Tiomila 2008 sjuende etappe

Sjuende etappe:
Baptist Rollier løper en fantastisk etappe der han nesten hele veien er alene i tet. Han holder forfølgerne på omtrent 2 minutters avstand gjennom hele etappen. Han veksler på først, 1:57 foran neste lag og har 5. beste etappetid. Nå har Halden begynt kjøret og leder an blant forfølgerne etter en solid etappe av eks KOK-løper Anders Nordberg.

Baptist Rollier runs a fantastic leg where he is alone in the lead almost all the way. He keeps ahead of the chasing teams by about 2 minutes throughout the leg. He changes over first, 1:57 ahead of the next team and has 5th best legtime. By now, Halden has picked up the pace and leads the way among the chasing teams after a solid leg by the ex KOK-runner Anders Nordberg.

Preparation
First I didn't expect to start in the night so I hadn't been doing any night-o the last 3 weeks before Tio. But I knew that I could manage it because we had had many night-o trainings in the last 5 months and because I have acquired a Betty (a powerful headlamp from Lupine).

The race
The runners on the first 6 legs did a very good job and I was glad to start in the lead together with Millinger from OK Linné. On the way to the first control we ran together and I took the lead close to the control. Leaving the control I had a problem with the headlamp which fell forward and illuminated the map so strongly that I couldn't read it anymore. This made me lose the direction for some meters and when I got the technology under control, I noticed we where to much to the right. Then I just went to the left, back to the planned route choice. That was the point where the Millinger went right instead of left! During the race I thought that I took a different route choice and that I would see him at control number 3. But I didn't see him any more.

In the lead
Until the bridge I ran safe in order to avoid mistakes, which went quite well except small
hesitations. At the bridge Torstein told me: "You are in the lead by 2 minutes... and andrschschehe secondscheshsc". I was kept busy for 30 seconds trying to understand what the second part of his sentence had been. And then I realized that he said: "Anders is second". The rest of the course went well and I was very satisfied to give Holger a 2 minute lead.

Could we win?
When I was asked if we would win I was pretty sure that we would make it. Who had a better finish that us? Nobody!

Picture of the my situation in the relay: Being chased by a group of hungry orienteers...

Winning
A GREAT feeling and I'm proud to be member of KOK. This is the result of the hard work during the last 6 years and I was just lucky to jump on the KOK rocket at the right time. Since Tiomila I feel even more a member of KOK. This victory showed me that the "totaly new life" I started last autumn was the right thing for me. I'm now looking forward to improving my skills and to see KOK progress in the next months and years.

Thanks
Thanks to the people who made this possible and who help KOK runners to achieve their goals as a team or as individuals: Pascal and Barbara, Jon, Morten, Torstein, KOK members and fans who supported us.