It seems that we have a tendency to create
a bit drama when it comes to big relays like Venla or 10mila. Sometimes it's
about surprising everyone by winning the relay with an unknown team, sometimes
it's about getting disqualified when alone in the lead with a wrong map, sometimes it's about
losing it all on the second last control, and sometimes it's about losing it
before it even starts by losing 40% of your team (no they didn't die, they just
had some health-related issues). Been through it all and I prefer the first
scenario.
However, in this year's 10mila the last scenario
hit us. Three of us had already arrived in Eksjö for the relay when we heard
that two of our best runners had opted out in the last minute. It was Friday,
the day before the relay, so there wasn't much to do. All we could do was to
transfer two runners from the second team to the first team, two from the third
team to the second team, and two from the fourth team to the third team, and for
forth team...well, we told them to sell those two remaining legs for the highest
bid. I'm not sure how it ended.
Anyway, the news wasn't too cheerful and
the first reaction was...erm...maybe it's better not to write it out. Anyway we
were more or less f..cked. Not that we didn't have good reserves but the
thing was that we had also lost our last leg runner and none of us wanted to
run that.
We had all had some problems in the preceding weeks and no one wanted an
extra challenge. We were happy with the given legs. Period. Martina had
prepared only for the first leg for some time, so she was untouchable. And Sonja
and Heidi, reserves who got upgraded into the first team, got automatically legs
2 and 3. This meant that Saila and I had to play rock paper scissors for a few
hours before I finally gave up and agreed to run the last leg. Saila's last
desperate move was to point out the fact that I had done a couple of strides
after the training we had done whereas she had felt too tired for that.
So it
was settled. Argh I should have skipped
those strides..
When we had finally agreed on the running
orders in all our teams we had whole 15 minutes time to register them. There
was some excitement that we would miss it but our confident coach Janne got it
all arranged in time. After that we could relax a bit and start to adjust to
the new situation. After some pep talk, map geeking and discussing tactics we felt
slightly better and there was a nice atmosphere within the group. This
unfortunate course of events brought us closer together and we realized that we
could not change the situation but we could try to make the best of it. We didn't have a winning team anymore but we could try our best
and maybe make it to top 15 if lucky.
Martina ran the first leg. She did very well
but made one parallel mistake where she lost the front group. At the first
changeover we were 37th, 4:05 behind. Sonja continued the good work on the second
leg and sent Heidi out as 31st, 6:29 behind the lead. Heidi had the legs to
hang on to anyone but unfortunately there was no one to follow and she had to orienteer
on her own in no man's land. Still she managed to pick up 9 positions and came
in 22nd, 7:28 behind. Saila ran very well and lifted us up to 15th place, 10:09
behind the lead. But again, there was a big empty gap in front of us and no
realistic chances to catch anyone on the last leg. I was partly relieved
because I was still pretty tired and not feeling 100%. I thought I could just
enjoy it, without having to push 110%.
So I took all the time I needed to get up
the first climb and then slowly accelerated into a nice comfortable rhythm.
After 5 controls Lena caught up with me and it was time for goodbyes to my
just-having-a-good-time pace. But my body fought against it and allowed me to
use only 4 gears. I kept seeing Lena but couldn't really keep up with her. No
5th gear today. In the turning point of the course I made a mistake in the
green (control 11) but to my surprise met with Lena again. Also Irina Nyberg from Hellas joined us there. We ran more or less together up to the spectator
control, taking slightly different routes and losing sight to each other once
in a while but meeting again at the controls.
I thought we had a small gap to Irina just
before the spectator control but she must have been there all the time. For me
it was just the usual battle between Pyrintö and Domnarvet, as so many times
before. From the spectator control I took a different route choice and was a
few meters ahead of Lena on the next control. On the second last it was less
than that. From there we raced neck and neck towards the last control but then Lena
took a shortcut across the terrain whereas I ran directly to the fence. I got a
small gap and the rest is history. But I was so focused just beating Domnarvet
that I had forgotten Hellas and didn't see Irina coming in the climb just
before the last control. Suddenly she just flew past before I noticed. Still, I was
more than happy to bring us home 14th. Big thanks to everyone involved!
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| Me praying for an extra gear (Photo: Jonas Birgerson) |
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| Happy team getting through with it with a big smile (Photo: Halokeeni Magazine) |
