DVOA Goes to Jukola

After 5 years DVOA is again returning to Jukola! Sending a full male and female team.

This year Jukola and Venla are being held just 10km away from the Helsinki-Vantaa airport. This is the home area of Alisa Raitanen who was an exchange student last year outside Philadelphia and joined DVOA. I am arriving on the 14th of June and getting a chance to stay with Alisa and hopefully get some training in. I will be peaking her brains for some local knowledge tips! It will be nice to arrive to a friendly face and catch up with her before racing. Easier to keep your cool about starting a huge relay event when your around friends!

So a little bit about Jukola for those who are unsure what it actually is. This year is the 64th Jukola Relay and the 35th Venla Relay,  and is taking place the 16th and 17th of June. They are always in Finland and the largest relay events held in the world.
Venla is run first and is a womens’ relay competition with four legs. Venla is run fully in the daylight with legs this year ranging from 5.9km to 8.5km with an expected winning time of 2 hr 54 mins (these girls are moving!) DVOA's team this year is Me on first leg (mass start at 2pm), Sandy Fillebrown running 2nd, Dasha Babushok running 3rd, and Suzanne Armstrong bringing us home. I'm excited about starting us off and also a little nervous because there are so many teams! And by many teams try ~1258 just for Venla! It is going to take a lot of concentration and making sure I check my control codes. With that many teams out the whole event is forked (not everyone runs exactly the same course but comparable), probably many forks.

Start of Jukola

 Having done some reading they are changing the start procedure this year though. Instead of the maps being up on wire like the photo above they are going to be handed out minutes before the relay starts by officials. So at least I don't have to worry about not being able to reach my map and getting trampled! only have to make sure i'm standing at the right band on the ground to get the right map.



Jukola is a men's relay competition (although some women will run in it) with seven legs for teams from orienteering clubs and associations. Jukola starts at 10:30pm which is daylight/dusk in finland and run through the night, with around 2-3 legs running in the dark. Jukola legs this year range from 7.8km and ending with a 15km leg. The expected winning time for this year is 7 hrs 58 mins (these guys are not hanging around!) DVOA's team is Vadim Masalkov, Clem McGrath, Greg Balter, Sergei Zhyk, Nate Orwaschel, Eddie Bergeron, and Wyatt Riley. They are racing agents ~1663 other teams!

Looking at the maps of the area it looks technical like you would expect in Finland. Smaller hills with lots of bare rock on them and the low flat areas generally marsh. I'm hoping to find out in training if the marshes are fast or shoe sucking. I think contours are going to be key and knowing when to slow down a bit even though there are loads of other orienteers around. From the website "The scale is 1:10 000, contour interval 5 m, six colours, in accordance with the IOF standards and will be printed in March 2012. The maps are in plastic map cases. The map is drawn by Pekka Rytkönen (2010–2011). The electronic punching system (Emit) will be in use." Emit should be interesting to use again. I have only used the Emit bricks at the JWOC in Denmark and I didn't particularly like them as they have to fit into the control box exactly the right way. However,  for an event like this I can understand why they use them since a piece of paper is also attached to your brick and is pin punched at each control at the same time.

So we have 25 days left of training and lot of map geeking to do before the big event! I hope people will wish us luck and watch from home! GO DVOA!

DVOA Venla Team 2007 (photo: Karl Ahlswede)

DVOA Jukola Team 2007 (photo: Sandy Ahlswede)

Please don't forget that I have a chipin going on the right hand side of my blog. Any donations are greatly appreciated as I prepare for Venla and WUOC this summer!

First Year at Heriot-Watt Finished!

I am now finished with my first year here at Heriot-Watt and its flown by! I can't believe its over already. Looking back though it has been a hard year, with quite a few ups and downs. That being said I am very happy I'm here and enjoying the course!

This year I took 8 modules. The 4 in the first semester were Principles of Chemistry, Process Industries A, EPS Maths 1, and Foundations of Engineering A (ie Physics). I have to say I was very glad first semester I had done the year in Boulder. The pace material was presented was quick and it took a few weeks to get used to the system. For example in maths who puts a . at the bottom of a number like a decimal point but actually mean multiplication and then in the middle of the number be a decimal! That messed with my head for a while before I worked out what was going on. Also some of the equations in physics had different variables then I was taught with. But first semester went well academically for the most part. In Process Industries we had a site visit to INEOS. It was exciting to be able to see right from the start how we could apply the things we were learning in the future.
The second semester consisted of a continuation of Chemistry, Process Industries B, EPS Maths 2, and Foundations of Engineering B (ie. Biology). Second semester involved a lot more new material but I had figured things out so that was fine. I struggled with understanding Organic Chemistry, but very glad to have helpful understanding course mates. I was able to then give back in Biology as I had really enjoyed my course in Colorado. The one here had the disadvantage of being the first year it was taught, and our professor liked to use the work "Ok", even in the middle of a sentence. The first year Chem Eng class became quite close in the past few weeks as we studied for our two 3 hr exams in Chemistry and Process Industries, and then two 2hr exams in Maths and Biology. Many hours were spent notes spread across the long tables in the canteen trying hard to memorize endless formulas and working through as many past papers as we could get our hands on.

I was able to have time this year for things other than academics as well which was nice. I joined Heriot-Watts Athletics club and met many people in higher years through that which was nice. Great to walk around the halls and have people randomly say hi to you. But the BEST part was to have people to train with! To be able to have people waiting for a training session on a Monday night and then a coach on Wednesday afternoons was wonderful. Almost like high school cross country. We are also a small club here. However hopefully I can help that to change as I have been elected as Vice President of the club for next year! A guy named Ross is our President and the two of us have big plans to improve the club. YOU WATT!!!!
I was also able to join Edinburgh University's Orienteering Club (EUOC) since Heriot-Watt doesn't have one. Its been such a change to live near so many maps and orienteers! I didn't train with the club as much as I would have liked or should have, but hopefully that will change next year. I was living on campus this year and was harder to get places being on the outskirts of the city. Next year however, I'm going to be living just out of the city center in a flat with my friend Ashleigh from athletics. I cannot wait! I cannot wait to live with Ashleigh and off campus, to be able to cook my own food, and most of all be closer to things in the city like EUOC training in the meadows.

Now though it is on to summer and all the fun events that I'm planning. First up Vennala!
(also please don't forget my chipin on the right. I'm trying to raise $750 to pay for my WUOC entry fees)

WUOC 2012 Here We Come!

Despite this being a late post (silly exams!), I am very excited to say I have been selected on to the USA 2012 WUOC team! The World University Orienteering Championships are being held in Alicante, Spain from the 30th of June to the 7th of July. That gives me 8 weeks and 3 days to finish preparing.



A bit about Alicante from research online: 

 Alicante is located on the East coast of Spain.
It has a very mountainous landscape in the north and west regions, however the south is fairly flat, with the Segura River flowing eastwards through the area.

It can get as hot as 40C (or 104F) in August, so glad we are racing earlier in the summer, as July is only 30C (86F). a bit cooler!

Alicante is the 8th largest city in Spain, and quite a large tourist destination.

 

Now a bit about WUOC its self:

 The scheduled of Events is as follows:

The Long area is new and is said to be very uneven rocky ground, speed, and semi-open pine forest. It looks to possibly be a new sprint area as well. It is said to be an urban area with a network of city roads and paved bicycle paths. There are however maps of the middle and relay areas. It is called Santa Pola and many copies of them can be found on World of O. They all look to be quite green, very steep, and detailed. Concentration, planing, and fitness are going to be key!

The actual course distances that are published now are:

 I am still refining my goals for the event. The focus however is going to be on process. Process, Process, PROCESS! I have been learning a lot training in Scotland. I have learned from racing on new terrain and speaking to the top athletes that having a plan, sticking to the plan, and just focusing on the process is the key to success. I'm still working on making sure I do that and breaking my habit of thinking about the outcome. I want to thank Colm personally for putting up with me and helping me as I learn this. 

So the next 8weeks will be spent perfecting a process that works for me and just boosting my general fitness.

I'm going to use this opportunity to ask some help from my supporters. In order for me to go to the World University Orienteering Championships I have to pay the $750 entry and accommodation fee, plus airfare. Being a student studying chemical engineering at Heriot-Watt University I have been extremely busy studying and training. I would be very grateful to anyone who donated even $1 to my chipin to support my efforts. In return I promise to keep my blog up to date as quickly. Thank you for any support!