Tiomila in
Gällöfsta in Upplands-Bro was a great event, as always. There are people who
find things to moan about (such as lack of Finnish speaker?) but I think
everything worked out very well and the main thing, courses and terrain, were fantastic!
Even the weather couldn't have been better!
It was
happy reunion with my club mates in Stockholm (people living in Östermalm don't
probably regard Märsta as part of Stockholm but if you've lived in outskirts
you've got a bit wider perspective) the day before. We did short model
training, had lunch together and went to the arena to put up our club tent. It
was a real trial of team spirit but we succeeded. After that we knew that the
hardest task was done and it would be piece of cake for us in the forest.
I still
don't feel too enthusiastic about the first leg (I hate it when it's packed and you can't do your own thing) but after a few attempts last year I had found
a confidence how to do it. It was great to see so many familiar faces (Vendula,
Karro, Lina, and Signe among others) around me on the start line and we were chatting
friendly and making jokes just a few minutes before the start. Atmosphere was
more relaxed than I can remember. Karro reminded me about taking my own map in
the changeover (she had every right to make jokes about my last year's error at
Venla) and I told her to run faster to get there before me. So we were smiling and having a
good time but we all knew that after the bang we would be racing hard against
each other.
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| Start of the relay (Aapo Laiho) |
First glance on the map and I get dejavu from the last year. Again I'm tempted
to take my own route choice to the first control and go around the first hill
but I settle to go with the others this time. It's easier to see what pace to
run and I might even see if someone is trying to make a move early. I know I
have the whole 8km to make a move if I want to, so I chose to take an easy
start. I just go along and pick my own controls. I have a longer forking on control 4 and have to bend to the hill on the left side while many others
continue straight towards control 5. It appears that our forking is a minute slower than those who went straight. On the way to control 8 I try to make a route
choice for the long leg from 8 to 9 and decide to go right (less climbing and
pretty straight forward). It's over half a way now and time to start running.
Vendula seems to have exactly the same plan and we rush towards the meadow
together. The leg goes well and we are able to keep a good pace there but just
when approaching the control after the knoll on the edge of the circle I spot a
huge boulder ahead and run to it. The shock is huge when there's no flag but then I figure out that it has to be the smaller boulder just northwest from the actual
control site. It wasn't a big mistake, a half a minute max, but big enough for the
other teams to catch me and for Vendula to get a small gap to the rest of us. A
bad route choice to 11 doesn't help much in attempt to catch Halden. I punch
the last control three times just to be sure to get it right and lose a few
places there but manage to send Anni out on the 9th place, less than half a
minute behind Halden. It couldn't have gone much better.
Anni did a superb
job on the second leg and came in the lead, just like we had calculated. Still,
even if the scenario was exactly what we had hoped for, we were really nervous
during the 3rd leg. Tytti, who ran the 3rd leg, is just a first year senior who
has joined us this year and it was her FIRST EVER Tiomila and we just put
her out there in the lead. Just imagining being there in her position broke my
nerves and put my stomach upside-down. I have seldom been so nervous during a
relay leg or so touched by seeing a teammate coming to the last control. I was
all in tears (out of happiness) when Tytti calmly did her thing and brought us in 3rd,
just a minute behind Lidingö. At that moment I felt we had already won the
relay. Of course there was still two legs to go but with Saila and Venla we
knew there were no worries. Unfortunately the 4th leg didn't go quite as well
as it could have but nonetheless we fought well and finished 5th in a
tight relay with 6 best teams within just 4 minutes. Domnarvet girls did solid
performances throughout the relay and got a deserved victory.
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| 5th best team in the world (Jarno Salmelin) |
