Orienteering 45:30 [5] 7.0 km (6:30 / km)
Chasing start.
Started in the middle of a group that contained places 30-45ish, all withing 1minute. Right from the get-go it was simply a matter of chasing whichever back was in front of me, and hope that whoever it was at the front of the line was navigating a decent route! I had control over where we were, but was definitely just hanging on for dear life for the whole first map until the spectator run through. Ingjerd was at the front of our group, although Charlotte and one or two others managed to sneak a gap on us on the way back to the arena, when my line turned into a slow procession down a rock face.
After the run-through, our little pack consisted of Ingjerd, Ausrine, Ursula, 2 x swissies (Paula and Lisa). Mid leg to #10 though, Ingjerd headed off left through the forest, which was my preferred option. However, I somehow got stuck in behind those on the right hand option...through more of the rough open. We had a little pause when Paula got a stick in her eye, but she kept going alright. The group split as we navigated into #10 - I headed onto my own, but then hesitated thinking I'd got things wrong. Turned out I was 100% right, but lost time in the hesitation. I came into #10 with just the 2 swiss for company - Ausrine and Ingjerd having got ahead, and Ursula dropped behind (I think). I should maybe then have remembered that Paula got a stick in her eye, as she was leading us on #11. We went a bit left from what was perhaps best, but I was happy enough with the choice as it cut out some climb! Annoyed though to see some chasers closing in as we got to #11. They caught us at #12 as we farted around too high on the slope, and it was back to being a pack of 6 or7 on the routechoice back to 13. Again, the swiss and I opted for more rough open than was perhaps wise, losing some time.
From here to the finish, I honestly have no idea who was catching and who was being caught. But we ended up with about 7 of us racing to the penultimate control. I think I was in the lead of the group up until 20m from the control, when I hesitated and dropped to 4-5th in the pack. From there it was frantic to the last control...we all missed the nicely cut path into the field and ended up cutting through 10m of absolute crap. So then who lead into the sprint was just a matter of who didn't fall over in the crap! I ended up 2nd to back of our group. Not cos I fell over, but because I couldn't bring myself to literally run over those who fell. Anyway, I had a mean sprint finish with Lisa Holer, and overtook her right at the end. I was pretty damn stoked with my sprint...but despite being clearly ahead, we are equal in the official results. Apparently the don't go to photo finish for 38th place...bummer.
All in all, not a fan of this format. Way too much of a running race. If it's impossible to do some kind of fair forking system, then first-to-the-line racing should be limited to relays.