The next morning we had to catch the ferry which left at 7am it only takes 2hrs to get to Finland as we were on the fast ferry, was a lot smoother than going over the cook straight!!! Took us just over 2hrs to drive to Jukola well that was till the start of the traffic jam, it wasn’t completely stopped just slow roll for about 30min. We had 2hrs before the start of the woman’s Relay which started at 2pm so was enough time to find the rest of Pirets club mates and set up our tent. The event center was in an old airbase. The event center they had set up a Supermarket, about 4 huge sports shops, a restaurant and two large cafes ohh and i had better not forget the Church.
Piret went into the warm up pen about 30min before her start she was running leg one for her club they were starting in place 554 out of 1000 so she was smack bang in the middle. The area where your map is waiting has rows of wire above you head there is 50maps in a row so piret was 10 rows back. They number the teams for the results the year before. And then if your team didn’t run the year before then you will start at the back. The start chute is about a 300meter sprint before u get into the forest, when you start in any more than 3 rows back you probably wont look at your map intill you hit the forest or in some cases about the 4th control or more. Piret came back in place 73rd so she made up quite aot of places!! The other 3 runners in her team all had good runs and the team finished 42nd so pretty good really!!
The mens race didn’t start till 11pm so we had abit of time to burn afterwards so did a bit of shopping (new compass WICKED) cooked up a bit of dinner then a powernap. I entered the warm-up pen about 30min before the start and proceeded to warm up was kind of crazy running back and forth with 1500 others we created quite the dust storm. It doesn’t get dark till about 12ish and then is only dark for about 2hrs at most!! We were allowed to go towards our map with 5min before the start was such a mission trying to find it then I started to get nervous that I wouldn’t find it in time. I was team number 651 out of 1500 so I was close to the middle as well. When the starters gun went (in this case it was Anti aircraft gun fire) it was a mad sprint, I nearly ran over some guy who had been tripped. You would have to spot the gaps and then sprint hard through them, as we came to a hill the speed dropped and nearly got to a walk before we hit the top not to sure why guess it was the 1500 people all trying to run up a chute about 10meters wide!!! Once we hit the forest had to try and figure out where I was heading in the end kinda just kept following the heap of people in front of me, the first leg was a nice long one trying to split us up a bit. I managed to read my map a few times on the way but by no means was I orienteering. Did this for about 4 or 5 controls just passing more people as I went. Then had first mistake arrived at one control to find ohh its not my one!!! They have split controls to try and stop the following but when you have 1500 people and only 3 options you still end up having a lot of people going to the same one. Once I figure it wasn’t mine started to panic as I didn’t really have any idea where I was, Finnish forest is really flat and lots of rocks so its kinda hard to relocate!! Lucky for me a number of others all hit the same problem so we proceeded to do a bit of grid searching just really running around and looking to see if others found it we kept passing others going in the opposite direction who I guess had the same problem but ended up at my control and wanted the one I had been to. After we found it just really did the same thing followed and tried to orienteer as much as I could. Ended up in 316th so made up a few places but still should have made up more if it wasn’t for my mistakes!!
Todd oates (another NZer) was next out he lost 4 places after a large mistake near the start where he lost over 100 places but then made them up throughout the rest of the race. Then had the rest of my club mates. after showering (yes ben it was a communal shower which was about 20meters long with shower heads on each side no walls just naked men all around you!!) I went to bed after as it was soooo dammm freezing and was 1am and I couldn’t really be stuffed standing around watching. So slept till 7am to just get up and go to the event centre to see the winning team coming in. My teams last leg runner (7th leg) still hadn’t gone out infact I think 6th hadn’t either. I think my team finished just over 400th place which isn’t too bad as we weren’t that good a team!! It was a pretty amazing experience to run leg one in such a Huge relay will make any other event I do seem soooo small. Cant wait till nxt years one!!!
Check this You tube Video of mens start!! its Wicked to think im in there somewhere!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL1_fBABswI
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