Training Log Archive: Kris

Tired..

Jukola First Leg - Map - Splits

Worked through at the start, no banter start for me, but was sitting around 10th at the start point. Got stuck in a pond halfway to the first control which meant I had to work my way back up. Hit the first gaffle good and dropped down to the road on the back of a little pack.

Second gaffle (no.4) not so good. Had good control over the hill but not in the circle and wasted 40s hitting the wrong gaffle, despite running within metres of mine I didn't see it. Ok, no worries. Except I hit the wrong next control too. It seems from the GPS so did a lot of people but another 50s wasted.

I pushed a bit over the next few controls and gained quite a few places but then on control 11 I did the cardinal sin. I was pushing and my mind was drifting ahead to the long leg (still three controls away) and I went into the green without checking my compass. Straight into the wrong gaffle and 90s lost cutting back across. Looking at the GPS, everyone who had my control missed so it wasn't just me who didn't check.

I ran well to the next couple, cursing myself, but actually despite all my mistakes I was only 2 minutes behind. I cut this by a minute on the next two long legs (14/15) but I was stressed at this point and getting really frustrated as it was so difficult to pass people. Caught a group including Antonio, Sander and Emil Wingstead on the way to 16 but then we all made a parallel error. Another 50 seconds blown.

I pushed really hard from this point to the finish and didn't reqally make any mistakes, I had the longer gaffle on 19 though which meant that whilst Antonio and Emil caught the end of the first group, I came in with the front of the second group 2.14 behind. Sander beat me in the sprint..

Given it was a very poor first leg on my part I was surprised to be so close behind. It would have been good to send Speakey out a bit higher up, but the important thing was I didn't blow it.

Awesome running by Hector and Cherry. Much cooler than me today.

As a team we lost quite a lot in the night but worked back to be in 13th at points during last leg. Nico was passed by a couple of people though to finish 17th in the end.