I was only ten years old and it was one of my first competitions, definitely one of my first relays. My mother was there with me.
I looked up to my team mates very much; I was the youngest runner in my team. I ran the second and shortest leg in the youth relay.
While running I made company with a girl my age. It was one of the first years for me running orienteering, and honestly I didn’t run alone very often. “Hi, what’s your name? Do you also run the second leg? Do you also run ’W10’”? And all by sudden you’ve got a new friend. I’m sure many people out there have made a lot of friends while running in the forest. We ran together the entire race, and probably we talked about all things except orienteering. Unfortunately I don’t remember the terrain, weather or anything else. But I guess that’s not a strange thing for being a ten year old, unfocused girl.
I had never seen so many people at the same time in the forest. It was like a queue of children, and I thought that was exciting. In the end of the race I stopped because I had to pee. Preparations, like peeing before the race, were one thing I hadn’t learned yet.
After the change over to the next leg, I got compliments from my team mates. I loved it when people said appreciating things to me, that’s things that remains stuck in your head. Checking the results today, seven years later, I took my team from 310th to 301st place. No race to brag about, but as a beginner every appreciating word was important.
Nobody in my family is running orienteering except for me. I grew into the sport because I loved it. Not many people would have thought that a kid like me, who ran 10MILA 2005 in sweatpants and a borrowed club dress, would still be running orienteering today. But that’s the story, I love orienteering and 10MILA has since 2005 been one of my great favourites.
So what was our team result in 2005? We ended in 232:nd place.
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Name: Laura D’Angelo
Club 2005: Rotebro IS OK
Current club: Attunda OK
Orienteering-status right now: W18 Elite, studying natural science and orienteering in Eksjö.
Do you want to share your experience of 10MILA in Kungsängen 1947, 1981 or 2005? Send a mail to tiomilaupplevelsen@gmail.com for more information