Latvian Championship, Relay

Latvian Championship, Relay, 16.09

Course: V21, 8,9 km.
Map: Kalnu sili, 1:10000, H 2,5 m.

Although we were running in the mens elite class, most of the opponents seemed to be of my age and a bit older. My tactic was not to fall too much behind, if at all. In the start I felt calm and relaxed, not worried about the race at all.

S-1: After the start was given, I just had a quick glance at the map and it was all clear already. Saw the favorites accelerating in the front of the group. Kept the distance close to minimum. I rand between the bigger "hills" until I could see the knoll that lay in front of the control. And just like that, I felt that the group's speed was decreasing while I decided to keep going the speed that I had. Saw that one guy had managed to get ahead of the group and I decided to catch him. I was very close to him, when I looked behind and saw that the others had dropped behind even more.
1-2: At first, it seemed that if I could hold the fastness, me and the other guy in the front could break away from the others. Took a bearing to the narrow ride and to my surprise, a lot of runners from our class were coming out to the track also, right in front of me. What the heck!? All that effort and for what? The "forking" of the course was so that I had the longest route. Too bad. Stayed together with the others for a while and the fast runner in the lead. Easy map reading, tough running to the control. There were four of us at that moment, and I was the last one.
2-3: While the other ones went from the left, supposedly through the big depression, I took more of a straight direction in the beginning. Came to the other side and when reaching the tracks, the distances between th four of us were equal, about 10 meters each. I was the third. Followed the side of the hill until the climb. Tough. Forking. The one in the front maintained his lead and even increased it while I became second right behind him. Didn't look behind but I knew the others were close.
3-4: Straight going and no possibility of catching the leader. Saw some other runners speeding down the steep slope on the right. Again a longer forking for me? Kept going fast (for me). Saw the knoll right before the small depressions and ran there. The depressions looked more like pits to me.
4-5: Through the depressions, to the other side of the ridge. Mostly straight.Could see my greatest opponent ahead all the time until the 5th.
5-6: Long spur, around the depressions, onto the road. Up the hill.
6-7: At first, I wanted to go from the right side of the hill before the higher ridge. Then reconsidered and went from the left. Easy. Before the control, I had a good view of my position - I could see about a 150 meters the one ahead of me about and about 200-300 meters the ones behind me.
7-8: By the edge of the slope and avoided the extra climbing at the control area. Now I wanted to catch the one in front of me.
8-9: Just about when I reached the small path, something bad happened. A sudden pain struck in my chest, on the right side. At first, it was tolerable but just before I reached the big road, the pain had turned into intolerable. I had never felt that much pain in my chest before. It was impossible to run. I moved very slowly, but at least in the right direction. Damn that hurt! I was cursing so loud that maybe even the folks in the spectator control heard me coming. Just before the control, two rivals passed me. I was almost walking.
9-10: The pain had gotten worse and showed no sign of going away. I began to walk and even stopped two times to lean against a tree to breathe and try to make the pain go away. Hopeless. From the point where I had to cross the marsh, the pain had fallen back a bit. I could just jog slowly.
10-F: The pain didn't stop until I finished. I was together with another guy that had the same speed that I did. I had difficulties running downhill but not uphill. No mistake but I lost about 4 minutes on the last loop of the course because of that awful pain!
Splits (V21)

   1. Madonas BJSS 1                          2:02:26
2. Alūksne OK                              2:02:40  +0:14
3. OK Purva Bridējs 1                      2:05:45  +3:19
4. Auseklis IK absolut (a.k.)              2:10:59  +7:33
5. OK Võru                                 2:11:25  +8:59
Lauri Sild               47:00
Sixten Sild              45:35
Timo Sild                38:50
6. Burkānciems de Lux                      2:11:37  +9:11

When subtracting that 4 minutes off of our time, I guess we could have been able to fight for the bronze. But that's all "what if".
I came in at an awful place but the total position in the end was 5th.