Måsen staffet. First real race of the season, or at least the first race that felt official, and my first time wearing a club top. I got placed on the 4th (anchor) leg of the 3rd team, and I was feeling a bit nervous because I was by far the worst orienteer on the team. It felt great to be given a chance to run with Anders H, Liutas, and Jorgen but I also thought that maybe Pontus ought to have been given the spot instead.
I love relays! It was fun to cheer and watch everyone in the club race so well, especially Sam, sending out Linné 3 in 4th place as our first women's team.
When it was nearing time for me to go out, I was warming up with Andrew Quinn, and we figured that we would start close to each other and there was a certain amount of trash talking :)
I did get tagged off just a minute or so after Andrew, and I found a good flow right away. I cruised though the first few controls effortlessly, and as I was coming into 3, I saw Andrew leaving, and was able to fully reel him in by the 5th. I guess I got too excited and I made a small error in the circle on the next leg (and pulled Andrew with me) and then we had different forkings after that but I managed to mess mine up with a bad bearing from my attackpoint, where I lost another minute. I didn't see Andrew again, and raced the rest of the course pretty well. Two more small bobbles, but nothing too soul crushing. There was a guy from another club just ahead as I raced for the last control, and that was a nice incentive to pass him and push all out on the way into the finish. Andrew raced cleanly at the end, and they ended up 31st and we ended up 32, about 50 seconds back.
A nice start to the season!
Winsplits