Orienteering 17:30 [4] 3.95 km (4:26 / km) +120m 3:51 / km
Sprint Relay. 4th.
Oh boy. My first time in the HSK first team. I was fairly cr&pping myself, but it was made a hell of a lot easier by Iliana being so happily excited for the race, together with the combination of super experienced Emil, and fellow debutant Niels. A fun team, which was good as I had enough nerves for myself, without having to think about club/team expectations and nerves!
Anyhow, I was on last leg. Iliana and i had done a last minute google earth nerd of the terrain the night before. So we knew roughly the first route choice, and that we were in for some tough climbs, and had figured out the area for the last loop. Then the course was no big surpries - long route choice to #1, working your way across the slop and then back down the arena, followed by a short, no-split loop at the end.
Iliana went out on first leg and came back in 2nd place, behind Silje. Niels dropped a bit on second leg, coming in 3rd, which Emil kept. So I headed out in 3rd, about 50s behind the leading 2 teams. Emil told me to go Left on the first route choice, and there wasn't much chance I'd disobey him! So up up up the hill to #1 (it was the correct route choice), where I saw Lone exiting the control as I headed toward it. No sign of Nydalen. Unfortunately, I didn't have Emil to tell me which route to take to #2, and I chose the suboptimal choice, dropping a bit of the time I'd gained on Lone - she was well gone by the time I got to #2. Not much to say bout the next bit, except for #6 where I had the split on the inside corner of the basketball court - with no descriptions but on the map, I ran to the outside corner of the fence and had to double back.
As I got to the bottom of the hill toward the arena, Sigrid (NTNUI) caught me up. Which didn't knock me too much, as it was kind of inevitable, she's in such good form at the moment. Still annoying as I knew I dropped to 4th, and was wondering who else was hunting me down. But Lone reappeared just in front of us just after the Arena passage, and suddenly there was a race on for spots 2-4. Not something I'm really ready for just yet! But I gritted my teeth and tried not to be too dispondent as tthe other two stretched away from me. I immediately kicked myself for not hurdling the fence to #11, but I was so intent on their backs that I just didn't register it was crossable. Anyway, they were just about out of my reach, and I was resigned to 4th when again, Lone suddenly reappeared at my side on the way to 13. Unfortunately she joined me just as I was hesitating and trying not to make the same mistake it turned out she'd just made! So we ended up neck and neck. I felt I had a chance to try and take her as we came up the slope into the courtyard with the last control, but again, I hesitated as I didn't feel I had the speed to hold her off for 200m. That was my moment, and I missed it. Well out sprinted for the bronze medal, but happy with a bitter-sweet 4th.
Happy that the overwhelming reaction from the HSK crowd, both there and at home was happiness for the 4th place and that I was up for the fight, rather than ruing a missed 3rd. Definitely makes it easier for me to feel good about it! (Or rather, not feel guilty about not being very annoyed at missing 3rd place)