Well, most of you know what happened to Kristiansand OK’s first team during the Jukola night, but here is the story of the third team. Team nr. 1534.
Our team started the relay very well, with Christian Bøen on the first leg. Bøen ran excellent, and came to the change-over as nr.28, just 4 minutes behind. Arild Nomeland lost some time on the second leg, after a meeting with the famous wall. Magnus Johansson ran also good and sent me out on the 4th leg as nr.55.
First of all, I expected my leg to be completely day-leg, and I was even thinking of dropping the headlamp before start. The rainy weather and dense forest made most of my leg night-O, even though I could see the contours in the terrain.
I started well, but I lost some time already on the way to the first control by choosing too straight route (through a marsh). On the way to the second control I lost the control, and made a stupid mistake of more than 2:30 minutes. In this difficult terrain, it was frustrating to lose so much time on the easiest control – 2,5 meters high stone.
My tactic was wrong to the next control as well, I ran as fast as I could (probably due to my frustration), and didn’t manage to see the flag. I even tried with two other attackpoints nearby, but I still came to the same place, with no control around me. At the end, I found out that I’ve been 10m from the flag, but unable to see it because of the bushes. Boring. Then I changed my tactics and ran slowly to the next control – just to gain my self confidence back.
The rest of the course went alright, with some minor mistakes and one big one (2 min.). At the end I changed over as nr. 53, having the 73th best time on the 4th leg.
The team made it well, finishing as the best third team in the race – on the 60th place! Not bad for a team with starting number 1534!
And about my own performance, I was not so happy after the race. I got the feeling that I managed to run well through the difficult parts of the course, but not in the easy ones. Even though the result was not so bad at all, I knew that I could have run much better. And here – a picture says more than 1000 words:

Photo: Silje K.