Louna-Jukola is coming closer – mere 150 days to go! That is also just an appropriate time for a self-challenging fitness orienteer to tune her or his physical and orienteering-technical capacity to the optimum. Now we shall get acquainted with one avid orienteering aficionado, whose main goal for the summer has been long decided.
Sports blog (only in Finnish) owner Hanna Taimén is getting ready for Louna-Jukola. She is a 27-year-old sports fanatic from Helsinki region, well experienced in running, but only a beginner in orienteering. Last year she participated for the first time in the Venla Relay in Kuopio.
Hanna tells she was an active football and floorball player as a teenager. When her floorball career ended she discovered running and triathlon. Today she runs several marathons and cross-country races per year.
In the late summer of 2012 a friend asked her to go orienteering with her. The following summer the two friends went orienteering a few times but it wasn’t until in the spring of 2014 that Hanna really became inspired as the two friends took part in an orienteering course organized by the club Helsingin Suunnistajat. At the end of one theory lesson, the organizers asked if someone was looking for team mates to the upcoming Venla Relay. Four hands were raised: Hanna, her friend and two other women. Hence, a team of beginners for the Venla Relay 2014 was born.
In Kuopio, Hanna was supposed to run the last, fourth, leg. Unfortunately, she caught a flu on the week before the race and it looked unlikely for her to participate. Luckily, she got better in time but had to let go of the fourth, and longest, leg of the relay and to run the second leg instead.
The whole Jukola event was an extraordinary experience. Hanna remembers especially the giant camping site and watching the Jukola Relay in the summer night as well as the enormous number of people sharing a common interest in orienteering. She was also happy with her own performance. She was surprised that in Jukola, orienteering is not that much an individual sport but a team sport. The woods were full of orienteers shouting codes to each other, so it was easy to find those who were heading to the same control as you. You really didn’t need to feel alone!
Hanna wants to experience all this again in Louna-Jukola. The squad of the team is not quite sure yet but Hanna will participate at least in the Venla Relay. She hopes to be able to run the anchor leg this time – or to head to the Jukola night itself. Hanna says she has tried night orienteering only once but usually she is easily talked into new challenges so she will certainly say yes if someone asks her to run the long leg in the middle of the night.
Hanna wants to encourage the beginners who are still hesitating about participating in Jukola. As said, Jukola is known for cooperation between orienteers. The atmosphere in the whole event is one of fair play and mutual help. According to Hanna, you can participate in the race if you have at least some experience of orienteering.
During the winter, Hanna goes orienteering only every now and then. When the spring comes, she will find her way to orienteering trainings about once a week.
Last summer Hanna wrote in her blog that orienteering day is the week’s nicest day. Why is that? Hanna explains: “Well, orienteering is an extraordinary sport because it combines physical strain to intellectual challenge. With this combination, you have to forget everything else. It is the best possible medicine against stress at work. When you start your track, you never know what to expect. Each time you find a control, you feel like a winner. You feel so happy after orienteering.”
Hanna adds that orienteering is very rewarding for a beginner because your skills improve so quickly. She finally says there must be some magic in orienteering as many of her friends – and even her spouse – now share her passion to orienteering. It feels like everybody wants to go orienteering!
