Eva Jurenikova - orienteering & adventure racing

OLD NEWS >> March - April 2005

Tiomila victory2005-04-24 The o-season start has been better than expected:
First place in Prague Easter 3-days, selection for the Czech national team and victory in Tiomila!!!
Our team Domnarvets GoIF (Elin Dahlin -Zuzana Macuchova - Eva Jurenikova - Dana Brozkova - Karolina A Höjsgaard) managed to win Tiomila yesterday!!!
Results.
Photos from Tiomila.
Photos from training camp with the Czech national team (in Doksy, beginning of April)
I do not have any time to write now, I am leaving for holidays/training camp in Cyprus. I will write more after coming back on May, 2nd.

Skiing in Sörskog 2005-03-20 The skiing season finished, orienteering season just starting
Last week the skiing conditions were almost perfect in Borlänge and Falun (finally!) and I really enjoyed it. I could not help myself and actually trained more skiing than running during these days. Yesterday I was in Falun, watching the last individual world cup x-skiing race (double pursuit) and I was almost a bit sad that the skiing season is over for me now. However I believe that orienteering will be even more fun this year. Tomorrow I am leaving for a training camp in Czech republic. I will spend the first week with my Swedish club (Domnarvets GoIF) training near Jicin in a very beautiful terrain with sandstone rocks and participating in 3-days-race Prague Easter. During the second week of my stay I will visit my parents in Ostrava and I will also join the Czech national team for a training camp in Doksy. I am back in Sweden on the 5th of April.

2005-03-08 Last Sunday I participated in the oldest, longest and biggest cross-country ski race in the world - Vasaloppet

Vasaloppet in short www.vasaloppet.se:Vasaloppet in the finish

  • 90 km-long-track, start in Sälen (Berga By) and finish in Mora (see the track)
  • classic technique
  • almost 15000 participants in the main race on Sunday
  • the fastest time ever is 3:38:57 (in 1998), the average one about 7 hours and the longest time about 11 hours
  • women were not allowed to participate in Vasaloppet before 1981
  • this year about 15% participants were women
  • participants' average age was 42 years
  • this year the winners were Oscar Svärd, time: 3:51:47 (for the second time) and Sofia Lind, time:4:24:09 (for the fifth time), both from Sweden
  • the starting fee is between 135 to 175 EURO depending on when you register
  • almost the whole track (90km) was made out of artificial snow or snow transported from other areas because of lack of snow this winter in Dalarna; it cost organizers 5 000 000 SEK (550 000 EURO) extra to prepare the track this year
  • 3 people have died this year, one a few hours before and two during the race, probably because heart collapse
  • over 3000 people are involved in the organization

My goal was to complete the race under 5 hours and 30 minutes and I was not far from succeeding. My time was 5:34:24 and it gave 54th place in the women category. Results - first 100 women. My biggest concern before the race was the low temperature in the morning at the start - according to the forecast about -15°C. I decided to start with rather thick gloves and special ski boots-covers to protect my hands and feet from the cold... I started from the starting group number 4 with more than 3000 people standing ahead of me. I was prepared for crowding during the first kilometers. It took 30 minutes to complete the first 3 kilometers for me but I can imagine that it took more than 1 hour for the people starting from the 10th group. Vasaloppet is really gigantic!

The organizers did a very good job with the track and after all problems with the lack of snow they were lucky with the weather during the last week. Sunshine and a few degrees below zero.

I enjoyed the race a lot even if it was a bit frustrating not to be able to ski faster because of too many people in the track ahead of me. Anyway I manage to get myself tired at the end and at least during the last 20 kilometers I looked forward to come to the finish in Mora. I think I drank too little and was a bit dizzy at the end. Many thanks to the service team (Patrik's parents and Mats) for help with the skis, refreshments controls and cooking!
Photos from Vasaloppet.

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