July 20th
SPRINT. We started our morning off with the usual up at 6:50 and breakfast at 7. We then headed out to a new map. It was a bit further away, but it was the middle model map and is very close to the embargoed area for the middle next year. There was a lot of green on the map which made it very difficult. It was good to just get a feel for this map because it was very technical. There are unfortunately a lot of spiders and spider webs here so as we are running we sometimes run right into the webs with spiders on them. I picked like 5 out of my hair after the run. I even enhaled one. After the course we ate some lunch and then was going to head back to the hotel. As we left the parking are we got one of the cars stuck in the sand now. That's like the 6th time now or something. We were able to back it up after putting sticks behind the tires. We went back to the hotel and then had course review and looked it all over on 3D rerun. After that we all went and obviously got more ice cream! The days this week have just been getting hotter and hotter. We left for our last training of the day at 4:30 and headed to Szeged for sprint training. It was a hard sprint run and hot too. One of the cars with Caroline and David couldn't find the place and ended up just getting dinner instead 😂 The rest of us went back to the hotel for dinner and then went to bed. I have been absolutely exhausted. Even walking is the most tiring thing right now. I think the heat just makes me realize how tired Iv gotten after all the weeks of training.
July 19th
ICE CREAM. We again woke up at 6:50 today and had breakfast and headed out for training. We went back to the map that we were at yesterday morning, but did a longer course today on a 1:15,000 map. On our way in we got one of the cars stuck in sand and all had to push it out. I was very tired today, I think all the training and racing has finally caught up to be since things have started to slow down. In the open fields here there are tons of grass hoppers so when you run they are jumping out of your way. Right before leaving Greg drove to turn around and got the car stuck and had to be pulled out by some Hungarian guy. After returning to the hotel we had some lunch, (not very good sandwiches that we have everyday here) and looked at our routes on 3D rerun. On our 4 hours of downtime everyone played exploding kittens on my back as I tried to take a nap. I did however get woken up by a water bottle falling on my head. After that we all walked to the ice cream shop so we could try more flavors of ice cream. I got strawberry and Kindler today which was very good. For the evening training we went back to the place where we did training the night before and did a bit longer course. It wasn't too hot at this time and the stickers weren't as bad which was nice. After the training we went back to the hotel and had dinner. Greg dared Thomas and David to eat their dessert (two pastries and raspberry sauce) without issuing their hands. They instantly agreed and that is how they ate it. It was funny to watch. After dinner we went back to our rooms and headed to bed.
July 18th
FIRST TRAININGS. Today we woke up at 6:50 and had breakfast and headed out for our first training. The first training was on relay terrain and wasn't too hard. Very distinct vegetation boundaries and a lot of easy open to run on. It was very hot here though so that's why we are doing a training early in the morning and then in the evening. After the first training we went back to the hotel where we looked over maps on 3D rerun and ate lunch. Then we all headed out for ice cream. Our goal is to try all the flavors of ice cream here. After ice cream Caroline and I went shopping and I bought a few shirts and some small gift for the fam. When we went back to the hotel we played some exploding kittens then headed out for the second training. On our way there we all got lost and the three cars we were in all got split up. I was in a car with Greg and Julia and we ended up stopping to wait for the other cars and getting stuck in the sand. I had to drive the car out as Greg pushed. We finally all made it to the right place after an hour. This map was a bit harder with more green areas that we needed to avoid. We were also all cover in stickers by the end. We went back and had dinner, played some exploding kittens and then went to bed because we were all so tired.
July 17th
WELCOME TO HUNGARY. We had breakfast at 9:30 this morning and had a breakfast sandwich, some sausage, and yogurt. We weren't able to do any training on a map today because the maps weren't released yet so we walked around the town Kiskunhalas. It's a pretty small town, but it looks very cultured and very pretty. We got ice cream which costed less than a dollar and went to a really cool museum that had art and artifacts from Hungary, I couldn't take pictures without paying more so I don't have any pictures. We then went back to the hotel where we had some lunch of sandwiches. We then went to this pool that was really close by and went swimming it was fun, there was this weird pool there that had black water and it was some special thing for clensing or something. After that caroline and I went shopping, but for some reason the stores close very early. I bought a lot of juice and we will probably go back to this market place sometime on the trip because it had a lot of cool stuff, Caroline and I bought some really comfortable pants there right before they closed, but we want to go back. After shopping we went and met up with everyone at an ice cream store where we again all got ice cream because it's so cheap!!!! I would live here for the sole purpose of their dirt cheap ice cream! After the ice cream Caroline and I went for a three mile run and saw a lot of wild life such as birds, dogs, ducks, and water buffalo. Hungary is very flat but we did find a small hill and ran up that. There was a nice view so I will probably walk back sometime to take pictures. Caroline and I did some core and then hung out until dinner. Erin did not come on this part of the trip. We are here with Greg who may be a coach next year. He is very fun and nice and at dinner we played two truths and a lie so he could get to know us a bit better. Since it is very hot here during the day we are scheduling a training in the morning and evening for the next four days to avoid the hottest part of the day. We've looked at maps and it is much different than anything I have seen. I am actually very excited to go out and try orienteering in it tomorrow. I'll post a pic of the map tomorrow.
July 16th
LEAVING FINLAND. My updates from the last few days are a bit short because I got behind, so sorry for that. This morning we spent a long time packing up everything from our cabins that we have been staying at during jwoc. We left at around 1 and headed to the airport. We got on our flight okay. Julia, Thomas and I got seats next to each other so we played cards. We landed in Hungary around 8:10 Hungarian time (1 hour earlier than Finland) we drove to Kiskunhalas, about two hours from Budapest. We arrived at around 10:30 so it was dark and couldn't see much. We went and got a very late dinner of Pizza and headed to bed because we were all very tired.
July 15th
RELAY RACE. Last day of JWOC. We got to sleep in this morning because the relay was later. By 12:30 we headed out for quarantine which was in the arena. The guys started their race first and the girls started 30 minutes after them. The race was definitely a runners race cause there was a very long control on the road to the first control. The course was fun though. After that everyone traded jerseys. I got an Australian one. We had to wait around a bit after for the coaches relay which was just a fun thing. Our coaches did great! Then we were very rushed to dinner and to shower to get ready for he jwoc banquet. We all drsssed as cat woman and the guys just wore whatever 😂 it was super fun and the music was awesome thanks to DJ Santon. In the picture below we are missing Anton because it was right before the banquet and he was already DJing and our hair is for our costumes. 😂
July 14th
LONG RACE. I would say this was my best race, I honestly don't relay remember much from this day which can only mean nothing interesting happened. I remember having an early start and a long race. Following that Bridge took Caroline and I back to your cabins where we showered and had food and waited for the others to return. We just chilled the rest of the day and went to dinner. Since the race was long and some of us had late start times the day was mostly taken up by the race.
July 13th
TULIKIS SURPRISE. So today was a rest day. We did go walk around the long model map for preparation for tomorrow. After the model map we went back to the houses and just hung out and ate some lunch. At 2:30 we all left on our surprise excursion. We ended up going to this place that where we ate dinner. It was a mix of reindeer and moose. It was super yummy. We then went zip lining. I will write more about it tomorrow, but for now I have to sleep for the long tomorrow.
July 12th
SPRINT. Woke up for the sprint this morning at 6:30 and had breakfast and went to quarantine. Took the long bus ride to Tempere where I got some more sleep. Today it was super foggy in the morning and there was a misty rain. The race was a bit rough for me. It wasn't anything like the model map and the first areas were very slippery because of mud. I messed up the second to last control because I mistook a sand area for out of bounds and ended up going all the way around. I ran into a thistle bush on the course and my legs bubbled up and it looked like I had poison oak for a few hours and itched like crazy. Even though these races have been rough it's been a great experience and a lot of motivation to train more after this. It's been super fun meeting new people from different countries and meeting some of the best junior orienteerers. I even got a picture with Ollie 😂 (he doesn't know it though). After the race we went back to the house and rested and then went to dinner. Excited for the rest day tomorrow to just take it easy.
July 11th
MIDDLE FINAL. Overall it was a better day. They start times were later so I got to sleep until 8. After going to quarantine and getting on the bus we had a long walk to the start area. We were there for about an hour playing cards and then warmed up. The run from pre start to start was a ways too which made for another warmup. I made my start so that was good! The race went pretty well. The end was definitely better than the start. It was a pretty good race except I messed up really bad going to number three which was super frustrating because it really messed up my time. C final didn't have GPS today which was fine with me. After finishing we hung out at the arena and it only rained a little then stopped thankfully. We all cheered in Anton when he finished his A final race. He didn't do as well as he had hoped, but he did great just the same. After we all finished we went back to the house and rested and showered then headed to dinner. We had our team meeting and are now prepareing for the sprint race tomorrow. I'm hoping for a good race tomorrow!
July 10th
MIDDLE QUALIFYING. Well it's safe to say that todays race didn't go as well as I had hoped. To start I was the first of the US team to start so I was up at 6:30 and off to quarantine at 7:15. Erin and I got on the bus and headed to the warm up area. After warming up on the warm up map (small peice of the map to run in before hand) I started seeing streamers on almost every tree. There were red streamers and white flags and I got super paranoid about going out of bounds and getting disqualified that I got completely lost on the stupid warm up map. Turns out that the streams were just there for no reason. After getting lost I couldn't find my way out. When I finally got out they put the gps on me and I ran to the start. I missed my start time by 4.5 minutes and was tired from the 350m run to the start. Not exactly how I had imagined my first start at jwoc. Anyways, I took the controls slow so I wouldn't do anything stupid and it was going good until control 6. I went too low and went back up and looking back at my gps I went all over the control circle except the actual control. The rest of the race was fine as well. It was a very... interesting... first jwoc experience. As fun as it was I hope to not repeat anything that I did today 😂 After the race I hung out at the arena and watched the rest of the team come in. Anton made the A final and David was 27 seconds from A final. We couldn't all fit in the van so Anton, Caroline, Siri, and I took the bus back. Erin offered to take us to where the buses were but we thought they were close so he left and we realized there was a walk to the bus stop. It was the last bus of the day and it would have been bad to miss so we quickly walked and were with some Kiwis and Canadians. Anton flagged down a military bus that we all piled into and he drove us to the bus so we didn't miss it. When we got back to the houses we just relaxed! Thank god. I will have pictures up soon. Here is the link to the gps routes, https://www.tulospalvelu.fi/gps/2017jwocMQW2/?v=m3 My original start was at 9:05, but I actually left at 9:09.30. Hoping for a better race tomorrow!
Note: At the coaches meeting they brought up that there was a line O kids course on our warmup map that the officials didn't know about which is what the streamers were for that threw me off because I thought they were out of bounds. It's been crazy because the Fin 5 is going on at the same time and the same place and the organizers did not work together.
July 9th
OPENING CEREMONY. Today we woke up at 8:00 and we went to the middle model training. We spent about an hour there and then went back to the house to get ready for the opening ceremony. We all had to shower within an hour. And then went to model the sprint course before going to the ceremony. The sprint went well and we spent about 30 minutes there. We then went to the amusement park in Tempere and all walked through with the American flag and listened to a few speeches. After the ceremony I went with Anton to drop off his car at the shop and the rest of the team went food shopping. When we got back we headed to Muurikka to do technical model. We ride our bikes there which was fun. We were just looking at the emit system and how the start will work. We then had dinner and rode our bikes back. We had our team meeting and I got ready for my first race tomorrow!
July 8th
REST DAY. I'm going to keep this one short because I'm a little behind. Today was a rest day, we slept in and ate breakfast. We went to Muurikka to get our name tags. In the afternoon we went to the lake and there were giant floaty ducks that Bridge swam out to. Turns out there was a triathlon going on. To end the day we had dinner (most of the teams are here now) and played a game of "exploding kittens" and headed to bed.
July 7th
Easy DAY. I woke up this morning and went to Muurikka with Anton and went to the lake with Emma and Christian. Then Anton talked with the Swiss guys who have arrived and ten we went back to the house for lunch. On our way back the girls were all out picking strawberries and later made some "jam" it was actually very good. We spent the afternoon just resting and Thomas, Peter, and I jumped in the lake which was very cold. I did my easy 15 min jog. We watched the relay and Izzy and Anton watched it with the Swiss team which must have been interesting cause Switzerland made a huge mistake. Before dinner the girls took our team presentation pictures (however we will have to retake them) we had dinner and a team meeting and then went to bed.
July 6th
TRAINING WITH CANADA. This morning was an earlier morning. We had breakfast and headed out for training with Canada. It was a relay training consisting of four loops. Many people went straight through a river and got completely soaked. Julia and I crossed over a log so we thankfully didn't get wet at all. After training we went back to the house and eat lunch and spent the rest of the day just hanging out and watched the middle WOC race where Thierry won his last individual world championship race! After that we went to Murikka for dinner. The Swiss and Norwegian team arrive tonight. After dinner we did map study and went to bed.
July 5th
This morning we ate breakfast and and Erin took AJ, David, Peter, and Bridge to the Finnish Trials terrain. The rest of us did a short run. It was 15 minute warm up, then 8x (30 sec sprint, 30 seconds easy), then a cool down. On our cool down we found wild strawberries on the side of the road and had to stop to pick them. After our run we all stretched and then made sandwiches for lunch. When Erin got back with his group from training Bridge had a very interesting training. When she left the sixth control she somehow ended up on a trail all the way on the other side of the map. In order to get back she hitched hiked and got picked up by some nice people that took her to the finish. The trampoline has been one of the highlights of the past two days. Julia is really good at flips and front handsprings and she taught us all how to do them. It was hard at the beginning, but at the end of our lesson we all made a ton of progress. By the end of this trip we are all going to be pros! We all sat for a while listening to David’s music. He listens to heavy metal which is very intense. My personal favorite song is “the thunder god at sunrise” AKA Twilight of the Thunder God (I just never remember the name). We went to dinner and ended up spending the majority of dinner and the ride home reading our horoscopes. After dinner we spent the rest of the evening playing badminton and kicking a soccer ball around. Thomas taught Julia, David, Peter, and I how to juggle a soccer ball. It’s so hard! I was able to kick it four times in a row which was pretty good for me. I’m going to keep practicing. Siri took this bread from dinner that looked like a soccer ball and then pulled it out of her pocket when we were playing soccer. It was then named the soccer bread. We went to bed earlier today then yesterday so we could get some rest before our relay training with Canada tomorrow.
July 4th
FOURTH OF JULY. I hope everyone has a great Fourth of July!!! This morning we all packed up because we are leaving for Tempere. Before we left we played a little bit more tennis which was still super fun and even Erin played a bit. We left Virumäki at around 11 and got to our cabins at around 2. We are staying close to where we were before (with the amazing food) but now we are staying in two small cabins. It's very tight, but also very pretty. We have a trampoline in the back and are fairly close to the lake. Caroline and I went for a walk to the lake and everyone was on the trampoline and Erin took Bridge, AJ, David, and Peter out for a training. When we returned we were locked out of the girls house (the bigger one) (WITH ALL THE FOOD IN IT). We all moved to the guys to wait for Erin, but Anton was able to call someone and find the extra key! We watched the end of the long WOC race and then headed to dinner when Erin got back from the training. We went on the roof of the building where we had dinner and some other people went on a walk. When we went back to our houses we took some team photos for the Fourth of July. Siri and Julia both did each other's hair and put pretty flowers in their hair. They then did everyone else's hair super beautiful. They even did the guys hair! I have some of the guys a piggyback ride, which ended with a lot of funny pictures 😂
July 3rd
VIRUMÄKI. Today was a rest day so we were able to sleep as long as we wanted. I was up at 9:30 and had some breakfast and watched Thomas and Anton play batmitten. We played with the frisbee some more and then David accidentally broke it. Then Peter broke a chair and Thomas and David broke a birdy. We just spent the day around the house playing with all of the things we could find around the summer house. In the afternoon Antons mom got here with Tyra and Julia who are back from WOC. She also brought..... TENNIS RACKETS! Only problem was we didn't have any balls. After Anton, Tuliki, and Erin went golfing they bought tennis balls and David, Peter, and I went to play. It was a little wet cause of rain, but it was super fun and I got to play on grass courts! The racket however were very small, they were definitely made for smaller kids, but that's okay because it was fun anyways. After tennis we went back to the house and Anton had grilled dinner for us. It was super yummy! After dinner some of the group played a hearts tournament, Tyra being the winner, and others watched a movie about the first black US marine diver. It was a very relaxing day and very enjoyable.
July 2nd
MASS START. Had to wake up a bit early today so we were up at 6:30 for breakfast. After breakfast we left and drove two and a half hours to the meet. Once we arrived we got ready and got warmed up and ran about 1K to the start. The mass start was at 10:30 and the girls ran the same course as the boys and we all started together. The running was definitely easier today which was nice. After the race we started the drive back and stopped at a store for lunch. After driving all the way back to Virumäki we again went straight to the lake and jumped in. We swam a lot today and swam all the way out to a dock and back. It was super nice and the water was perfect. When we went back to the house we went in the sauna which was nice at first but got super hot! We were all dying 😂 after that we showered and watched the Sprint Relay from WOC and cheered on the US. We played frisbee for a bit and Anton kept throwing it weird so I tried and every time I tried his way it was very fast and could probably cut through something if the frisbee wasn't one of those soft ones. To finish off the night we went to the tennis courts and played tennis-soccer. Basically it's tennis, but with a soccer ball. It was really fun and Thomas got to show off his soccer skills and Siri and Anton were also really good. I was designated server cause that's what I actually could do. Since tomorrow's a rest day we stayed up until sunset which was not as pretty as the first time, but it was fun. Anton, David, and I sat on the roof and listened to music.
July 1st
FINNISH RACE. Today we woke up pretty early because today we leave! We had breakfast at 7:30 and left the house at 8:15. We drove about two hours and I'm not sure where we went, but we went to a local Finnish meet. Anton brought Peter (USA junior) and Jan Erik (Canadian junior) It was in the middle of nowhere and the terrain was really hard. It was definitely a runners course which was hard because it wasn't very runable. After finishing we got back in the car and drove another two hours to Vierumäki (Anton's summer house). After getting there we went straight down to the lake and jumped in. The water was super nice and not too cold. When we got back to the house David (junior from Norway) arrived. We went to the event center and got food which was good but obviously not as good as Analies cooking. During dinner Erin went and picked up Bridge (USA junior from West Point) from the bus station. Bridge is our team manager this year which is super exciting. After dinner we came back to the house and hung out and watched the WOC speint on replay. We dicided Christian needed a new look so I braided his hair and it looked amazing!!!! We got to bed early today because we have a mass start race tomorrow.
June 30th
LAST DAY. We woke up at 8:30 and had some breakfast. After 10:30 we went and did some very easy core and some of us showered. It was such a nice day I relaxed outside until lunch. We enjoyed our last lunch cooked by Analie. Once we finished lunch we decided to take a store run so we just went into Tempre and bought some snacks and a card for Analie. We had dinner right when we got back from the store. For our last dinner Analie cooked us an amazing dinner with sausages and potatoes. It was so good and we all ate way too much. It was so nice because we ate right next to the lake and the weather was perfect. After dinner we sat by the lake and played "oh hell" (kinda similar to hearts). We wanted to give something to Analie as a thank you so we took a short walk and found beautiful lupine and made a bouquet for her. She was very happy to get them. We took the ladder to the top of the house and just hung out on top for a while too. It was fun, we even came up with our hit number for our album "Izzy and the Cheerios", it's called "Loading". When we finally game down we ended our last night playing cards. I am definitely going to miss Analie's cooking and our pretty house, but I'm excited to change things up and go more places
June 29th
SLACKLINE. Woke up this morning at 7:50 for conditioning. It was a very easy morning because we changed to conditioning every other morning, but Erin wanted us to just get a start on the day with easy condtitioning. After that we had breakfast and at 10:30 headed out for a training. Today all we did for training was a course around 40 minutes in an area we had been in before. After the training we headed back to the house. The weather was actually stable today and super nice and sunny so we all just sat outside and hung out and played cards. At 3:30 we had our map analysis and armchair. We looked over the urban area maps and the map from this morning. From then until dinner at 6:30 we all practiced slacklining with Erin's slackline. Siri was very good at it. She told us that her and Tyra spent two summers ago practicing it. It was super fun and we all improved a ton from when we started. Dinner was amazing and we decided to take a picture with the lady that runs the house and cooks our food, Analie. In the picture below she is sitting in the middle with the short brown hair and glasses. The other people are all the people that stay at the house too. All of them are super nice, even though they don't really speak English, we try and communicate as best as we can. Sarah left after dinner and is heading to Germany for the week. It should be fun because this week Germany is going to be playing in the Confederation Cup finals (Soccer). Thomas and Anton really like watching soccer so we watched the semifinals and are hopefully going to be able to watch the finals.
June 28th
ADIDAS. Started our morning at 8:30 with breakfast. We were free to do whatever we wanted to do until 10:30am which is when we went for a fartlek run. After we all finished that we gathered for some conditioning. Before the training five of us came out all wearing adidas pants so obviously after the training we all had to take a picture! We went and ate lunch and a few people played cards and I took a nap. My typical way of getting woken up for training this week has been by getting water poured on me by Anton. This morning he thought the training started at 10 instead of 10:30 so at around 9:50 I was rudely awaken by water. After telling him the training started at 10:30 and going back to sleep (still wet) I was again woken up at 10:20 by more water. I think this is the 4th or 5th time it's happened within the past three days. This afternoon we went back to the relay training area we all messed up on and just walked around the area. After returning to the house we had dinner and while some people played cards Sarah, Anton, and I went to the sauna! Anton can tolerate the heat way better than us. To finish our day we did some armchair map training and had our snack!
June 27th
CITY. We woke up at 8:30 again for breakfast and then at 10:00 did a short run. We jus theft the house and did an easy run for 30-40 minutes. After our rest day my muscles in my right leg were super tight and painful so it was a much harder run than it should have been. After the run we just did a little stretching and just hung out at the house until lunch. We had some good soup and bread for lunch and then decided to go into Tempre for the afternoon. The people that are at the house right now are Sarah, Izzy, Caroline, Siri, Anton, Thomas, Christian, and myself. We all drove into Tempre and walked around the streets and went into a very cute store to avoid the downpour of rain. Our goal for the trip was to find our coustumes for the JWOC banquet. We decided we are going to do an American super hero theme and so we needed capes and masks. At H&M we found super hero underwear that we are going t wear over leggings (the guys were not so onboard with that idea). We also went to a costume store where we were able to find masks. We are hoping that Antons mom will have something we can use for capes because we didn't find anything. We returned to the house where we played more cards, listened to music, had an armchair meeting and ate dinner. Below are just some pictures from around the city. Even though it was cloudy and the rain was really bipolar, it was a beautiful city.
June 26th
REST. Today was our rest day so it was super relaxed! We got up at 8:30 for breakfast and just spent the morning playing cards and hanging out. The weather is very bipolar though. One minute it will be sunny, the next it's raining or even hailing. At one point where it was sunny many of us went outside to get out of the house and get air. It was really pretty at that time and we took some pictures and walked around. We ate some lunch and then Julia, Tyra, and Emma left at around 3 for the bus back to Helsinki (leaving for WOC). Due to some logging they missed the bus, but caught it a few stops down. The rest of the evening we played more cards and ate dinner. We also played psychiatrist and slap or slide (a game involving slapping or sliding a quarter on to the table. Right before bed we watched the first episode of How I Met Your Mother (best show ever). Our goal is to get Anton addicted to it.
June 25th
ONE WEEK. Today was our last day of intense training this week. We got up at 7:50 for conditioning and then ate breafast and headed out for our first training. Our first training was training in long terrain and we ended up doing most of the long course that was made for the Finnish team trials. Some of the girls, Tyra, Julia, and Emma, took this training off so they could rest before they left for WOC. After returning back to the house and eating lunch a few people wanted to go outside and take photos. Some of the photos would have been perfect for a mix tape. All we need is a recording now. The second training was a practice for a relay. We didn't do an actual relay, we all went out at the same time. It was actually funny cause everyone did really bad. 😂 Erin gave us a goal of 27 min and the fasted time was about 50 min. I think Erin's time estimation was a little off. After the training we went back to the house for dinner and also showered. To end our night and week of hard training we all watched the Lego Batman movie (just to finish off the Lego movies). Tomorrow is a total test day and the girls are leaving for WOC!
June 24th
LEGO. So our usual morning conditioning happened at 7:50 along with breakfast. After breakfast we went out for a long distance training. Everyone is getting pretty tired, but we are hanging in there! After lunch we all sat around and watched the Lego movie because we have been making many references to that movie recently. We will be watching the Batman Lego movie tomorrow night to celebrate the finish of one week training. After the movie we had one more sprint training and then had dinner. So where we are staying there is this amazing women who cooks all our meals and the good is amazing. There is a picture of our dinner tonight on here now. The main course changes, but she is very good at reusing food in our next meal. Like once we had like a hamburger dinner and the next morning the remaining ones were cooked with eggs. There are rolls served with every meal and we eat those like crazy. We either will put butter, cheese, or salami, or there is always really yummy jelly that we put on them.
June 23rd
MIDSUMMER NIGHT. Today was actually a very interesting and fun day. After our usual condition at 7:50 and morning training of an interval terrain run we returned to the house for lunch and a break again and headed out to our easy training of walking through the forest with a map just studying features. Besides it being an easier day it turns out today is also Midsummer Night! When we returned there were a lot of people at the place we are staying. Where we are staying houses quit a few disabled people so there was a big gathering for many of these people and their friends. Down by the lake there was a big fire and as we watched it we saw another big fire through the trees. We walked over a bit and that fire was huge! Since we hadn't showered since the training we all went into the sauna and then jumped into the lake. We went back and fourth doing this anywhere from 3 times to Anton who went in 7 times. The water in the lake was still so cold, even after the sauna. After we showered and ate our late night snack. It was a very good day in my opinion because the training wasn't too hard so my muscles had a relaxing day and the Midsummer night fire was really fun.
June 22nd
SPRINT. We woke up at 7:50 again and went out for conditioning. Did some agility with the latter and hurtles and then did some strength with the sand bags. Today was a sprint training day so after breakfast we went to Tempere and did a training. There were four loops and on the first exercise focused on reading the details and keeping the map up. The second loop was focused on reading the whole leg. Third loop was focused on entry/exits and the last loop combined all the skills. We then went back to the house for lunch and updated attackpoint and went over courses and then many of us took naps. Everyone is very sore today. Our last training of the day was a sprint "race" stimulation. Just another four loops with a one or two minute rest in between them all, running at a race pace. After finishing we went home bad showered then had dinner and got our GPS's update to computers and did some map analysis.
June 21st
SUMMER. Well thankfully it stopped raining for most of the day. After waking up at 7:50 we again did some conditioning, this time core. We had a great breakfast and headed out for the first training. We returned back to the house and it started raining a little, but it stopped after lunch and before we went out for the second training. When we got to the second training there were so many mosquitos!!!! We left as quick as we could of after the training and went to the sauna and shower. We finished off the day with dinner and our team meeting. It was actually a very tiring day and everyone is pretty sore. We are all very excited for sprint training tomorrow.
June 20th
Woke up at around 7:50 for some conditioning before some amazing breakfast. This lady here is my hero, her cooking is amazing and she constantly has food for us. After breakfast we went and did terrain training where Sarah and I remembered why we don't orienteer together. We then went back to the house for our second amazing meal of the day and just relaxed for a few hours. Our final training of the day was two race pace 1K loops. After finishing that training we returned and the girls went in the sauna until I was literally red then took a cold shower. There was a lot of rain today so the damp feeling was constantly there. Finally have been able to do some laundry today. Siri, Tyra, and Caroline arrived today and were all very tired after their long flight. fter eating dinner we had our team meeting where we all got to listen to the thunder and rain while talking about training for tomorrow. Following the meeting was our afternoon snack of course!
June 19th
So I'm finally caught up to date with this log so they will be a bit more detailed. This morning we packed up from Anton's vacation house and spent a good 4 hours in the car on the way to Tempre. We stopped at a super market where we bought food. When we went outside to eat it at some benches we got yelled at because apparently we weren't allowed to sit there. We ended up walking a little ways to a lake and eating our sandwiches there. It was really pretty, but very windy. Once we arrived in Tempre we stopped and picked up some maps at a store specifically for orienteering gear! It was awesome. We went for a short run of 25 minute around the JWOC area. NOT THE EMBARGOED AREA! It was pretty relaxed since we are still taking it easy from Jukola. Tomorrow harder training starts up. We drove to our "house" after the run. It's this very big house near a lake where this very nice lady cooks us food and late night snacks. There are super cute swings outside and a ton of rooms. We went through our Jukola races and talked about the terrain and then enjoyed the rest of the night with our usual card games. The people that are with us right now are Sarah and I, Julia, Izzy, Emma (Canadian), Thomas, Anton, Christian (Canadian), Jan Erik (Canadian), and his girlfriend Sophie (from the Swiss team).
June 18th
Woke up at 3am and walked Sarah to the start of her Jukola leg. Took pictures of Thomas coming in and then walked back to camp only to walk back to the start with Julia to watch Sarah finish. For the last leg of the race Dylan had to run 14K with off and on rain! The weather had been perfect until that point. Thankfully we didn't have to walk down the cars because Erin drove the van up. Most of slept on the way to Antons vacation house, but we did stop for lunch. After arriving we headed straight for dinner at the cafeteria and really enjoyed the juice machine. When we returned to the house Jan Erik lead a yoga circle and we went to the roof to watch the sunset.
June 17th
Woke up and packed up to leave for the Jukola stadium. Once we parked the car we walked either 3k or 5k from the car to the camp area. We stayed in a military tent which was pretty cool! Venla started at 2 and Sarah and I ran for a company with two other women. One from Russia and one from Finland. We came in 485 out of 1,200 and our USA team came in 145!
June 16th
Went to a Sports Bed where we slept. We did some terrain training and I cut my ankle up a lot cause I didn't wear long socks. After returning we ate some lunch and showered and Julia and Erin finally arrived!
June 15th
Did a short morning run and then packed up so we could move out to Joensuu. We took the party car which wasn't that much of a party. It's not that Thomas has bad taste in music. He just want playing jam worthy music. We got to the Sport Bed and walked to the lake which was really pretty. It according to Thomas you couldn't take any good pictures of it. We also played a little basketball which was loads of fun!
June 11-14th
Got on our flight in Oakland and had a 9 hour flight to London. Then had a 6 hour layover where Sarah and I slept some of the time. We then had another 3 hour flight to Helsinki and Anton picked us up at 1:00am Finnish time. We went back to his place and slept. When we woke up Thomas had just got there from the airport and were frayed by Emma and Jan Erik when they woke up. We did a short sprint training in the morning and just hung out most of the day until Izzy and Dylan joined us and then did another sprint training.