Discussion: Cell phone

Orienteering in Finland sounds like a whole other sport than even in Sweden! What I mean is the culture of the sport: it just seems to be so much more of a mass sport, like soccer here or jogging in the US. The image of a big-city yuppie going orienteering once a week to keep in shape and running while talking on his cell phone is a ridiculous one, but one I would love to see more of in the US.

Wow. That's hilarious! Hehe.

This is the time of the year you usually see something like this. It's Jukola efffect, there is almost 15 000 runners and many of them don't so much orienteering, they start practising few weeks before Jukola to be able to get result. For example after the run a girl asked us if she could get a ride to close to any railway station. On our way we talked a bit, she will run a leg in Venla relay in a university team, this was her second time in forest with map ever. She was pleased to hear all about Jukola elephant tracks and all. She also asked if have we been doing O for long time or even regularly - she noticed we had special O shoes, so she thought we maybe are not beginners. We said we have been doing this just a couple of years, stll trying to lear how to navigate, hoping to get ourselves more fit but are too lazy to practise much - and that O it's a nice hobby, you get to places you normally would never go. So I guess we told the truth.

( I start then I was 6 (1977), I even draw my frist O map back then - indoor map of rooms wth furniture, but It was for putting controls and finding them with my sister, so I call it my first O map. 1978 I did some my first O outside Finland, 1978 O-ringen training maps at Gotland. Didn't compete there, I liked to get some practise first. Silly me ;)

Well, looks like I'll get 30 years of O done this summer!

I´m really impressed by the numbers of people that show up to run Jukola - it´s more like our Vasaloppet that is something many skiers have as a goal for their training...
Tiomila is more competitive since it´s all about regular club teams and not officially open (?) for corporations.
I ran my first Jukola in 1974 - started in my first orienteering meets in 1966, so I guess I wouldn´t qualify as a beginner either...