Elīna Krēmere | 8th June, 2019
Jēkabs and I Light Up Latvian Rogaining Championship
22:56, January 16th
Elīna: "Hey, crazy idea – want to run a long rogaining with me in a couple of months?"
Jēkabs: "That is the best crazy idea I’ve heard from anyone recently. 😊 I’m in!"
Elīna: "I was just looking for a junior to run long ones with. We can easily sleep during; I’m not demanding speed."
Jēkabs: "Not even scared 😏. It’ll be fun… yeah!"
And so, began our adventure…
5:30, June 8th
I’ve woken up with an excited agitation. The list of things to bring (which was agreed up the night before) has been checked and packed, at times it feels as if I’m packing for a weeklong trip. 😂 Everything along with bikes, a couple of blankets and even a lounge chair in a wooden frame gets packed into the car. My brother and cousin understand the plan completely – they run for 6h and then bike to visit us (me, Jēkabs, my mom and my mom’s sister, brother and his friend), who’ll be doing 24 hours, they are also supposed to take care us Jēkabs and I as we’re planning on returning to the rec center at night. Inčukalns to Riga is kind of a long journey, but it goes by so fast, that I don’t even manage to catch a little nap before start.
9:00, June 8th
My teammate, has arrived, we register, read some of the new “Orientieris” and I gush over the fact, that we get a GPS device. It’s so that we don’t go into the forbidden areas and that the family Janov can follow our location LIVE. The competition is opening, we get our maps and calmly head back. Planning is easy as always and in a couple minutes I’m already on course, we only had to improve some checkpoint choices and routes.
The organizers had done an amazing job with the locations of the point, they really did make you consider the route
11:03, June 8th
The team “No Running Indoors” (the name because I met Jēkabs for the first time at an indoor orienteering competition) is ready for start. We go through the contents of our bags where everything is arranged for the first 12 to 14 hours. The plan after is to get back to the center, nap for 3h, change our clothes, eat some breakfast, and then finish the rest of the course in the morning. The distance is calculated quite roughly, at first, we really had no idea how fast we’d be moving or if we’ll EVEN be able to move through the heat and insects. Shortly before start I remember about about my light, which was charging at the center, thank God I did remember.
The fear of what is to be expected is non-existent for me and my teammate, and that really is the main thing!
12:00, June 8th
The opening shots are fired, and we head into the woods, at first trotting a bit, but we warm up quick and stay on course. I tell Jēkabs about all the orienteers around us and try to predict the winners. At a speed which feels appropriate we move towards the first checkpoint and the insects haven’t yet started to attack. CP 31 and CP22 are visited successfully along with some other teams, then for a while we are alone. On our way to CP85 we wander into a manufacture territory and as quickly as we entered, we leave. When we meet other teams the first “How are you?” and “Everything OK?” start coming on, and luckily enough – all our answers are positive. Then we get left alone again, it doesn’t matter though, as the conversations we have are interesting enough, we don’t even realize that we’ve reached CP49 far too early. We find ourselves in the middle of a ditch, where we realize, that we can’t even go straight to the point, because we can’t go through the forbidden zone! Here we are, lesson learned. At the border of the forbidden zone, there’s a nice, big nettle field, which is embellished with amazing scratching branches and hoards of horseflies. Both of us, in short pants, have managed to raw up our calves in the first 2 hours! How could I forget that you must be completely covered when doing rogainings even in the heat!?
14:20, June 8th
We’ve regained breath after the atrocity of the first few mishaps in the woods and we have learned from our mistakes, we have to be more careful and try not to get into any more trouble. We head to CP70 through an overgrown trail and we use this route as an opportunity to eat something. We have our first dispute – we can’t decide if we want to head to CP76 straight ahead through the trench or taking a detour. In the end, we head through the detour because the trench turned out to be overgrown and unnavigable. Of course, the first waterhole break comes up – we fill up all our bottles and join up with a 3-man team and keep on. CP45 finds us itself and then we successfully get onto the freeway. At one point I cry a little bit – in the woods, the swamps and clearings, the mosquitos, horseflies, and flies are so numerous, that I thought I couldn’t even continue. We keep on walking the freeway though and Jēkabs considers the possibility of my red cap attracting all the insects. We decide to conduct an experiment, we grab a stick and put the cap on it, raise it in the air and keep walking. Believe it or not, but he was right. There’s a car passing by and turns out it’s Daiga, one of the organizers of the competition. She says it looks as if we’re hitchhiking. I explain that the cap attracts insects and I ended up exchanging the cap for a scarf to put around my head. Big thank you to Daiga, I really had no idea what to do with myself I was so glad!
15:48, June 8th
We reach a joint and logical conclusion that if we cut off every corner of our route by 100 meters, then cutting 10 corners will save us a whole kilometer! I am perfectly aware of how long one kilometer can feel at the end of a long distance, so I allow us to cut all possible corners even if does seem and feel laughable. Shortly before arriving at CP83 we meet some ladies who have already managed to take a swim and my teammate expresses a wish to go for one as well. Even though our course is set up so that we wouldn’t have an of these dangerous swimming moments, I do agree that it might be useful. Jēkabs gets into the water for a bit at the next checkpoint, but I was getting attacked by horseflies again and rushed him to get on with it. For the next 15 minutes I was very annoyed, I started singing stupid songs, just to be able to block out the sound of the flies swarming me. The insects subsided and we decided to sit down for a bit of a pause, we eat some sour gummy worms and another car passing by stops to asks about the competition. We talk for a bit and then we continue, Jēkabs and I discuss our families, plans for the future and phones. Just before CP 87 I get to hear the famous story of how Jēkabs started doing Rubiks cubes (it’s such an art, remembering and learning deduce all the combinations). Returning to the road from the checkpoint I remember how surprised I was about the fact that his mom had read my old blogposts. I joke that this trip would make a good post as well, so that he knows what was going through my head at the time. Jēkabs agrees and supports this idea. I am so glad about such an awesome rogaining teammate. :)
20:37, June 8th
CP 58 and CP52 get marked off and we happily head off to the furthest checkpoint at the other side of the map! We’ve overspent the allotted time by 3 hours, but everything is still fine. I am in awe about the surrounding woods, as just 3weeks ago I was running the Ozone Championship there. I recognized the route I had taken before and that did provide a safe feeling. We leave our bags at the water station, so we can run to CP98. Jēkabs surprises me, his running tempo and gait is almost as if we were at the very beginning of the distance. The promised swim at the checkpoint has to be skipped as it has gotten cooler. We end up staying at the water station for 30minutes, which for me is a lot, but I’m not going to deny Jēkabs this pleasure. We have a hearty meal and I take the opportunity to speak to other teams, including some Estonians, who were awaiting an evacuation. The route to the next three point was filled with teams coming back towards us, who had planned to spend the night at the furthest corner of the map. We hear some complaints about the lack of drinking water, but that doesn’t affect our team.
22:25, June 8th
To me the scariest part of the track was the night. Especially, how are we supposed to get from CP81 to CP61? The higher powers were so kind to us, the the swamp was completely dry, same as the trench. On the road we started trotting again, sounds ironic, but we did it so that we can rest for a bit. On our way to CP86 we take a little break, to plan out the next part of the distance.
23:56, June 8th
The GPS tracker image of our night adventure definitely need to be viewed expanded. We took two hefty winding tours around CP 27 until we finally found it. After this straying, I promise myself to get it together and I do so – I enthusiastically tell Jēkabs everything about where and how we’re going as well as how important it’s to collect the following points and to concentrate. At that moment I could’ve blabbered as much as I wish, I couldn’t change the situation – Jēkabs was dozing off. It was awfully unusual to see him, a guy who runs the serpentines of Sigulda regularly and has just finished a marathon in 3 hours and 20 minutes a month ago, having a hard time running. Of course, I knew, that this was going to happen, but I wasn’t expecting it to happen at such an important moment! He decided to break of two branches to create some walking sticks so he can follow me. I promise him, that we’ll take a break just before CP 43, and so we do. And yes, as always, if something can go wrong it will, not only was I half asleep and half anxious, Jēkabs was sleepy and then the rain came along. We hide at the side of the road, under some trees, I was wishing for those same higher powers, to take pity on us. On our way to CP 44 my knowledge of Inčukalns came in clutch. After collecting 4 more points I sit down on the road and sink into my thoughts. Don’t really want to keep moving, I hope that food might help a little and so it appeared to be. The time was just past 3am and we we’re just getting back into the game. “You know what, let’s go, let’s get that CP 65!” And so, we did (almost).
No washing your feet before the finish! :)
4:00, June 9th
I’ve noticed that if it’s raining, then the midges go away. I lay our map on the ground, put my bag under my head and tell Jēkabs – 10 minutes. At that moment I already didn’t see what he was doing or not doing, I was gone. This was followed by a miracle, 18 minutes later I woke up, refreshed and with a ton of energy. My teammate had come back to life as well, luckily. When we get back to the freeway, we promise each other that there’s no turning back. We’ll keep going until we run out of time because only pussies go home early. I really didn’t care about the lack of food then, as long as we’ve got water, we can carry on collecting checkpoints.
6:16, June 9th
After some heavy rethinking at CP 38, we decide to keep going a little further (at first, the plan was to return). Morning tiredness did make us take some unnecessary paths before getting to Egļupe. The kilometer of gravel was horrid. Shortly before the checkpoint we took a wrong turn, which was the mistake which lead me to my biggest tantrum. I try to keep everything inside while Jēkabs counts how many checkpoints we’ve already gotten. I calm down and we meet a local Russian-speaker, who lives in a trailer right in between CP 68 and CP 64. Jēkabs knows or understand no Russian, but I try to compile all my brain power to mutter “YA ochen' ustal”. The last under-growths on our way to CP 64 and we’re already back in Egļupe., where a polite old lady lets us into the village. We only have one checkpoint left, so the pain is there no more.
Here, if you look carefully, you can see some more sleeping breaks – just after CP 29 and right by CP38
9:57, June 9th
We’ve reached the last checkpoint, the route to which wasn’t all too easy. Even though the GPS didn’t make it look too difficult in real life it was stressful – I took Jēkabs down the wrong tracks three times and at one point we completely lost direction, and then scale. We get to the trench after getting the point and I’m crying tears of happiness on the inside. I’m so happy, that I experienced all this with such an awesome teammate by my side. He laughs that we’re not done yet and we start trotting on – I do my “granny” step and he does his “just warming up” step. Just before we get back, we run into my brother and cousin, who had been carefully following us through live location. To mark us at the finish line, we sprint for a bit, to show, that we’re not even THAT tired. :)
12:30, June 9th
The control time of the competition is officially finished. It’s a good thing that the awards come only at 2PM – we managed to take a good nap in the car and eat at the center. Chips we’re really the best gift, the soup with olives and cold water weren’t too bad either. It looks as if the other team have done well too if not even better. But I do believe that “No Running Indoors” made its debut as the coolest team of the contest. We learned a lot and we’re ready to do even more next year!
208 point collected, 70km crossed. Second best between 4 teams of juniors, but the best mixed juniors. ❤