MSBN: tales from the forest

Winner Ken Peeters in his training log:

One man night relay at Balendijk. It was with a mass start and there were some 30 participants with almost all night stars from flanders (except for Thomas VDK which organised the course). Start was already fast with Alexander Lubina ahead. I followed in second position with Tom, Desmond and Joost behind me. We didn't made too big mistakes till there was a fork. I got confused by the big difference I had to run and made a mistake at the 13th control. The 15th was also not good. The first control after map change I was together with Desmond and we lost here 30'. But the control after we were already back to Tom and at the 4th to Alexander which was in the lead. We kept making small mistakes and after the forking of this route I tried to run away with Dries VDK but we again made a mistake at 28th control (12th control at second map). Tom, Alexander, Dries and me were back together to the final controls. It was bit stressy these last ones. Alexander took the lead at the penultimate control but he felt terribly there. I ran ahead to the last one with only Tom behind me. It was not really a sprint but Tom was only 3 sec behind. Alexander eventually finished fourth 1 minute behind. Pitty of the falling, could been hard finish.

Still satisfied off course, nice course, very good training in fast orienteering.

Peeters looking back, waiting for the others to arrive.

6th place Desmond Franssen (source):

Mass start with a lot of strong runners present. The leading group was already made at the 2nd control: Lubina, Ken, Joost, Tom, Dries and me. I was following in 3rd position most of the time behind Ken and Lubina. I felt physically strong and had no problems with the speed. But at the end of the first loop i started to feel pain in my lower back and it got worser during the 2nd loop.
5 controls before the finish i was still in the leading group, but there i made a big mistake and the others were gone. After this control i even lost 3'30 on the leaders (because of jogging and making more mistakes). Joost passed me when i again made a mistake.

Great training, perfect organisation! we should need more competitions like this and i hope the other toprunners will join this competition next time. Thanks to the Hoekx and Van der Kleij families for all the efforts.

A disappointed Franssen at the finish line.