Knockout sprint...

My preparations payed of from the first step, and I had already planned similar legs to the two first controls. I ran fast, and executed precise, just as one should do in a sprint. Smooth! But then suddenly the harmony was broken, I was rammed by a strong force and found myself lying on my back, seeing stars and hearing this high frequency sound. The head to head collision with another guy was a fact. I tried to rise to my legs as fast as possible and continued. The pain was really bad and I just wanted to puke. Luckily I knew where to go for the next legs, so I was running in some kind of autopilot. The rest of the race was a real struggle. I was fighting and fighting to keep my concentration, but it felt like it was slipping away over and over again. I didn't manage to complete the race the way it started, and after some stupid mistakes I finished as 9th, 48 seconds behind Karl Fremstad who won. I lost 20 seconds to the best spilt time where I collided, and another 50 towards the end technical, so I definitely had the speed to win.

Today I find myself as a big emotional mix. I am angry at the organisers for sending the start of the ordinary classes in a direction where they immediately run straight towards the elite (I know it is hard to avoid some of this running in a sprint, but in this case the guy I met had been running in less than 30 seconds from his start when we collided, check picture). I think this situation could have been avoided if the organisers had thought properly through this case. According to my GPS I was running at 20km per hour when we collided, and this other guy just starting his race was certainly running around 15km per hour. So it was some real powers involved in this crash. Besides being angry I am sad and disappointed that my race ended like it did, I am concerned for this other guy I met during the collision. I feel really bad that I was so egoistic that I just rose to my feet and continued running, instead of making 100% sure that the other guy was ok (I guess no fair play price for me this year). And I feel a bit scared. Five years ago I was injured by a concussion which lasted for 6 months. 6 months without any training, computer, tv or reading books. I really hope it will not be anything like that this time. The only thing I know is that today I am a spectator during the long distance, cheering for Kristin that had a kind of a breakthrough in the sprint yesterday with a 3^rd place!