Last day of O-Ringen 2022 – venimus, cucurrimus, vicimus

We came, we ran, we conquered.

Today was the last day of O-Ringen and the chasing start and as Christine was in it and as her group started first, we needed to be up early. Which we were. The kids loved it, one could tell by the happy, smiling faces round the breakfast table (not). We also knew it was going to be one of the toughest days yet and as we had already seen the map we knew it would also be challenging.

We did the same setup as yesterday, with Vince and I driving the family to the event, going back to the house and biking to the event. There were no problems meeting up and the High’s were already there, full of beans, raring to go. Christine was the first to leave, in the chasing start at 10:01. She has had consistently good runs this week, however today was the exception and she had a bit of a mare (not as bad as some…. more later) to finish in 92nd position, moving down the GC to finish 75th in the W40-S.

Andrea was next, and she had her very best result of the week to finish 18^th in W60 although she had missed the start by 2 minutes. In the GC she climbed to 42^nd place. Next to start were the boys in the M14 just 75s apart. Marc caught Aidan at the 7^th control, but he ran away from Marc towards the end. Aidan’s last sprint-in attempt was a blistering 50s, a full 11s ahead of Marc. I think Marc might have been trying his backwards sprint time. On the day, Marc was just 47 seconds faster than Aidan to finish 119th, while Aidan was 123^rd. In the GC, Aidan remained ahead finishing in 109th overall, Marc just 3 places behind in 112^th place. There was no clear winner however, and also no blood spilled, so all ended well.

I was next off as the first M50-S2 not in the chasing start. I would be starting in 80^th place, but when I did get to the start (I was almost late), there was just 1 guy ahead of me and a string of them behind me. I had a good run, finishing in 69^th place and overtaking 10 places to finish 70^th in the GC. I had the best improvement during the week, gaining more than 10 places every day. Aline also started at this time, still in the chasing start. She had another super run, finishing in 17^th place and 24th in the W20 GC. Well done Aline. Great things still to come from Aline in the future.

Barbara, who has been improving throughout the week, had a great run in the W50 to finish 104th and overall 119^th in the GC. The smile on her face was good to see, and she obviously had a great time in the forest, which would help to balance out what happened to Klaus later. Käthi continued to improve, her 61st place in W21 today, a confirmation of her excellent race yesterday. She just squeaked in to the top 100 in GC and finished 99^th. Nice running Käthi.

At this time, also one of our disaster runs started. Ali, still in the chasing start in W45, had a good run until control 1 and then it all fell apart. Her description of her run cannot be repeated where young people might read it. Needless to say, she was still cheerful and happy to have finished O-Ringen in 136^th place, unfortunately dropping down the GC to be 79th overall. And (unfortunately) at this time the second of our disaster runs stated. Yes, Ali had laid the foundation and Darrell built the house. Full of confidence, brimming with enthusiasm after his brilliant result yesterday, Darrell decided rather to map the rest of Sweden today in M50-2. His 30 min mistake at control 7, proof of tiring bodies and minds (like the rest of us), is certainly a record this week. Darrell gritted his teeth and made another 20 minute mistake, just for fun. Give him credit though, he did push on to the finish, with enough high spirits to enjoy the run in. Darrell’s position was 125^th, which dropped him into the 96^th place in the GC.

Having said this, the High family star scorched round the course for her very best result of the week, finishing 48th in the W16 and 87th in the GC. Well done Heather. Both Hanna, who had her best run of the week, to finish 64th on the day and move up to 101^st place in the GC and Eáhba, who was not so happy with her 135th place and 126th place in the GC, will need to improve a little to challenge Heather next year. This rivalry happens on a very good level, and the friendship can only help all three girls to better results in the future. Ciro was also out there today in the heat and his 71st place in the M21-1, and 70^th on the GC was a well deserved result. Next time the team wishes more contact with our club trainer, don’t be so sparse dude.

Our last disaster run was also in the M50-2, where Klaus was having his nightmare day, he even considering giving up for the first time in his life, as he crashed on round the course to finish lower than Darrell in second last position and 130^th place. He was still in the time limit however, so not disqualified. His final GC was 121st, so well done anyway Klaus. There is always next year.

Koni who decided to tough it out in his course M60 (20% didn’t even start the last day due to the late start in the unbearable heat) finished in 83^rd position while sneaking into the top 80 overall in 78^th place. Well done Koni, you’re an inspiration to me, keep it up. Raphi, who has definitely had a mixed week with his results had an average run in the M21-L in the blinding heat to finish 100th on his course today and 88th on the GC. I’m not sure what made Raphi happiest today, his 48 km orienteering in 8 hours over 5 days or the fact that the lady in his life was clearly having a better week than he was. I only have one piece of advice buddy (after this been happening to me for the last 25 years), I learned it form the swede’s – shower more 😊 Fixes all manner of evils.

Lastly, our two “newbies” must be mentioned with full honours. Vincent who made a disastrous start to the week by missing the cut off on day 1, improved immensely to be remarkably constant over the last 4 days. His 32^nd place today was steady and he finished his week in the 28^th place in GC. Additionally, he has gone full OL techy on us, downloading apps, uploading GPX’s and generally being in the know when it comes Livelox. Super to see. Anne, who has enjoyed the orienteering so much, and improved to the degree that she regrets not taking a harder course, declared that today was at least a bit more challenging than yesterday. She finished in 37^th place, and captured the 36th place in GC. Well done to you both. The OLG N+O has found two new stalwarts for the next few years.

It has been a great week, with a high percentage of our troop improving consistently during the week. There have been some bad runs, some OK runs, and 1 or 2 blinders. Well done to all. There was not a single miss punch, and everybody always finished their course on the day.

Christine and I met 25 years ago, on the 21^st of July in Umea during our first O-Ringen. This was our 5^th and we enjoyed it very much. We will be back.