Salpa-Jukola 2011 (leg 6) (2011-07-01)

I was absolutely amazed by the performance of our leg 5 runner, a 16-year-old boy and Jukola first-timer. He gave me the second best starting position I've ever had in Jukola. I didn't want to ruin it - but I did. Controls 1 and 2 went well, but then I blew it big time. My compass misled me (the needle was sluggish to stabilize and I peeked the heading too fast) when approaching control 3. I got lost near the control. Getting back on track caused a delay of 15 minutes. After that it went pretty stable and I was able to recover some of the positions lost due to that big pummi. Careless approach at control 10 cost a few minutes and a final error at control 20 probably cost me those 7 positions that I finally lost during the leg. Final sprint was well and fun as always =). Next year my aim is to have a green number next to my name in the results.