Approaching the first hill - looking good |
My not so good route choice... |
Pan Århus cruising away |
On the way to the second control I tried to pass as many runners as I could but it took a few more controls before I caught Lidingö and Tisaren who I assumed to be the leading teams. What I did not know in the forest was that Pan Århus was the only team in the leading group with the significantly shorter forking at the beginning and had therefore gotten over a minute lead to the rest of us already by the first TV control (control number 2/3). After catching up the teams that I assumed to be in the lead I just focused on smooth orienteering. It went well and I came in 4th together with Kalevan Rasti (2nd) and IFK Lidingö (3rd), just within a minute behind leading Pan Århus. Venla did well on the 3rd leg but Pan Århus kept raising their gap. In the 3rd change-over we were 2:44 behind the Danish team, together with Paimion Rasti, but with a clear margin to the chasing teams. Saila continued the good work, keeping the chasers behind, and we could join her in the run-in to celebrate our fine second place. It was good to be back at the podium and it felt almost like a victory for us after a few unlucky years! There were no ifs and buts this time, we had done the job as well as we could. Danish girls just smashed it. In tough Finnish terrain. Respect!
GPS-tracking
Celebration in the run-in |
Thumbs up from the President of Finland |
This time the weekend didn’t end after the Venla for my part but continued with a second leg in Jukola, the so called long night. The darkest and the longest night leg. The fearsome long night. In a team called HappyOrNot. What a good description for a night leg…My team mates were not orienteers but colleagues that had put up a team for Jukola. It’s a long story how I ended up running in their team but they were delighted to get a real orienteer to run the long night for them. I met them briefly after the Venla and admired their attitude and braveness. When I heard how little they had experience I got worried whether they would make it through the night but they seemed just happy and were looking forward to it. I had my doubts but tried hide them. (I worried in vain, our team got through with it with just fine!)
Leg to control 1. How would you go? |
The journey continued with company all the way until the finish. It was very different from the women’s relay (might have something to do with the positions in the relay…). In Venla you usually run alone and it’s very silent. Everyone is focused on their own race and there’s seldom any talk. Whereas here everyone were shouting the codes and telling stories. The pace was unbelievably slow (mostly just walking) but I saw no reason to overtake people (I overtook only some 400 runners on my leg but I believe this happened mostly on controls). I'd had my race earlier and now I was just enjoying an easy long run. I didn’t want to waste any extra energy on stepping off the line, so I settled to the pace the pack was going. I was bit worried about my torch and therefore I would have wanted to run slightly faster but luckily it was not that dark anymore. Every now and then people stopped in the middle of the line without stepping aside, which meant that everyone had to stop. This happened every time when there was a small climb, a decent or a thicker area. Forking controls were easy to spot too. The line spread out and you could see bewildered chaps everywhere standing still, trying to find out where they were. Before I noticed we came to the last control and it was all over. It wasn’t even long. Energy gels that I had planned to take on the way were still unused in my back pocket.