◪ race (Sprint - Q M45-2) 16:47 [5] **** 3.7 km (4:32 / km) +40m 4:18 / km
spiked:17/18c shoes: Inov-8 Talon 212
started conservative, reports were about lots of controls (naturally) and fun, not easy. Map looked very busy with lots of small details showing (1:4000). course looped in the fairly small playground area in the beginning, had to pay attention to direction end exits from controls, gaps in walls and small buildings total: maybe 15 sec for slowing down to comprehend the map, it was threatening to rain but did nor materialize till after the race, but reading the map on high speed was a challenge, now we enter downtown and nice German urban area with canal, small bridges fairly large buildings, lots of choices left or right, doing mighty fine so far. then another small loop in a little park area, and I collected 3 controls in opposite order, luckily realized it before exiting the area, so go and collect them in right order (I figure no more then 55 seconds lost on that), but now speed is no longer conservative - full out effort.
clean, but shaky rest of the course - speed is close to max, finished 2 min behind the good times, but well within qualifying. Legs felt great throughout the race and after, since I was speeding for less then 1 km. Tomorrow will be very interesting.