Some more visitors, The Hungaria Cup, more heatwave and a victory!!

Serena and Tony (mentioned in last post) have turned up on cue. They apparently couldn't find a campsite in or around Sopron, so went back into Slovenia for a couple more days and then came last Tuesday. On Wednesday morning I took them up to the andesite outcrop, which was quite a nice hike in good weather.  The heatwave was unfortunately coming back, which did not augur well for the orienteering, but we still had a good time in the village.

On Wednesday afternoon we went into town and had a lovely dinner together at the Regos. On Thursday morning they left early to get a good camping pitch at the Event Centre, while we pootled slowly as we had a room booked at the same place. The army camp looked OK, but the heatwave radiated back off the pampas surrounding the EC which had more shade than the desert looking terrain all round it.

The first two days were around Bakonybel, a delightful mountain village in the high Bakony. There was plenty of climb and on the first day I managed to make reasonable route choices and no significant mistakes. (see above!)  Day two was another story. First of all I forgot to put my GPS watch on in time for it to find any satellites.  Once I pressed the ON button I was in such thick forest that it never got going after that.  It kept asking me if I was indoors. So no trek for Day 2 I'm afraid. There were other things wrong with both the forest and me. Of the latter I must say I was not all there.  It could have been the heat and/or the kerfuffle with the watch, but it was not one of my better runs.  My friend Ildi caught me half way round and then a couple of controls later (which I had apparently missed by only a few meters) she left me behind. As for the forest, it had some beautiful parts in general, but most of the shorter courses (mine included) went round in very steep, rough, stony, walk type vegetation with a lot of undergrowth and brashings. As a result, I was not a happy bunny on that day. Ildi won the first day from me by 33 seconds only, but on Day 2 she took 8 minutes out of me.  However, the winner was Jean from Ireland, who went AWOL on Day 1, but was her usual express train like self on the second day. I was still second overall, trailing badly.

The third day was in the nearby city and for town O it was quite interesting.  I have run in this city before, but my course on Day 3 hardly covered the same ground. This time, instead of the boring, modern city centre, we were involved with the historic centre, where the start was, then went straight down to the river and a restored mill area, then straight back up to the castle from where we went down to another riverside park and into the finish around a ruined monastery. The weather was terribly hot, but I managed a reasonably good time for me. Jean won again, beating me by about 6 minutes.  I never knew, but she used to be an international track and field athlete in her youth, so that would explain her speed zooming past me by the river earlier on. The surprise of the day was a missing Ildi. Apparently she only entered the first two days, so one rival was out of the running.  Jean, on the other hand, was very quickly catching up her 20 minutes wasted on Day 1, and I was pretty sure that she would be the overall winner. Another two ladies, who I often spar with were still behind me, but not by a lot.

And then, with the heatwave approaching 40 degrees Celsius we arrived at the last two days, both of which were run on almost open terrain in what felt like a desert. I took a lot of water to keep me hydrated on the way to the Start (1800m in fierce sunshine!) and then went to the bowser and poured quite a lot of water down my head, cap and T-shirt.  That felt good and I took the way to 1 very carefully. I got it no bother. All went well until control 6 where the heat finally managed to discombubulate my brain and I turned down one path too soon.  Wallowing in an abandoned sand quarry with not a soul around suggested that I was in the wrong place, but 4 whole minutes went past by the time I got out and got to the right place.  Drat! On the run in to the finish I was going all over the place as the trek shows. The final blow was that once I arrived back at the bowser (positioned about half way between the Start and the Finish) there was no water.  It didn't run out, just the plumbing had broken down and nothing was coming out.  We only had to wait a few minutes for someone to fix it, but it did seem like several hours, we were all so hot and bothered. Due to the mistake at 6 I wasn't the winner again, which I could have been, because dear old Jean went AWOL again, taking 16 minutes for control 1.  The lady, one of my usual rivals, who won, now started getting very dangerous and was within less than 5 minutes of me for the chasing start on Day 5.

Overnight a cold front arrived which managed to blow down most of the tents and marquees of the event.  The download tent was so bad that the team moved into one corner of the food and entertainment marquee and they put away the pump up finish arch for fear of more damage to it.  Rain, thankfully, didn't come with the storm, but the temperature dropped nearly 10 degrees, which was most welcome. I went out in a warm, dust laden gale, which pushed me on for the first half of my course and was in my face on the way back. For the first time in many years I actually managed 9 minute k's, which is undoubtedly attributable to Dobos Ilona behind me in less than 5 minutes and Bircsi a minute or so after her.  By the way, Bircsi caught Ilona on the run in and  came up to second place by 4 seconds. I wish I saw that, but at that time I was still trying to recover from my sprint in the windy desert. They did't give out medals this time, but we all got a lovely big white china vase with the event's emblem on it and a small white towel also with the emblem on.

To sum up this event:
1. It was probably the most eventful HK I have ever been to.
2. It was definitely the hottest I have ever been to.
3. It was the first ever multi day event I managed to win overall while not winning any individual days at all.
4. And finally, it was an event where my tendency to be 'miss consistency' proved to be useful again.