10mila (04/05/2014)

I started together with Thierry Gueorgiou (Kalevan Rasti) and only some seconds behind Jonas Leandersson (SNO) who where in the lead. Thierry opened pretty offensive. I had the same 1st control as him, and followed him until he was running too much to the left before the 3rd control (where he had a different forking). I had fully control but came to a control 50 m before my control, and was a bit confused when the code was wrong. But after some seconds hesitation I saw my control a bit futher in the march.

To the 4th control it was very green, and I came too much to the left, but I realized it pretty fast and didn’t loos too much time. Now it was some longer and easier legs. On the way to the 5th control I meet Graham Gristwood (Mora), and on the road to the 6th control I could see a headlamp about 45 sec in front of me, that I guessed could be Jonas.

I picked the 6th and 7th control well (when Graham did a small mistake), and when I came out on the road towards the 8th control I was just behind Jonas, who had been running more to the right compared to me.

On the longer leg to the 10th control I thought left of the water was the best option, but Jonas was running straight (and I wondered if he planed to go right of the water). He could have an other forking, where right was best for him, and I decided to go on my own, even if he could have been a good company.

On the shorter legs from the 10th to the 14th control I tried to be very accurate. To the 13th control I came a bit to the left, and hesitated some seconds, and than Graham caught me again. After the 14th control it was very green, and I lost my headlamp. When I tried to get in back on my head also Jonas caught me.

I was running together with them most of the rest of the course, and we kept a good speed on the longer legs. To the 21st control I wanted to run right, and I was happy when the others followed me. On this leg we caught one minute on Thierry, who took the right route choice.

In the green to the 22nd control I got a stick in my eye, and lost a contact lens. It made it difficult to see the map sharp, and after some minutes I decided to also take out the other lens. I could now see the map clear, but it was more challenging to see since far in the terrain since it was still quite dark.

To the 28th control Jonas and Graham went straight over the hill, and I decided to use the path and go a bit more to the right. Here Jonas had the other forking, and got a 20 sec gap. Graham and I also missed the 30th control with 10 seconds, and I finished as 3rd runner, 30 sec behind Jonas. When I heard Thierry was only 2 min in front of me I got happy, because I know we then still ha a good chance to catch them, since we had very good runners on the last legs.

When I analyze my race afterward I'm satisfied. I lost some time to the 3rd and 4th control, but after that I did really well. I used other runners where it was smart, and did my own decisions where it was necessary. I was accurate in my night orienteering and my runnings speed on the longer legs was among the fastest, and I picked the best route choice every time.