Welcome to my digital orienteering map archive!

I started less than two minutes behind third. Due to a shorter forking on no. 3 we were together. I had an opportunity to run away at control 7 (~30 s gap), however I lost it on the way to 9th, where I did not realize that running around to the left would be much easier and faster. We were back together at no. 10. Since my legs were tired I had to do something different than the competitor, so I tried a path instead of going straight to the 12th. It didn't pay off, but we were back together soon. No. 13th was tricky, so I positioned myself on the ridge before attacking the flag. But the direction was somewhat lost. Luckily my competitor was doing much worse, so that I punched shortly ahead. Afterwards it was an immense downhill running to the finish with just a couple of posts on the way. Gladly, I opened a decent gap and secured a podium position for the team in the finish.

I though I have missed the 14th, hence on the way to no. 15 I turned around and revisited the 14th again. I have never made such a turn before. Spectacular mistake!

What could have been the best Jukola ever - for the team and for myself. But I was disqualified for a mispunched control. Now from the top: everything went just as planned before the start, even a few solid hours of sleep. Changeover at the top200 was just as I expected, Auseklis I was at the 173rd position after five legs. The beginning of leg 6 was exciting: fresh feeling, a lot of overtaking. Went left to the 2nd because of an easier approach. On the way to no. 3 I slowed down several times to read the map, probably too often, but better safe than sorry. Half way through leg 5 I got a bit lost and confused. I did not panic, and decided to trust my direction. That was a right call, soon after I caught myself at the short edge of the vegetation, right before the final bog. It was fun to balance the map reading and running pace in legs 8 - 10. Here I also had a company of three, but ran away from them soon after. Perhaps, the hill to 11 hit my legs too hard, the pace dropped slightly from there on. Enjoyed running to 13 and 14, kept the direction well and generalization helped a lot. I caught another group of runners by the 16, however I missed a route choice and the little group to the 17 (should have gone left on the path). I went straight, which was NOT great. Luckily, I came out of the green hell right on the flag. Next, pushing hard through the long field after no. 17 apparently was too much for my comprehension. By the time I reached the area of control no. 18 the only thing left in my brain was confidence. It was the overconfidence that failed my race. I took the first flag that appeared in sight, and I did not bother to check the number (such a beginner mistake). Exiting the wrong checkpoint I noticed that I was a bit left than expected, but at that time I was caught in a couple of leading teams from leg 7 running on the path to no. 19. All I was thinking about was just to hang on to them in this long and easy stretch. After that I switched to survival mode - low speed, flawless navigation. The hardest task between flags 20 and 24 was traffic, a lot of lost runners there. Unexpectedly, 27 was not a problem, just following the beaten path. On the other hand the last control was a pickle for me. I could not see the print on the map, had to stop and double check the number. Hence, I missed the fight down the finish lane with a few other runners that I collected at the previous control. Nevertheless, I was very excited to see that I punched at the finish in position 134 and jumped 39 places in my leg. The happiness did not last long. The course setting team gladly explained and showed exactly where I failed, so I had a bittersweet feeling leaving the arena. Sad to disappoint the team, this could have been PB. But I am satisfied with my performance (65th place in the leg) and the amount of work I put in during the last six weeks.