OD had its annual Christmas relays this year in Rough Close. It was a four-leg relay with handicapping system, which meant that juniors and elderly started first whereas men in the age category 21-34 got the highest handicap (extra minutes) and got to start last. Our family team (Sami and me) got 30 extra minutes (2xW21+2xM35 as we planned to run two legs each) and started half an hour after the first start.
There were a couple of junior teams who got to start and finish far before the other teams but the system was nevertheless brilliant and equalised the teams in a fair way so that different age and sex categories got to race against each others in a fair way. The legs were of different degrees of length and difficulty (yellow, orange, light green and green) so that everyone could run.
Sami was supposed to run the first and the third leg but unfortunately he couldn't run more than one with his injured hamstring. That meant that I got to run the remaining legs nonstop without a rest. As usual I started aggressively and ran nearly full speed my first leg (orange) after which I had to drop my speed a little in order to survive the last two legs (light green and green) that were much longer. However there were some junior and senior men whom I tried to keep up with and had to keep on pushing (especially after a fateful mistake on the 14th on the last loop). The juniors were faster but the seniors I managed to keep behind. A total of 9.4km orienteering and a really fun race format!
