Venla/ Jukola 2014

Saturday night/ early Sunday morning was the Jukola seven man relay in Finland. We traveled on Friday evening from Umeå on the boat and arrived in Vaasa at 11 pm local time. We slept on the boat, I got about five hours sleep before getting up at 5.30 for a 5.45 breakfast. We left the ferry at about 6.30 and started the drive to Kuopio. We arrived at the event at about 12.20, but we had a lunch break on the way (you can figure out about how long the drive was). The drive was very uneventful, but I managed to get about another hours worth of sleep. 

When we arrived at the event I was extremely excited (although I may not have shown it...) and was rearing to go for my third leg race. The mass start for Venla, the four person women's relay, was at 2.00 and had about 1200 runners in it. I didn't watch the first leg, as I was preparing for my race, but from the bits I saw and heard, it was fantastic! My first leg runner was fellow Kiwi Greta Knarston who must of had a fabulous race, as she came in in 29th place! My second leg runner was Erika Knutsson, who came in around 120th, then me. I had an ok run, although I wasn't too inpressed with the 1 km run to the start triangle! I started by screwing up the first control by visiting two or three other controls before mine but other than that it was good navigation, slow running. I lost about 130 places while running, so my fourth leg runner went out in about 255th place (sorry about that! ;)) Elisabeth Fries had a good run (it was her second run as she also ran second leg for the first Umeå team) and brought us in to 319th out of over 1200 teams. Not bad!

My Course, 6.3 km, not sure if that includes the run to the start triangle!

The men's seven person relay started at 11.00. I was attempting to get a bit of sleep when I decided to get up and run over to watch the start. I got to one of the massive TV screens just before the start gun, and watched 1600 people race off onto their 10 km orienteering courses. The first controls of their races were about 4 km, which for those of you who don't know about orienteering, is a very long control! It was great to watch the runners on the TV screens, both the GPS routes, and live footage from the video controls. The first runners did the course in about 70 minutes (I think) and then there was the excitement of the second leg runners. (Then the third legs, then the fourth etc.) 

Men's mass start, photo from Tim's facebook page.

I nearly went to bed around 1 am but then something exciting happened (can't remember what), so I decided to stay up and keep watching the race. This happened a lot (that I would nearly go back to bed), especially around 2 am when it was absolutely freeeezzzzing cold (I had seven layers on. Actually.) But I bought myself a coffee instead to keep warm (and awake). It wasn't a long night, in fact the darkest it got was at about 2.30, when the moon had come up, but even then it was very light! I think the reason I didn't feel too tired was because by 4.30 the sun was up again and it already felt like 8.00! The first seventh leg finishers were about 7 am, and there were thousands of people who got up to watch it.

2.00 am

3.45 am

Just after 4 am

The first team to finish, just before 7 am

We left the event centre at around 11.30 after watching the two Umeå teams finish and took the return journey back. I must have gotten about three hours sleep on the bus, and maybe another hour on the ferry, so fair enough to say when I was back home, I was exhausted. 

Overall I think this event was amazing. It is an event everyone (in the orienteering world) talks about, and I really hope to go back to compete in it again (maybe next time for a New Zealand team!). As exhausted as I was from staying up all night, I wouldn't change any of it (except perhaps how cold it was)!

Next event: I am going to an O camp down south for a week. The only thing anyone has ever told me about the camp is how much fun it is!