Orienteering Meet race 25:25 [5] *** 3.7 km (6:52 / km)
spiked:12/12c
US RELAY CHAMPS, St louis MO. What a finish day for an awesome weekend of O and van riding with ChicagO members. This will go down as one of the best races in Chicago history as we medaled 1st place in the 8 point catagory. It was me leading off, strategy being that I can run fast and stay with the leaders. Which I did, Superfast Chris S running another orange course, keeping our lead. Natalia, running the green leg, who is super good and a US Champ/World champ many a time. Of course Maricel, our no.1 guy who is getting ACL surgery on his knee bringing it home. Well we had a couple of minutes lead on OK club and they had 2 past US champs on their squad and PeggyD who has been on the US team and their last man was Mark E..an awesome runner. At some point Mark caught Maricel and they went back and forth on the red course. At the go control, Mark actually punched the control before Maricel and by accident the control fell to the ground, Maricel had to punch while it was on the ground and in the final 200-300 meters to the finish pass Mark and win 1st place for ChicagO by 20 feet or 2 seconds. Wow what a finish and what a race for us.
I can't begin to say how proud I am of my teammates and our other members of ChicagO club for support of what everyone should be proud of. That we can orienteer from the flatlands of the city.