WOC Relay (13/07/2013)

I was quite excited before the start, and felt it was an honor to be chosen running the 1st leg for the Norwegian team. But I was also a big pressure, since we had finished 2nd in the WOC relay the 3 last years, and had ambitions to fight for the victory.

To both the 1st and 3rd controls I lost a few seconds since I was not running optimal routes. I had the longest forking in the beginning, and at the 3rd control I was nr 16, 33 sec behind Switzerland. But I could see a lot of good runners in front of me, and was not stressed.

On the long leg I thought running to the right could be a good option, using the paths to avoid the green. But I didn't want to run alone, and followed all the others who went straight. On the end of the leg the runners I could see in front of me went too much to the left (to go to the other forkings), and Ukraine and I was the only runners who continued straight to my forking. At the 5th control I was nr 13, 48 sec behind Switzerland.

The rest of the course went really well, and I managed to pass a lot of teams (which had other forkings or did mistakes). At the next radio (7/8 on the map) I was 5th, and when I finished I was 2nd, 3 sec behind Switzerland.