The month of march for me was a curse for the last 3 years, and the selection race was always with big problems (2010 - food poisoning, 2011 - ankle sprain, 2012 - shin splints). This march wasn`t any better and I had to rest for about 3 weeks due to shin splints, but with a big miracle, one week before Hunedoara I could start running again but very slow.
As I was lacking intensity in training in the past weeks I knew that I don`t have any big chances in the sprint. I started the race a bit slower because I wanted to get very good contact with the map. I did 2 wrong route choice that costed me around 20 second and I also lost another 20 second when I fell down and hurt my knee on the asphalt.
I was 6th only 30 second away from the 3rd spot. Suciu Simion won the first stage and is in pole position to win the overall rank.
I wasn`t very sure about Sunday because I was lacking both running and uphill/downhill training in the last period. My plan was to run the long distance course - 12km (400m climb) - most of the senior class ran 6km (sprint) and 8km (middle distance).
I started slower than most because I wanted to take time for my body, to see how it reacts to fast running again. I started pushing after the second lap and was passed a lot of people and also catched my friend Marian Ciprian (who I knew was running 12km, but he stopped at 8km).
We were running together , each other leading for parts of the race. Meanwhile we were seeing the leading group going faster and faster (Suciu, Tamas, Szoby). After Marian Ciprian stopped I was alone and I started to feel the lack of training for a moment but I managed to push my body for the last 2 laps and finished for the first time in 3 years of running this race.
Results Sprint
Results XC Selection Race
Map Sprint
