I was so nervous. I thought it was going to be like yesterday's sprint but oh how wrong I was.
I passed Oriana (who started 2 mins before me) on my way to 3 because she went the wrong angle after leaving the road. It was a bit of a shock to me to be running in the woods because I had prepared myself for urban spring orienteering so much that I almost forgot how to navigate in the woods, and I was worried it would be painful because I didn't notice the trails at first. Then, with the trails, it was perfectly fine.
For the rest of the course I was trying my absolute best to stay ahead of Oriana. I know she's a stronger runner than me, and she can last way longer than I can. I was dying up hills and constantly looking over my shoulder to see 1. if I can see her and 2. how quickly she's closing the gap. By 8 I thought she'd blow past me but somehow I apparently kept my lead, all the way into the finish. I noticed that yesterday she beat me on the sprint almost purely because of the last 5 controls, so today I was making extra sure that I kept pushing, even at the end. Honestly, without Oriana there, I don't think I would have been able to run that much, and I don't think I would have enjoyed the sprint so much.
I had a clean race except for one little confusion at 6, but that definitely cost me less than 30 seconds. Other than that I was quadruple checking control descriptions and codes because I knew that with Oriana behind me like that, if I made a single mistake she'd pass me and then I'd lose my motivation and I'd crash, so I was checking every corner if it's on the inside or outside and if the control is above or below. I'm very proud of this sprint, and I think despite my kinda slow pace, it's up there as one of the best sprints I've ran in quite a while.