The Story of a night mare

På sjunde sträckan för herrarnas förstalag gick Kaspar ut i absoluta täten och var med längst fram under stora delar av sträckan. I mål var han sex minuter efter och vi var många som undrade vad som hänt. Här kommer hans berättelse.

Here is what happened on my leg. I’m not 100% sure about everything on the last loop because it was an extremely stressfull situation.

Alain gave me a good position within a big group. In the beginning it was very hectic. A lot of runners who pushed really hard to stay in touch with the lead. You have to fight for the positions and still be in touch with the map. After Control 3 it was better. It was a long queue and i find myself in the top positions. Mora, Kalevan and me were the ones who took the initiative and tried to keep a high speed. This works really well over the whole course. I started to think that we are probably only a small group in the lead. Because it was only Mora and Kalevan showed up in the front. I had a really good flow until control number 21. Than it happened.

I came down the hill and suddenly it was dark. My headlamp turned off.

Shit. But right after that we came to the control. But it was not the correct one. It was the other forking. I was not really surpised because in my opinion I have to go further on to approach at my control. So I just stayed behind Kalevan and tried to turn on my lamp again. It didn’t work. So i decided to stop for a moment to grab my reserve lamp which I carried around my hip. As you can see on the gps, that was right beside the stone where the correct control would have been. But i didn’t see it. So i kept following Kalevan and tried to turn on my reserve lamp.

But that didn’t work either (I must be fallen on it during the race, because it worked during warm up) I knew that i was running to far but it was my only chance to get some light from the other runners. When we approached at the next control I saw the number and knew, that this is already control number 22. But i still need 21. I got some light for some seconds from the other runners who were passing and started to go back in the right direction. But it was totally dark. I couldn’t see anything in the forest and neither on the map. I was so busy to find a solution how i will find my controls that i didn’t start to panic. After a short while two other runners came in my direction and passed me. But there direction was towards control number 22. So I didn’t follow them.

The next light was a runner who came towards me (OK Linné) and i thought that could be the right direction. I followed him and we got to the stone. I was able to see the control number on the control but couldn’t check it on the control description. I had to rely on my memory. But in this situation i wasn’t happy about that, because i was really stressed.

But I had to hold the back of Linné. That was my only chance right now.

Towards Control number 22 I came again to a wrong control (contour 40m before my control) and we stopped.

It’s pure coincidence that Don Staudte was there at the same time and realized that i had a problem. So finally i got some Light for some seconds. I checked the control description of control number 21 and memorized the rest of my course. I think it was only 10 seconds and than i headed further on towards control number 22. Without any light it was hard to run and i had to trust in my feeling. I found control number 22.

Than i went over the hill to control number 23. Suddenly I wasn’t sure if I had to go further on because i couldn’t see Linné anymore. Again I lost some seconds but finally I saw another runner who was at the control and I managed to get there too. Than it was only one control left. I got some Light from a runner behind me that it was easy to follow the path.

When I came into the finish I heard that we are 6 minutes behind. It felt so bad and i was totally disappointed. And I didn’t understand how can we be so unlucky, that both of the lights were broken…

Right now I can also see some positive parts. I think that 6 minutes are not that much. It could have been much worse. And I can be happy that I got the right controls. Because i had one proper look on the map for all the controls. And finally my team was able to fight back into Top10!  That’s still a good position.

It was really bad what happened. It would have been the best situation for fighting for the podium on the last three legs. But we can just keep going and that I am confident, that we will be in the Top3 in the next years.

Best Regards
Kaspar