Discussion: Jukola Report

Hi from Helsinki,

Let me get the bad news out right away... I miss-punched on leg 6. It turns out that I skipped control 7. C6, C7 and C8 were all on a straight bearing and I ran from C6 to C8 never even noticing C7 on the map. I finished quite happy having run my approx 12km course about 80:20 (start triangle to finish control). Then at download I was pulled aside... I suspected this was not a good thing. I feel pretty bad about it and apologize again to my teammates.

We never had a moment for a post race team meeting so while I know that everyone generally had a decent race, I can't elaborate on anyone else's details.

Due to last minute pull-outs the running order for team 1 was:
1. Ted Good
2. Anthony Cox
3. Christian Gigon
4. Leif Anderson
5. John Fredrickson
6. Tom Carr
7. Randy Hall

The only one left for team 2 was Tim Good who ran leg 1. We filled in the absentees (and then some) to complete his team.

The weather was perfect, cool and dry. Tim and Ted have a great story about the dirt devel that ripped through camp.

The terrain was quite interesting. About a third of it in the vicinity of the event center was very open and very fast conifer forest. It was fairly featureless but with some distinct 5 m hills. You had to stay on course or it could all start to look the same. With the 'Jukola train' this wasn't too much of a problem so I was able to run pretty hard here.

The other two thirds was more 'scandanavian' like with many peat marshes (just run right through) and islands of detailed rock features. Map contact was very important here. Mostly the 'J-train' got it right but I had to get off a couple of times and correct as the group started to go the wrong way.

Well, that's it for now. I'll be interested in the other's comments. This was my first trip to scandanavia for O so I don't have a lot of perspective to compare to other areas. For me it was a great trip and a great learning experience. I wish I could also say my results were great. I'll have to wait until next time to vindicate myself.

Thanks are due to Vladimir for putting this altogether. Incidentally, those who pulled out might considere donating some funds to Vladimir who had to front a lot of costs.

Tom

ps1: Vladimir, I have a competition map for you. Send me your address.

ps2: Randy, I couldn't find your training map in my car. I don't know where it could have gone to.

There will be a trip in 2005 even if I have to run all 7 legs (if I'm alive and moderately healthy).

Go Vlad. Very good attitude despite the hassles of putting this stuff together.

how about tiomila next year for a change? now there's a challenge - more people, and a lot less light..

Tiomila tends to interfere with the US A-meet calendar too much. And, people like John (well, John is mighty old now... but upcomers.. if there should be any) can't get time off as easily.

GHO is considering the JK. Two WRE's, a relay, cheaper travel and all this pre spring season (1 week before US Team Trials). Of course, it isn't in the same leauge as Jukola.

http://www.jk2005.org.uk/index.html

The race was too crowded to run. I was first leg seeded 1110 out of 1300 teams. Only a few rows of people behind me. The cannon goes off at the start which scares the begeebees out of me. I grab my map and wait in line to run. It is so crowded all you can do is jog along and move up whenever the opportunity presents. Finally get to the start triangle and it spread out enough that I can open up my stride. It is a long race for me and I didn't want to burn out early so wasn't pushing it. First control was long leg. Map reading was trivial, just like in the model. Of course that didn't stop me from spazzing. I wanted to go over a longish ridge and punch the control. Instead I went over a hill, saw a control with hundreds of people going to it so of course I ran over to it. It wasn't mine. I looked up and went to the other control with hundreds of people at it. It wasn't mine either. DOAAHH!. Ok, this time I looked at my map and continued to my control, the farthest of the three forks. Ok, settled down and ran my own race for the next two controls in the woods. Moved up several hundred places. Then we hit the marsh section. It was to croweded to run. Basically, you stood in line waiting to go in the correct direction. Just followed the train until you get to a control. You couldn't read the map, couldn't see the terrain. All you can do is look to see where the next foot was going to go. Not my style of orienteering. Did next few controls this way. Finally made a major unlucky screwed up. The train split and I went the wrong way. My control should have been right there but I didn't see it so kept going. The control was there but blocked by the train. I ran to another control not mine. I then cut the corner back to the first control but was now on the other side of it. Since I still didn't see it I went farther with the train. Hit the road which was way to far and had to fight my way back through the train to get the control which I had missed twice before. I had the 2nd slowest split on this leg and it put me way back in the back with slower people. The train was now moving slow and it was near impossible to get by people. I slowly edge up whenever I could. One other screw up of two minutes where I pulled up short of my control. Actually I hit the three other controls just in front of mine and it took me awhile to figure out what was what. Looking at the map, I almost always had the farthest controls of the fork ones and never the first one.
I never turned on my lamp and really wish other people hadn't. It was plenty light enought to see where to run. I had difficulty seeing the map because of losing my night vision to other peoples lights. Since I didn't look that much at my map it wasn't to bad.
Final damage, I was up to 764th place early in race before my screw up which dropped me to over 1050. I climbed back up to 971 finish.

Re JK next year, I can highly recommend it. Three very different but great areas:
- Day 1 is one really big hill with small complex countours bit at the top, then open rough hillside, then tough forest downhill
- Day 2 is forested spur/gully, complex and steep enough to really think about route choice or you'll end up doing a lot of climb
- Relay is fast runnable woodland but with enough detail to keep it interesting (a few mining remains)

Matthias.

I guess 3.43 min/km(!!!) by Mikael Boström confirms that the terrain was very fast.

As people surmised, I was the only runner on team 2. Because of a kidney stone just before leaving for Finland I was in sorry shape and skipped the Forssa games. Felt well enought to jog the model but did not try to get on another team since there was a risk I would not be able to run or finish. Not feeling that great and only had a level 2-3 effort. I was not stuck in the pack like Ted, I was behind it. Much cleaner than last year but still had a few errors and with no speed and no teammates waiting for me, I finished well back. Seeding 1172 and finished over 1200.