I was 11 years old and it was my first 10mila. I have to admit that I don’t remember very much, which is understandable due to my age. The first thing I remember thinking of the competition is that one of my older sisters Malin turned 16 that day, and the speaker talked about her when she approached the goal on her leg for our first team.
I ran the second leg, the short one, in Haninge’s fifth team. It was my first 10mila so I was very nervous, even though my team only had a goal to complete the relay. I don’t remember my course that much, but I ran as fast as my short legs could. The orienteering was no problems for me, but the change over was a little bit tough for me, both when I was changed over to and when I was going to change over to the next runner. The map planks was too high for a short 11-year old girl!
When I look at my map and the results I realize that I didn’t know the boy that ran the last leg in my team. From the beginning we were only three in the team and we were one runner short. Through the relay bank came our savior, in the results called N.N, the boy who helped the team and me to reach our goals: to complete the relay. I have no idea who it was, but he advanced our team from 283rd place to 207th place of total 327 teams. My team beat my club’s fourth team with 83 places, which felt great.
Even though I don’t remember much more than that it was so fun to run that relay, it will always be my first 10mila. It will always be one of the first times when a dream began to grow. A dream to succeed and be really good at orienteering.
Moa on the finish lane 2005
Name: Moa Leijon Lind
Club: Haninge SOK
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