Season summary and future prospects

Summarising the season it was difficult and not what I expected but still one of the bests in a way since I gained my best ever World Cup placing, being 6th in the World Cup long distance in Spain. That’s much more than I could have dreamed about in January when suffering from a pelvic fracture and unable to do anything. What I regret most is that I was again the first to drop out from the WOC team and didn’t get to run the race I had prepared for for a whole year. I really would have loved to get that chance. To EOC I got a last minute call and placed twice in top 20 there. I had aimed higher but didn’t have much left after WC and qualifications. After only two months of training 6 races in 10 days was just a bit too much at once. In Venla relay we climbed back to the podium placing 2nd after the flying Danes. That was perhaps the biggest highlight of the year and something I will always remember. It was very special since it was probably my last Venla with the wonderful Punahilkka team (girls’ team in Tampereen Pyrintö). About 10 years ago all former stars left Pyrintö and we were only a few girls left in the club. But we kept training hard, supporting one another, and built this amazing new team, that was able to win Venla in 2010 and Tiomila in 2011. Today, the group is much bigger and has several competitive teams. I will miss them all, not only the first team, but the whole bunch of them. There are always more runners behind a successful team than those standing on the podium. But since I’m living now more or less permanently in Sweden, it’s time for a change and new challenges.

What comes to my future plans (ta da, now comes the big news…), next year I will be running for OK Linné and competing mostly in Sweden. And hopefully in Scotland too! After spending three years in UK, heather covered hills and moors feel like my playground. But Swedish Champs in Stockholm will be another great target and challenge to me. I’ve still got a lot of work to do in order to master that kind of detailed terrain but I’m really looking forward to all technical training that I can do here in order to improve my rusted orienteering skills. Getting a few things right can mean minutes off from your race time. The training milieu in OK Linné is fantastic and I’m really looking forward to get fully integrated to it. Tisdagsbanan has already started and the Winter training première is just around the corner. Tisdags...what? Tisdagsbanan. It's a well-known concept in Linné, a special form of winter training since time immemorial (read Cat's wonderful description of it here). Winter Training Première on the other hand is a serious start of winter training, described as a ritual ceremony with epic proportions. We also had a small kick-off for the season in a form of Tiomila training camp a few weeks ago. It was a great weekend with plentiful high quality O sessions.

I also want to acknowledge other local clubs who have warmly welcomed me to their trainings and helped with various things. You have made me feel like home here. Tack!

And obviously I want to thank Pyrintö and all wonderful people there who have been there for me all these years! You will always have a special place in my heart. I still get tears in my eyes when I think back everything. 

Some flashbacks from the time in Pyrintö...

Tiomila 2006, 8th

Venla 2006, 4th

Smålandskavlen 2008, 2nd

Bonding

Venla 2009, 3rd

Hey babes, let's take a limo!

Venla 2010, we did it!

High heels instead of spikes - an unusual sight

Tiomila 2011, 1st

25manna 2011, 1st

Athens Marathon - The Authentic

A week ago I did something historic. I followed the footsteps of a legendary Greek messenger Pheidippides who, according to an ancient legend, ran the stretch from Marathon to Athens to deliver the news of victory against the Persians in the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. Shortly after delivering the message he died. Who would have thought that tens of thousands of people would be voluntarily running a 42.195km road race in his commemoration thousands of years later? Well, we do, and not only in Greece but all over the world! 

Anyway, running this authentic route from the first Olympic Games in 1896 was something special. I like to have purpose in things I do and I when a close friend suggested doing this it wasn’t hard to find a purpose for it. Another friend who had done it earlier said immediately that Athens is legendary but not a potential PB course. Rather the opposite. Looking at the course profile, it became quite clear that it wasn’t a PB course (see the picture below). That affected my motivation somewhat and I kept finding various reasons to skip my marathon workouts. I knew I would have the base to run it through anyway, so I happily changed my pace runs to O-intervals and my long runs to half long trail runs. I did 95% of my training off road which may not be optimal preparation for a road marathon. And instead of doing 5-6 long runs (which I consider the minimum amount), I settled for 3. When we came to Athens I slightly regretted for skipping all marathon training but hoped for the best that my legs would carry me injury-free the whole way. 

The course was the original marathon course from Marathon to the Panathinaikon Stadium in Athens and the profile looked like this.

We were slightly worried how the transport to Marathon would work but it worked just fine. Out of those three marathons that I’ve run, this was probably the best organised event. There was a lot less hassle to get to the start block than in Valencia or Florence and the road at the start was so wide that I got no signs of claustrophobia this time.

I went out quite fast and clocked the first 5k in 20:20. I had found a nice comfortable rhythm but slowed down a bit as the climb begun, trying to keep the effort steady. 10k went fairly easily in 41:40, about a minute ahead of 3h schedule. I knew that the long wearing climb up 31km would definitively slow me down but it was still interesting to follow the splits. I was trying to run by the feeling, in other words not pushing too hard and enjoying the run. To run with a smile on my face, as a friend had advised me (not sure how beautiful that smile was at the end of the course though). 15k in 1:04:11, still in schedule and feeling relatively fresh. But then came the real climb that went on and on and on...up to 31km. 

It was a struggle but I was able to hold a decent pace up to 20km. However, around there my survival instinct took over and I had to slow down. I passed the half way mark in 1:31:58. Still pretty good, not much off the schedule. But soon after that I had a mental breakdown. I was boiling and for a moment I wished it had rained. Forecast had been heavy rain but it was clear blue skies and full sunshine. Temperature was at +26C and there were no shadows whatsoever. Kilometres between 23 and 25 were awfully long and the climb just seemed to go on forever. I had been running most of the race behind a guy with an ancient flag. Like Pheidippides 2500 years ago. I thought he was the messenger and that I had to keep him in sight. Got to get the message to Athens. 

Finally I reached 25k in 1:50:53. Another milestone achieved. I took my second gel and bit the bullet. Only 6km left to the summit now. You can do it. I did but my pace dropped dramatically on the last bit up. 30k in 2:15:16. Almost done now. I was incredibly happy to finally reach the hilltop at 31k but realised that my legs were too tired and empty to a rhythm change. So I end up jogging down the hill about the same pace I had climbed it up. Pathetic but what else I could expect with the training I had (not) done? I knew I would be suffering on the last 10km, so it shouldn’t have surprised me. Still I had hoped that gravitation would be on my side. Unfortunately it was just making fun of me. I lost quite a lot of time and a few places on the way down but still I couldn't help but smile when I arrived to the iconic Panathinaikon stadium filled with cheering crowds and crossed the finish line. Very emotional. 20th place and a sub 3:15 time on this course. More than I deserved.

I had barely walked from the finish line when I saw Amy flying in. I looked at my watch. What?! She’s got to be kidding me. Nobody does a PB on this course! But she does it with style, smashing her PB by 6 minutes. Amazing. Hard work pays off they say… Still, Berlin is made for records, Athens is not. Look at the times. But I guess anything is possible if you truly believe it. 

Kenyans took victories in both classes. Felix Kandie set a new course record at incredible time 2:10:37 whereas Maiyo Naomi Jepkogei won the women’s class with a time 2:41:06.

Results

Pre-race view of the finish at the Panathinaikon Stadium

Proud finishers and the Parthenon 

It's ok to feel dizzy in front of Greek goddesses

Mesmerizing views from the Acropolis

Finnish Ultra Long Championships

Finnish Ultra Long Championships were held in tough and challenging terrain of Kytäjä, partly the same terrain as in Jukola 2010. I was doubtful whether to go there or not but after recovering from Lidingöloppet  (which took for about two weeks for my left glute) and a promising run in 25manna middle distance just a week before I thought why not. 

Before the travel I briefly discussed about the tactics with Sami and his answer was simple: just take the lead from the start and keep it until the finish. That’s pretty much what I did, except the “until the finish” part. It wasn’t really the tactics I had thought of myself but during the run I realised that it worked quite well for me. The more time you spend in front, the more you orienteer yourself. If I stay behind and follow someone, I lose focus much more easily. 

Anyway, I had definitively not thought of making a move right from the start but that was exactly what I did. To follow the story, you’d better open the map first. 

Leg to the first control was long and probably the best leg of the whole course and the only real route choice leg. As much as I appreciated having that leg in the beginning I would have appreciated having something similar closer to finish too to break the groups and to give competitors a chance to make a difference by a route choice. For instance, having a leg from #18 direct to #20 would have left much more room for route choices than semi-long legs that basically directed your going. Apart from that, and somewhat restricted gaffle, the course and the terrain were just terrific. Heavy but terrific. So back to the first leg. Start point was right there where we started and I passed it before I got my map opened. I was too focused reading the map to see where everyone else went and made my choice purely based on the map. I wanted to get to the road on the right as quickly as possible. So I made a 90 degree turn on the field and a shortcut to the road across some pretty horrible areas. No one else of the best women took that route. Quite soon I realised I was alone there with some junior boys. Oh crap, I wasn’t planning to lose the game this early. Well, I’ve made my choice, there’s no turning back now. It’s going to be a loooong lonely run…

I didn’t look back but was somewhat concerned about the fact that I didn’t see anyone in front of me on the road. They probably went left all the way. Well, all I can do is to do my own run and hope to catch some of the dropped runners later on.. Just before the first control I was about to run wrong side of a hill and had to turn back to go around it. After turning back I suddenly met all the others there. Kind of relief but kind of disappointment too. Without that wobble I could have been on my own.. On the way to control 2 I settled in to the pace of the line, orienteering myself all the time. From there to number 5 I took a lead and even got a small gap but just about 20m or so. Just before control 5 I was slowed down by a crag and then we were more or less all together by the time we got to the butterflies. For a short while I was alone when going to number 7 but climbed up a bit too early and met the others on the control. It felt that it took ages to get around the loops and I was surprised that no one wanted to go any faster. It was very slow terrain but I was still worried that the other forking would go faster. However by the time we got back to the centre control it looked like that all the best runners were still there. We couldn’t all have the same forking, could we?

Somewhere there I also realised that I had forgotten to take my first gel. We have been out for over 1h but I had been so focused on orienteering that I had forgotten the gels. On the road before number 13 I could for the first time take a brief look on the rest of the course. Nothing surprising and no real route choice options before the last control. I also tried to memorise as many codes as possible (they were not printed beside the controls) and almost missed the point where I had intended to climb up. On the way to 14 I pondered rounding the hills, but then again, hill tops were the best part of the terrain, so I ended up going straight, like everyone else. It seemed like a mutual agreement, no one wanted to take a risk or make a move. Pace was still very slow.

There was a drink station on the road right after control 15. I had planned to take my second gel after 1,5h but the drink came so early that I wasn’t prepared. I hassled with my gel for a while and when finally finished with the process the others had already disappeared. I had been first one in there but the last one to go out. Clearly I would need some optimising with that. Drinks and gels are really not my thing. I guess I could cut minutes off my marathon time just by skipping the drink stations. Maybe this was also a turning point of my race. Not because of the time loss but the way it affected my concentration.

Up to that point I had been very calm, focused and careful but after losing so much time on a drink station I lost my inner calmness for a while and just rushed madly after the others. I was quickly back in the line but instead of following the last girl in the line I wanted desperately to get back in front. I shouldn’t have done that. Tuulia and Sofia were pushing hard on the path and had managed to get a small gap to the rest of us and I just wanted to the close that gap. So instead of focusing on orienteering I focused a bit too much on catching them. After leaving the path we passed the first marsh as expected but climbed up the hill much more to the left than meant to and when up there, nothing made sense anymore. We were near to 17 when we stopped to relocate and it took about a minute to get back to 16. Four last runners in the pack had realised the error earlier and got about a minute advantage to us. They came across us on their way to 17 and realised that this was their chance to get rid off us. Saila led them all neatly to the finish and we never saw them again. We finished less than a minute behind but were not involved in the medal fight. Sofia was 4th and I was 5th. But it tasted bitter. We both knew we could have done better.

I’m still annoyed for losing it like that in a critical moment after 1,5h of good work but on the other hand quite happy about how strong I felt during the whole run. I cannot help but think whether I should have gone harder earlier since I felt so good? Go hard or go home. Next time I’ll do as Sami tells me to do…  

Results

Demonstration of so called double punching (photo: Suomen Suunnistusliitto)

Lidingöloppet

Lidingöloppet, the greatest cross country run in the world, is definitively worth a blog text. It’s a very special event because of its large scale but still incredibly friendly atmosphere. 30km long undulating course runs through the forests and beautiful nature of the isle. The altitude graph looks pretty gentle to anyone who’s done fell runs but the brutality of the course lies in the fact that it goes up and down all the time. Climbs aren’t that long but the gradient is quite steep from time to time. And descents take their toll too. So it’s pretty tough course for the legs anyway.

Route map of the course

Altitude graph of the course. Where are the flat sections?

Start. It’s awful. Too crowded and I’m running off the path most of the time during the first kilometers. I wish I hadn’t done that because jumping off and on the path takes a lot of energy. And a couple of full stops and accelerations to add. I’m putting all my efforts to it and still it takes me 5:30 to pass the first kilometre mark (well, the distance I've run by then is way over 1km too). I’m sure that I’ve overtaken hundreds of people by then but my position in the race at that point is 1720. This is obviously something you should be prepared for in a mass event with 20 000 people.

Start of the race from the air (Runners World)

5km - Already behind my "easy" schedule, calculated according to 4:30min/km pace. In reality I’ve run near to 4min kilometers after the slow first kilometer(s). However, time is not the point but the feeling. I had hoped to run the first 20k preferably just under 4:30min/km pace but effortlessly. The plan was really not to push before the last 10k. So whatever the time I was supposed to feel relatively fresh and relaxed up to that point. But here I am at 5k mark, already exhausted and feeling pain in my left glute and right ankle. Not good. But at least it’s rolling again and now I can run in my own rhythm. I hope it will get easier…(what are the odds? in a 30km race??)

10km - I’ve increased the pace and I’m almost in schedule now. But the start took definitively too much energy and I’m already struggling. Not very promising. I’m trying to stick with a girl who I ran with most of the course in Stockholm half marathon some weeks ago. Now it seems harder to keep up with her.

15km - My left glute is cramping now and I’m really struggling while trying to keep up with this girl. I really should have gone to masseur earlier in the week! I knew I’ve had some tightness in the glutes already before the race but had just ignored it. But in a race like Lidingöloppet every little niggle just amplifies and it isn’t getting any easier. I grit my teeth and try to fight forward. But I’m thinking more and more about retiring. The stretch from 15k to 20k is quite beautiful. You run along a small undulating path just by the northern coastline with views over the sea. I just can’t really enjoy it because it’s getting harder and harder and I feel like running on the edge already. This is just not working. Finally I have to let the girl go (but keep following from 100m behind). It’s taking awfully long time to get to Grönsta.

Running through the forests (Eddie Granlund)

20km - and the girl who I’ve tried to run with stops there. Can't believe she's actually retiring! Unfair! What the hell I’m supposed to do now?!? Forget her, gotta get going... I’m almost 4min off the pace in Grönsta when off to the final 10k loop. I feel that I’ve got absolutely no chance to make it in time now. 2:15 was my ambitious goal and 2:20 a kind of realistic one that I had really hoped to run. But in order to make it in 2:20 I ought to have at least 50min for the last 10k because it's brutal (those who've run that know what I’m talking about) and honestly much slower than the previous two 10km:s. Now I only have 46min for it, which is not at all comforting.

I remember vaguely that the climb from Grönsta is painful. But there’s so much support that I just dig in and run it up with a smile on my face. A smile! How rare is that? I really don’t understand what happened then but after Grönstabacken I get over the worst (or lose my consciousness?) and suddenly I’m lapping faster splits again. If I keep the trend I might actually make it…A guy from Lidingö Triathlon comes past, claps me on the back and says a few encouraging words. I find a new gear and after a while I catch him again. Again he says something but this time I don’t understand a word. Too exhausted for a conversation. I wonder if he knew me or if he was just being supportive. 

Suddenly I realise that I’m losing focus and my mind is somewhere else. I recognise a place from the past where an older runner took his last steps when I was involved in the rescue team. That’s one of those few spots that I actually do recognise from the time I lived in Lidingö. I get tears in my eyes but understand that this is not the time to get emotional. I have a race to run here. Come on, you need to focus now! It’s just a matter of willpower…Willpower, yes, and suddenly all I can see is a clip of Jim Carrey and his blue pen...

25km - Now, where’s the Abborrbacken?!? Is this it? I thought it was worse.. Maybe it’s still further ahead… Just in case I decide to be prepared for another hill..

26km - Abborrbacken is still not coming. We must have past it. So the worst is over, wohoo! Most runners are however slowing down and suddenly I’m overtaking people. My legs are killing me but I get a huge mental boost when I notice that I’m not as tired as my fellow runners. If only my legs can take it I might have a chance to make it to 2:20…A short steep decline and I feel a sudden sharp pain in my knee. Fuck. Just when I thought I could make it… I decide to run through the pain. It’s only 4km. How hard can it be?

28km - Karin’s backe. Ok this is the last one "kom igen nu!”. This is actually tougher than Abborrbacken (not a fact but just a personal opinion) at this stage of the run after you’ve used all your strength and power and your body is just a mess. But I try to push it as hard as I can to. Some runners start to walk but I’m not even considering dropping my pace now. Ok that’s it, now the last kilometer. Ruuuunnnn! 

2:20:... Done it! 10min faster than 10 years ago! Yay!


Tack för en härlig dag på ön och en fantastisk arrangemang!

Sierre-Zinal

Sierre-Zinal also known as “la Course des Cinq 4000” or the Race of the Five 4000m peaks, is considered to be one of the finest mountain races in the world. Or as an American mountain runner put it: the one and only race in Europe. Don’t know about that but it certainly is an epic race that every mountain runner knows and loves to talk about. On a clear day you can actually catch a view of the famous peaks of Weisshorn (4506m), Zinalrothorn (4221m), Ober Gabelhorn (4063m), Dent Blanche (4357m), and Matterhorn (4478m) while you run. The course is 31 km with 2200m ascent and 800m descent. Compared to Jungfrau, my first mountain experience (see the story here), it’s not at all as horrible and a lot easier to pace. You do the worst climb at the beginning, when still feeling fresh, and then you just push the flatter part up to Nava, and the rest is downhill. Piece of cake.

Le profil du parcours looks like this 

And you should expect a lot of pain during the run, it’s on the race menu! 

Just a short notice before getting into the race itself. Things had not gone very well for me after the midsummer. I’d had some severe problems with my health and wasn’t really in a state capable of racing. This all made it pretty difficult because I knew I couldn’t push hard and was also doubtful whether I would be able to finish the race at all. Usually I love the pain and I love to race, but this time I had to be sensible because of the problems I’d had and couldn’t push myself anywhere near the wall. 

Overview of the course from Montana

Depart Sierre (500m). Despite the fact I just wrote above, I was hoping for the best and had made some sort of time goal for myself, mainly in order to know when and where to take gels and to be able to estimate how long I would be out there. I had found a 3,5h Sierre Zinal finisher in Strava and used his splits as my intermediate goals. I thought that 3:30-3:45 would be achievable, at least on a good day. Maybe 3:30 was a bit optimistic but 3:45 should have been possible if things had been normal. Elite class had their own start slot but, unlike the other orienteers, I wasn’t running in the elite class and had a different coloured bib number. Just before the start I met David Schneider who encouraged me to take the elite slot in order not to get jammed when we hit the narrow forest path. I was flattered but unsure whether I could actually do that. At the end I found myself crushed in between the two groups, but right in the middle of it so that I couldn’t move anywhere for a while when the wave of runners stormed from both sides. There were a lot of elbows everywhere and a furious race to get to the trail first. My strategy not to be arrogant at the start proved to be a poor strategy. I had planned to take it steady and relaxed at the first climb but after letting everyone pass me on the road, the climb turn out to be all but steady. It included several full stops and short accelerations every time it got steeper or more challenging. I didn’t want to waste energy in overtaking, so I just settled in to the pace of the line. I felt I could have gone faster and got a bit irritated being stuck but decided not to care. Soon the path turned muddy and the gradient increased. I realised my shoe choice had gone very wrong. I slipped several times and cursed that I didn’t have proper trail shoes. Apparently it had been a rainy summer in the Valais Alps.

Look at the pace! 15min/km seems fast... 

Beauregard 4km (1146m). 35min. 5min behind my estimation. I can’t say it was particularly fast (it wasn’t) but still the first refreshment point came earlier than I had expected and I almost missed it. My plan was to drink at every refreshment point but I missed the first table and came to bouillon. Oh crap. For a moment I considered drinking that but, thankfully, saw that there was water on the first table. After that I was careful to spot the first table in each refreshment point.

Ponchette 7,5km (1870m). 1h20min. My estimation was 70-75min. So I’m 5-10min off the pace but at least the worst is over now and I can soon pick up the pace again. For the last part of the climb I stick with a Salomon guy that I’ve been running with. But wait a minute…didn’t I just pass him? No, it’s not the same guy, it’s another guy in the same outfit. I realise that there are hundreds of Salomon guys around. Non-elite runners in their perfectly matching gear. It reminds me of a triathlon race I did last summer…Funny. I’ve reached the first hill top and suddenly it’s flat and fast. Nearer to 4 min/km. Oh I love it! To be able to run again after the tiring climb!

Chandolin 11,8km (2000m). 1h45min. Had hoped to be here in 95-100min. On the other hand I was 5-10min off the pace already in the previous split so it’s not that bad. Maybe I can hold it there…After a while the path turns upward again and my love is gone. It’s not that steep anymore and fully runnable but nonetheless I change back to my slow motion rhythm. I just don’t feel like racing. At some point I look up over the valley and see the snow covered hilltops in the horizon. A mesmerising view. I try to count them. One, two, three, four, five…yes, I believe they are all there. Seen them, check, now continue your running. But I need to take another look and try to figure out which is which. Is that really Matterhorn there? I had been looking south face of Matterhorn for about a week during the Swiss O Week in Zermatt but it looks very different from this side. It’s not at all as characteristic and distinct from here... “Excusez-moi” suddenly wakes me up from my thoughts and I understand I need to keep going. “Oui oui”, it was just the Matterhorn, yes, patience, I’m going...

Tignousa 16km (2180m). 2h15min, now I’m 10-15min behind the schedule. Oh well, I wasn’t going to win this anyway… I’m feeling relatively fresh but there’s no way I could pick up the pace at this stage. There’s a nice relatively flat stretch again and I’m just enjoying it. These alpine paths are wonderful! If I wanted to do well, I should push harder here. Nah, not going to do it. We approach the point where you do a U loop in the open hillside just before the climb up to Weisshorn. It’s beautiful and I can see the line of runners far ahead hitting the climb. Oh no. I wish I hadn’t seen that. I’m ok but feel that I’ve climbed enough for a day. 

Hotel Weisshorn 19,8km (2387m). 2h44min. My plan was 2:25-2:30. I’m losing more and more time now. The climb wasn’t that bad but I realise that I should have pushed harder if I wanted to nail my target. It’s clear that I’m not going to finish in 3,5 hours but I believe I can still finish in 3:45. Based on the splits it shouldn’t take more than an hour to descend to Zinal. I push the last part of the hill just to get home in an hour. I get cheering when I pick up the pace. It’s amazing how many supporters had made their way up to cheer us. Not just here, but along the whole course. Mostly it’s “allez allez” but I hear also “bravo”, “hop hop”, “go girl”, “heja heja” and “kom igen”. Also, a few orchestras have climbed up to play. Seems quite unbelievable. Maybe it’s just my imagination? 

Nava (2425m) - highest point of the course. Wohoo, I’ve done it! The rest is downhill and it shouldn’t be too difficult for an orienteer…

Barneuza 26km (2210m). 3h23min. There are some tourists in the way (that is walkers who started at 5am! how the hell can they still be here??) but otherwise it goes well all the way to Barneuza. It’s technical and rocky but not too steep or wet and I’m in my element. I’ve been alone for some time but suddenly I’m catching people. Yeah, I’m totally going to make it in 3:45. But then, somewhere around 29km, comes the steepest decline and the path turns muddy. I’m just sliding and other runners come storming past. I don’t understand how they do that. Maybe they’ve got trail shoes. Around here I also have an incident with a dog walker. It was strictly forbidden to take dogs there. But there she is, a middle-aged woman with a confused dog on a narrow alpine path in the middle of the steepest climb, obviously without means to control her bewildered dog. Idiot. I curse her in my mind, jump aside, and try to slide through the busses without hurting myself too much. Damn. My sacrum is still not up to something like this. When I hit the path again, I’m not sure if I’m still on the course but continue. 

Zinal 31km (1680m). Arrivée. Finally. 3h56min, 26min behind my optimistic goal and 11min behind the realistic one. I’m not over the moon but not too disappointed either. I mean it’s far slower what I had hoped for but on the other hand I wasn’t able to race or push myself at any point. It felt more or less like a training run. I took myself around the course and had a lovely day out in the mountains without suffering too much. So, in a sense I’m happy. Maybe just a bit annoyed that I couldn’t get down faster. It was just technical, nothing to do with the fitness. It’s stupid to lose so much time in descent. There was a guy who was just a bit behind me at Weisshorn but who finished in 3:47. And another one who was 2min behind me at that point but finished 7min ahead. That’s a bit frustrating. Don’t know whether to blame my lack of descending skills, lack of madness or just a bad shoe choice but I will definitively need to change them all before I come back.

Against all odds, I did finish 

Taken together, it was a great experience but I have to come back and give this race another shot once I’m fit enough to do it. My own race aside, it was really cool to see other orienteers to do so well in the race. Francois Gonon finished 4th, Ionut Zinca 6th, David Schneider 7th, Mårten Bostrom 9th, and Tessa Hill 11h. Brilliant! Super! Excellent! Results

Super proud of Tessa!

This was just my story but if you want to hear more (obviously you’re a bit of a mountain geek if you came this far) about the race and the battle of top positions you should take a look on Ian Corless’ in-depth race preview and his race day summary and pictures. Another good coverage of the race in the Skyrunning site. The race is a good mixture of everything and suits well for different kind of runners (orienteers, athletes, mountain runners). I love the way Kilian Jornet put it in his FB page: “It’s too flat in between the big uphill and the short downhill”. Interesting...

Route map of the course

A view from the course (Ian Corless)

Venla and Jukola relays - back to the podium!

The preceding two weeks before the Venla relay had been all but good for me. My back had been really bad and caused huge problems to me, affecting my performances in Italy and Norway a great deal. Despite the back problem I had managed to do two decent runs in the trials in Italy and had hoped to get to run long distance in WOC. I had prepared well for that and was fairly confident that I could do really well there. I had been 6th in the World Cup earlier this year but my last run in Norway did not confirm the selectors. Terrain in Kongsberg was very different from terrain in Lavarone but it didn’t matter. I should have done better there. So, I was again the first one to drop from the team. I got the information two days before the Venla, and even though I was prepared for that, it affected my mood. I was still feeling pretty sad and down when I got to Kuopio, but we had such a good team and great chances of winning the relay, so I couldn’t let the negative feelings affect my Venla performance. I forced myself to turn the page and forget the WOC for the weekend. It wasn’t easy but I managed with it.

After having done the model event we girls gathered together and discussed about the relay, the terrain, the tactics etc. Terrain was demanding and seemed to suit us as a team very well. It appeared to be almost as tough and challenging as in Kytäjä-Jukola 2010, where we had won the last time. We knew we could do well but we had to stay humble. We kept reminding ourselves to focus on orienteering and ignore everything else. And that’s basically what we did. A thing worth mentioning is of course our tattoos. If you missed it, we had wings printed in our necks. They may not have been that visible but the spiritual message was clear: we would have wings to fly.

Anni-Maija ran the first leg and was in the leading pack all the way from the start to the finish and gave me the best possible starting position, just 10 seconds behind the lead. A huge pack of runners followed, 15 teams within 17 seconds. Pan Århus was first in from the longer forking, 59 seconds behind the lead. I started fast and tried to drop the other teams on the way to the start point. I passed the runner who had gone out first and I also got a tiny gap to the others. There wasn’t much of a route choice to the first control and it was more or less obvious to run it slightly from the left, where the climb was gentlest. But when I reached the root of the hill, I got this brilliant idea that if I ran it up from the right side, no one would follow me and I could ran away from the others. Hmm…good idea, but I forgot that my route choice was indeed slower, and also, barely anyone had taken it on the first leg, which meant that the tracks formed by the first leg runners were on the left side. But I had already made my choice and there was no turning back. So I climbed the hill from the right in very much untouched terrain, took a few extra contours, and came to my 1st control spot on but about half a minute behind the pack. Suddenly the situation had changed and all the 15 teams were now in front of me… 

Approaching the first hill - looking good

My not so good route choice...

Pan Århus cruising away 

On the way to the second control I tried to pass as many runners as I could but it took a few more controls before I caught Lidingö and Tisaren who I assumed to be the leading teams. What I did not know in the forest was that Pan Århus was the only team in the leading group with the significantly shorter forking at the beginning and had therefore gotten over a minute lead to the rest of us already by the first TV control (control number 2/3). After catching up the teams that I assumed to be in the lead I just focused on smooth orienteering. It went well and I came in 4th together with Kalevan Rasti (2nd) and IFK Lidingö (3rd), just within a minute behind leading Pan Århus. Venla did well on the 3rd leg but Pan Århus kept raising their gap. In the 3rd change-over we were 2:44 behind the Danish team, together with Paimion Rasti, but with a clear margin to the chasing teams. Saila continued the good work, keeping the chasers behind, and we could join her in the run-in to celebrate our fine second place. It was good to be back at the podium and it felt almost like a victory for us after a few unlucky years! There were no ifs and buts this time, we had done the job as well as we could. Danish girls just smashed it. In tough Finnish terrain. Respect!

Results
GPS-tracking

Celebration in the run-in 

Thumbs up from the President of Finland

This time the weekend didn’t end after the Venla for my part but continued with a second leg in Jukola, the so called long night. The darkest and the longest night leg. The fearsome long night. In a team called HappyOrNot. What a good description for a night leg…My team mates were not orienteers but colleagues that had put up a team for Jukola. It’s a long story how I ended up running in their team but they were delighted to get a real orienteer to run the long night for them. I met them briefly after the Venla and admired their attitude and braveness. When I heard how little they had experience I got worried whether they would make it through the night but they seemed just happy and were looking forward to it. I had my doubts but tried hide them. (I worried in vain, our team got through with it with just fine!)

Venla relay seemed suddenly just a piece of cake, an easy afternoon jog, compared to Jukola. First of all, it was night, and I didn’t have a head torch. And secondly, I hadn’t night orienteered for 3-4 years, except one single training. The torch problem got sorted out just around the time when the relay started. I got to lend a good lamp, one of the newest models, but the battery life was just about 70min. That wasn’t too comforting since I had thought of using 2h there. Oh dear.

Running a night leg was clearly far from my comfort zone in every aspect (cold, dark, in the middle of night etc) and when it drew closer I was hoping to find a way out of it. What if I just went back to the hotel and crept under the blankets? After Venla I had been up on my feet all night running from one place to another and it was only after the start of Jukola that I got to lie down for a while. Soon I realised how cold it was. And how hungry I was. Shit. This is not good. Feeling cold and hungry before a long run is never good. I ate a doughnut that I found at our tent. Fast energy with plenty of sugar. Good, I will need it. Then I changed back to my wet clothes from the Venla and went for a warm up. I hadn’t really thought of warming up, but after standing still for a while in the changeover area in freezing temperatures, I realised that I would freeze to death if I didn’t keep moving. Also, spotting a team mate when you are running in Jukola in positions 1000+ is a lot more challenging than spotting a team mate in the leading pack of Venla when you’ve heard her intermediate times from every kilometre. I knew that my team had been nearly half an hour after the lead in the third online control but it was difficult to estimate whether it would be 45min, 60min, or 75min at the change-over. And while standing there, there was no way of getting any information about anything, not even the positions of incoming runners. At the end, I missed my guy, but only by a few minutes or so.

I started to jog towards the start point and opened the map. Wow. That was my first thought. Wow, what a leg! You never see anything like that in Venla. Leg to the first control was massive. There was no way to see a clear route choice for the whole leg at the first glance. I had to split the leg in parts and plan each of them separately. I knew roughly how I would go the whole leg, but then I memorised the intermediate points where I wanted to get and folded the map so that I could do the first part first. Amazing. I’m still in awe when I think back that leg. After a while I realised that 90% of runners must have picked approximately the same route because all I had to do was to follow a path. Every now and then there were some branches but mostly it was just one single track. Until the transverse road before the control. There I took a unique route choice in to the control that almost no one else in the line did (road from the right instead of going straight). Up to that point I had been slogging the leg with hundreds of chaps and then suddenly there was only this one lonely guy and me. I caught him and we chatted for a while. He thought that the first leg was horrible. I told him that it was awesome. At the bend of the road we separated. Then I was all alone in the darkness, approaching a challenging control point in vague hillside. And I loved it! This is it, true orienteering. Spot on to the control and there it was again, the long line. It felt surreal that I had been all alone just a while ago. 

Leg to control 1. How would you go?

The journey continued with company all the way until the finish. It was very different from the women’s relay (might have something to do with the positions in the relay…). In Venla you usually run alone and it’s very silent. Everyone is focused on their own race and there’s seldom any talk. Whereas here everyone were shouting the codes and telling stories. The pace was unbelievably  slow (mostly just walking) but I saw no reason to overtake people (I overtook only some 400 runners on my leg but I believe this happened mostly on controls). I'd had my race earlier and now I was just enjoying an easy long run. I didn’t want to waste any extra energy on stepping off the line, so I settled to the pace the pack was going. I was bit worried about my torch and therefore I would have wanted to run slightly faster but luckily it was not that dark anymore. Every now and then people stopped in the middle of the line without stepping aside, which meant that everyone had to stop. This happened every time when there was a small climb, a decent or a thicker area. Forking controls were easy to spot too. The line spread out and you could see bewildered chaps everywhere standing still, trying to find out where they were. Before I noticed we came to the last control and it was all over. It wasn’t even long. Energy gels that I had planned to take on the way were still unused in my back pocket.

After Jukola it took a week to get my sleeping rhythm back to normal but no doubt I will do it again. Next time I would love to try the first leg. Any teams interested having a girl on their first leg? 

HappyOrNot with Jukola2014? Definitively happy! :)

Some really cool photos by Kuopion Suunnistajat here and by Jonas Birgerson here.
Some video clips are found here.

Running through the pain

A week ago I was feeling great and looking forward to 3 Days of Trenches, that is a couple of WRE races in WOC relevant terrains in Asiago. Middle and long WREs were also our selection races for WOC (along with the World Cup). I had a good month behind me. After some hard racing in April I had taken a month off from competing and focused entirely on training. May was a good month filled with high mileage, lots of orienteering, numerous controls, high quality sessions, hard workouts, race pace orienteering, and lots of hills. I had put in hours of training but was still feeling relatively fresh and recovered before the weekend in Asiago. I had been there on a training camp just a few weeks before and I had a good picture what to wait from the races. 

So, everything was looking good - until the moment I got there. Flight went okay, car hire went smoother than last time and even the drive went an hour or so faster than last time. But when I got out of the car in Asiago, my back was locked. I could barely walk and couldn’t bend it at all. It was totally jammed, something I’ve never experienced before. I’ve had some minor problems with my lower back before but nothing like this. Before the travel it was all fine but something mysterious had happened during the travel. Noidannuoli. That’s what they call it in Finnish. I went to orienteer with the others and thought that I could just run and shake it off. Didn’t happen. I couldn’t run, no chance. Even stretching was impossible. My most important races before the WOC and it looked like I wouldn’t be able to run. 

I had one day to get my back in order before the first race. So instead of doing a model event, drills and strides (my usual pre-race routine before important events) I just drove around Asiago in panic trying to find a masseur (unfortunately we didn’t have a masseur with us now that I really would have needed one). But I was lucky, there was a spa hotel near by that offered some beauty treatments. No word of sports massage, so I was pretty sceptical when I went there.. But I asked for a hard treatment and, to my surprise, I got one. It was much better than I had thought and after the treatment and spa I was actually able to stretch and bend my back a little. In the evening I felt already optimistic about running the races but next morning it was again the same that it had been before the massage. Oh dear.

I had promised to give Minna a lift to the event, so I drove her there. I picked up my number and walked around the event centre but when I tried to put my O shoes on I couldn’t  bend my back so that I could have tied the laces. Minna offered to help and I got my shoes tied. It felt ridiculous. I was totally handicapped and going to race. I wasn’t sure whether I could run or not, but took a painkiller and hoped for the best.. My back was very stiff when I started my race and I doubted whether I could run with it. I could jog but not really push very hard. Fortunately the middle distance course was quite technical and I could focus on orienteering instead of running. It was nice terrain and a good course, and I really loved the technical part of it. My navigation was good, only a few small wobbles, and I finished 4th among the Finns, and 6th overall. Considering the circumstances and the strong start field, I was quite pleased. I couldn’t have done much better. Results

I had hoped that running the middle would open my back and I could run better on the long in the following day. But no, it didn’t happen. It was the same. I felt defeated already before the start. I knew that long would be more physical than the middle and I needed to get my back sorted in order to run. Minna was a big help once again. She gave me some hot/cold gel that should ease the pain in muscles and joints. I put some of that before the race and was able to warm up. Terrain was once again terrific, as well as the course, so all ingredients for a great experience. But for me it was just running through the pain. 

I started slowly and controlled, taking the first few controls without problems. After shaking off the worst excitement and getting into nice rhythm I forgot to pay attention to the details when approaching the third control. I was a bit off from the red line and made a small mistake to the control. I lost a minute but kept myself calm. Only a small wobble, nothing to worry about. Next few controls I took nice and easy but then another mistake on number 6. 50m before the control I knew exactly where I was but then somehow I managed to pass the control by a few meters, failing to see it. I realised that I had come too far down and turned back. And passed it again. I was circling in the circle without spotting it. 1,5min. Now I’m getting a bit worried…Next leg (7) is a climb up along a path. It should be my leg, I’ve learned to love climbs. But my back is holding me back and I can’t push as hard as I want to. I try to focus on orienteering and forget the pain...Leg 8 is downhill. Running downhill is easier and I get into nice rhythm again. Rest of the course goes fine but I lose some time on route choices as I try to spare my back and avoid steep climbs. I go around more than necessary. Especially to number 10 I lose a lot by running around and doubling the distance. In contrast, to number 12 it’s good to round it a bit from the right, taking a gentler climb. I finish again 6th, and 4th Finn. Not bad but not really what I wanted. I know I could have done better. There is still a lot to learn and take home from my run. I’m angry to myself for the mistakes I made but on the other hand quite proud how I fought it through with a locked up back. Now it’s done and I can only wait and see whether it was good enough…

Results, splits, maps and everything here

And yeah, there is still one more race to win before the final selections: World Cup in Kongsberg

And my back? I’m working on it!