competition:
https://olg-regensburg.de/arge-alp-2021/

Prizegiving for the overall results