I think today is when the Ost-Gota starts. Let's all - and especially Snorkel - hold our tongues right in our mouths that Spike will have a flying burrito with extra hot sauce start to Ost-Gota, and get off to a formidable and psychologically damaging lead over his competition. He's in a tough field, but if he just lives up to his name and is resolute through the inevitable felled areas, it's hard to see how he can't do well.

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), July 16, 2001

Answers

No results yet from today's race. I sure hope they are not aiming for the Michigan standard.

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), July 16, 2001.

In case you missed it, Spike lies in 23rd and almost 10 minutes behind after the first of the three days in Östgöta. You can find the results at the meet's website. Spike is running in the H35 category. The splits are also available.

IKHP's tough Bo Granstedt leads H35 at the present. Here we compare Spike's splits with Bo's. The first number is the total time and the split time and running time are shown in columns for the 13 controls and finish line. The leg rankings and running rankins are shown in parentheses...

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bo Granstedt            43.41 2.05( 4)  1.46( 3)  5.18( 4)  1.19( 5) 
7.22( 5)  0.46( 1)
    Sammanlagt                2.05( 4)  3.51( 2)  9.09( 2) 10.28( 2)
17.50( 1) 18.36( 1)

  4.59( 1)  2.06(16)  5.13( 1)  6.08( 4)  1.49(16)  2.46( 4)  1.29(
1)  0.35(17)
 23.35( 1) 25.41( 2) 30.54( 1) 37.02( 1) 38.51( 1) 41.37( 1) 43.06( 1)
43.41( 1) 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Michael Eglinski        53.25 2.25(15)  2.09(22)  6.19(25)  1.37(27) 
8.26(21)  1.30(35)
    Sammanlagt                2.25(15)  4.34(19) 10.53(20) 12.30(20)
20.56(19) 22.26(21)

  7.03(26)  2.12(19)  6.54(27)  7.24(19)  1.53(18)  3.14(20) 
1.45(23)  0.34(11)
 29.29(22) 31.41(22) 38.35(22) 45.59(23) 47.52(22) 51.06(22) 52.51(23)
53.25(23) 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We see mainly consistency from Spike here. His slow control was the short #6 where he was 35th. His fastest was the finish line where he placed 11th. I suspect that Spike will say he lost little time on this day, but his number 6 control may represent a mistake. Perhaps he had a small boom on #9 as well. He was typically running legs in the neighborhood of his final 23rd spot. Look for Spike to gain comfort with the terrain in the days to come and improve each day for a finish in the area of 17th.

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), July 16, 2001.

Well, at least Spike is not as far back from the lead as Lance Armstrong is in the Tour de France at the moment. But Spike doesn't have as many days to make up the deficiency as Lance does, plus there are no mountain stages in the Ost-Gota. And of course Lance doesn't face Bo "Bosse" Granstedt like Spike does. Over the years I've helped Bosse with his marsh running and now his technique is flawless. Spike's best chance is that there may be one of those extremely rare Granstedt controls, which is a special type of control that Granstedts invariably miss.

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), July 16, 2001.

Results are dribbling in from Day 2 now, and unfortunately it looks like Bosse was the boss again today, winning and stretching out his cumulative time lead. Taking in 16 minutes on tomorrow's course is going to be tough for Spike, especially since the final day of Ost- Gota is traditionally set with just a bare minimum of coutrols, and entirely along roads, so that the class leaders can sign autographs and gather hugs and kisses from admirers as they defile towards the finish. And attempts to pass folks in front of you are highly frowned upon. It does happen, but sometimes then the spectators lining the race routes will take matters into their own hands, so, really, it's not recommended.

Well, Spike gave it his best, I'm sure we can all be sure that I'm sure he did.

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), July 17, 2001.

The day 3 splits are up and show Spike to have put in his best placing so far at the 3-Day: 18th on the day, capped off by a 9th best leg time late in the course. I think Spike is starting to come into his own and we can look forward to a fantastic Oringen with Spike, Mary, Fritz, Magnus, and Sanna leading the way for OK!

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), July 18, 2001.

Just a quick note about my runs at Östgöta 3-days...overall, I was pretty happy with the event. I got better every day. I feel like I'm improving and getting back into the flow of things. I've had a bit of trouble running in the rough Swedish woods. But, each day feels better. I was quite close to catching two more M35s at the end of today's race. But, they got away from me on a steep rocky hillside (with some felled area) and I couldn't make up the ground.

-- Michael (meglinski@yahoo.com), July 18, 2001.