1981 was my first 10MILA running for Skarpnäcks OL. Before that I had run two times for Fredrikshofs IF.
The competition 1981 started for me as functionary work a weekend before the competition. I remember the building of the enormous toilet area. There were no portable toilets; instead we dug a long and deep ditch. On top of the ditch we built benches, roof and walls, and split the area into one part for the women and one for the men. After the competition we tore down the benches, the roof and the walls. Then we filled the ditch with soil. Done.
Well, the competition. I ran the third leg which was 13,7 kilometers. I can’t remember much more than the weather and the passage of a ditch, which has been described earlier here on the blog…
2005 I did more functionary work. This time I worked as assistant traffic manager. We had many meetings before the competition and planned for example the busses driving between the arena and the showers. I also built over 100 military tents one weekend. During the competition I spent most time controlling the busses to and from the shower.
I tried to sleep a little in the evening before my 6th leg. As a functionary I had access to the accommodation which was in a building quite far away from the competition area. It was hard to follow the relay from there, so I was back at the competition center too early. I didn’t want to miss my start but now I had to wait in the cold. At last we saw our runner. Precisely after him came the runner from our first team. So Skarpnäcks OL team 1 and 2 changed over almost the same time to leg 6. I saw my team mate in the forest even though the forking. In the end he ran faster than me and he was a few minutes ahead of me to change over to the next leg.
After my race I could rest a few hours and then we had to start dismantle it all again. We took down signs and packed the military tents. It was a little bit messy for a moment; some Finnish teams found stoves that they used in their tents, and when we tried to take the stoves out the flames spread in the dry grass. Luckily enough we had the fire-extinguishers near.
Now we’ll see if I’ll be running my third 10MILA in Kungsängen, and my 27th in total.
Stefan Gustafsson
Club: Skarpnäcks OL