The beginning

As the snow has melted, I have been thinking about my first couple of days in Sweden. I arrived late on Friday 17th January to around -15 degrees. My first thoughts were: 'Wow, there really is a lot of snow here!' 

On Saturday, my first whole day in Sweden, we were out in the snow all day. Klara is part of the IFK Umeå Ski team who were helping out in the Swedish classic cross-country skiing championships (SM). I was helping at the start, writing numbers on bags for the competitors to put their clothing in. So with 12 hours of arriving, I was already testing my knowledge of Swedish numbers... I think I did ok considering! I think the temperature was around -20 degrees (but it might have only been around -15), and I was wearing at least five layers, and maybe three pairs of socks! 

We stayed out until around 4.00 in the evening (I think...) and it was so nice to go back inside where it was warm!

The next day was much the same, but we were not helping out again. It was the skate (freestyle) cross-country ski SM. It was much easier to see the races this day, as even though the start and finish were in the same area it was hard to watch the races while concentrating

on understanding Swedish accents!

It was a shorter day on Sunday, as the races were only 3-4 minutes long (where as Saturdays races were over 30 minutes), and the mass start finals were finishing just after lunchtime. 

Ice inside a tunnel

I had a great start to my exchange, meeting new people, and beginning to get used to what it was like. One thing that I found very different to life at home apart from the snow, was how it got dark just after 3.00! 

10Mila!

Finally managed to put my route together from 10Mila! Last Friday we flew down to Arlanda and drove for three hours from there down to Mjölby which is a beautiful little town. We stayed overnight there, and the next day drove the rest of the way to Eksjö where the event was. 

Mjölby 

For those of you who aren't orienteer's, 10Mila is a pretty big relay event in Sweden. Women's teams are made up of five runners, and men's teams are made up of 10 runners. I was fourth runner for Umeå OK's second team. I think we placed around 200th but I am not entirely sure (there was over 300 teams :). My run was a pretty clean run, with only one mistake, I think I lost around 3-4 minutes from a terrible compass bearing (control 2)! Other than that though, I was just running slowly. 

This is not what our maps were like... This is only the middle part of the map that my course covers. It shows you how many controls there were!

The Umeå OK first team did very well. They placed around 60th! This is both teams, in the order we ran in. 

I have heard that the mass start of 10Mila was crazy, but to actually experience it is amazing! I didn't manage to get any photos from the men's start which was even bigger, but this was the women's mass start.

I didn't stay up to watch all the men's relay. I would have liked to but I was too tired. Next day we drive back up to Stockholm via an orienteering event. It took until the fifth control for me to warm up but then we only had four controls left so it wasn't a great race! The flight from Stockholm was just before 11pm so we had a nice late night before school the next day!

I am now resting as much as I can as my shins have started hurting again... I have been told that once you get shin splints they don't ever go away for good... I hope that isn't actually true!