"...all focus to the first leg of the relay, only gold is enough..."
Relay, first leg: mentally and physically probably the hardest type of orienteering there is. Especially if it is organised in a Latvian, mostly green and hilly, terrain with a course of 5.7k and 305m of climb.
Before the race I was feeling very good, confident of being well rested and revocered, ready to run with the lead pack all the way to the change-over. I set myself only one goal for this race: be the one without mistakes and that way be the one to come out first(or atleast lead pack). I was ready to challenge the best orienteers of the world.
30seconds... 10seconds.... GO! I started on the right side of the start shoot, reading the first and second leg right away thinking to myself 'what kind of sprint is this, looks too easy'. When I knew my route to my first controls, I lifted my head up to realize that I was in the lead to the start point. I was totally surprised because I wasn't even running that fast. Punched my first control second, just after Sweden's Jonas Leandersson. Still amazed of the slow speed we were running at, I wanted to make sure I'll be able to run the whole leg so I let the pack go in front. I punched 2, 3 and 4 at the end of the lead pack, still feeling really good and seeing the lead.
Running to my #5, I saw the closest back 40meters ahead turning to the forest. I knew I gotta nail this one to stay with the pack for the spectator control. I think I had some kind of black out here cause all I remember is taking the baring to the forest, towards #5, but the next thing I remember is being in the middle of that green, everybody disappeared somewhere and no idea of where I was. I kept going a bit and soon realised being way too far, next to that small open area south from my #5. Back to the control and towards the next ones.
3min behind the lead at the spectator loop, sounded really bad when I first heard it but I was betting on a very technical part after that. As it turned out, before the race I got the info from the ladies relay that after the spectator's loop the lead had done a lot of mistakes. And that was the case in the Men's relay too.
Sadly though, I hit a total wall after the spectator's loop. I could still run the trail halfway through the leg to #8, but after that it was mostly walking. I still found the control and kept going but then I also hit the mental wall at #9. A very bad set back, almost giving up already... Luckily the Irish team's first leg runner helped me to find that one. From here on it was just a struggle against all the hills on legs 9-13. But I wanted to give my teammates a chance to run their legs too so I kept going even if it felt really really bad.
Leaving #13, I wanted to find the easiest way. The road option on the left, I saw it and that was what I wanted. Getting to the road turned up to be much harder than I thought as I couldn't control my legs in the downhill from #13 past #9. Once I ran over the field to the road, I saw the Chinese guy. I thought to myself that I needed to stay with him if I wanted to survive until the finish. Next thing I know, I'm climbing the hill up to #14, no clue of how I got there or where the Chinese guy was now. I felt my blood sugar going really down, even just standing on that hillside felt really bad, almost dizzy-kind-of. Finally climbing the last meters of that 65meter climb to #14, I had to take my shirt off, it was SO hot. It felt a bit better but not much of help. The good thing was that there wasn't too much climb or harder running surface left before the finish. Last push to get through #15, #16 and #17. Over the finish line and map to Greg, I was DONE.
I remember hearing "we are taking your gps off", "here is water" and "you should move to the grass so nobody runs over you". The rest is just one empty black space in my head. Apart from those phrases, I have no idea what happened between collapsing at the map board and realizing I'm on my way to the ambulance. Two organisers helped me walk towards the ambulance when I kinda gain consciousness and from there on was able to walk by myself to the ambulance. They mesured my blood pressure(which was really low as I suspected) and heart rate. After a bit of rest I gained more energy and my heart started beating more steadily. All good after all.
Now, I guess it was the heat that got me, very badly this time. Anyways, I have a long way to being the best first leg runner in the world so once I get back on my feet, thats where I'm gonna start from.
GPS:
http://www.tulospalvelu.fi/gps/2018wocRelayM1/?v=m...