This is one of the biggest (literally and figuratively!) races in the orienteering season, always in Finland and always on my to do list. This is the first year that I have been able to be in Europe early enough to make it to it and is one aspect of the trip that I was really looking forward to. This year it was based near Kuopio, about a 5 hour drive north of Helsinki.
The women's race is called Venla and started at 2pm on Saturday, it is a 4 women relay with the first leg being known as the most manic with 1200 women all starting on the cannon.
We arrived at the event nice and early so the first leg runners for Halden had plenty of time to get ready. I on the other hand did some exploring, the event was HUGE! Unfortunately it had rained the previous day so it was a bit of a mud bath getting around, my bright yellow running shoes will never be the same. But the whole event reminded me of Rhythm and Vines or some equally big music festival x 10 and filled with a ton of orienteers speaking all sorts of languages instead of drunk adolescents....so quite different to Rhythm and Vines but the mud was the same!
I managed to find Kate Morrison who is going to be my new flattie in Uppsala, having not seen her for 2 years it was a great reunion when I found her in the middle of the worst mud patch with a pack twice her size and arms full of bags. Getting to catch up with Matt, Ross and Hanna was also great and made me very excited for staying in Europe.
After a bit of trouble finding the team I was running for and getting numbers and emit cards (the little electronic timing chip) I headed into the start area along with 1200 other women. Jogging around I looked like a bit of a gimp. Everyone was wearing their club tops but Umea the team I ran for didn't have any spares so I was in my NZ top. Most people were jabbering away in Swedish/Norwegian/Finnish while I jogged around with a gigantic grin on my face, not quite believing that I was here. What an experience!
We were called into our assigned positions, I was team 344 and maps were handed out. Again I couldn't wipe the smile off my face and was having trouble keeping my head forward as I craned around to look at the 900 women behind me that were joining the 300 in front in the forest. Eventually the countdown began and the cannon sent us off into the forest.
The first 600m or so was just running to get to the start triangle. Having scoped out the start area I knew I had about 500m of open paddock before it narrowed and became more uneven with rocks as we entered the forest. So I utilised this and took off. Some great advice Lizzie had given me was to just run and get in a better position before looking at the map. Given the scale of the race and that they can only have so many splits it is just a matter of choosing the right train of girls and then reading ahead. By the time we had hit the forest I was up with the top 50 girls and hoping they weren't planning on maintaining this crazy pace!
I managed to only fall over once near the start and avoided getting trampled, given this was my biggest worry I reckon it was a successful race! After the first few controls I knew I was in a good group but decided to take a wider route choice, avoiding some thicker forest but hopefully being faster. Success! All of a sudden the troops dropped off and I hit the next control with what I knew must be the front of the field. The rest of the course was relatively uneventful until towards the end when I got tired and a bit messy and was caught by the chasing packs. I came into the finish in 26th place, not bad for a first Venla! Apparently I was even famous (briefly) at the event on the big screen tv's. To make the events more spectator friendly they have lots of tv camera's out in the forest and gps tracking on the top teams so they know where people are, what mistakes they're making and who to expect to the next camera. Standing out in my NZ top at the start worked in my favour as my team mates for the club and the Aussie/Kiwi contingent could very easily spot the silver fern racing around the forest. I'll happily take my 10 seconds of fame given the company I was keeping at the time!
The men's race, Jukola, is traditionally held through the night with 7 person relay teams. They started at 11pm. I thought I was getting ahead of the game lining up to watch the start at 10.30 but was already too slow, being fourth row back with a ton of others jostling behind me to see the stampede. Not exactly dark but as close as they get that far north in Finland. It was also FREEZING!! I was wearing all the warm clothes I took (thermal, cardigan, thick icebreaker, puffer jacket, raincoat and beanie) and was getting seriously cold at the end of the men's first leg, about 12.15am. Matt was running for the Linne 2 team (my new club in Uppsala) and did really well surviving his first Jukola.
Another highlight was I had my first Finnish sauna and the President of Finland did a speech! Those two events are not related I don't think, he was speaking Finnish but I don't imagine he was hugely interested in my sauna. At the event they had set up 2 sauna's in the shower area and by god it was good after the race. I have very quickly become comfortable with the Scandi way of all just getting naked together, it's slightly worrying how quickly but gotta get used to it at some point. It's also great for the self esteem at some of these club events, where not everyone has abs and toned bodies like at world champs.
Heading back to Helsinki on Sunday morning was a long drive, the views tend to be forest, forest, forest, lake, forest, forest; but sheesh bed was good that night. Lizzie and I had a night in Helsinki before catching the ferry to Tallinn, Estonia for some more casual races prior to heading back to Italy on Thursday. Not a bad life I reckon!
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