A great day on the Track yesterday

Its Friday morning here, I have my 3km on the track at 4.30pm (11.30pm Aus time), I have had 2 days off, which has been hard to wait around and watch everybody else. Yesterday morning I did a 7km run on another part of the half marathon course, just do that I know what the tracks are like, they should be fine Sunday.

Yesterday on the Track, we won 2 Gold and a Silver in the Mens walk, I meant to say that 2 women won Gold in the walks the other morning, Lyn Ventris broke her own World record. Also yesterday we won 4 from 4 runners in the 200 metres, Noreen Parish W70, Kathy Heagney W60, Marie Kay W50 and Peter Combie M65. We might be a small team, we have very good quality.

We did have some more snow yesterday afternoon and a bit of sleet over night, but I am told that it should be clear for the next 3 days, I am not sure what I am going to run in for the half on Sunday, it is suppose to be sunny around zero degrees, that sounds cold but it should be fine, not sure if I will run with a short or long sleeve under my singlet, I might wear light gloves that I can take off when I get too hot, I don't want to over dress.

I will go out to the track around midday to watch a couple of races and events before mine, I hope everybody is well.

Here is a video of the Track.

I thought it was bloody cold, Results from the Track.

An update from my wednesday morning run, I thought it was cold, when I went to the track, I was told that at Jyvaskyla Airport it was -11 at 9.10am, I finished my run at 8.50am, so I am putting down a -10 run for this morning, a new world cold running record for me, the roads and paths are starting to melt.

An update from the track today in the 800's and 60's Kathryn Heagney had silver in both for W60, she had the same time as the winner in hundreths of a second but was beaten by 3 one thousands of a second. Marie Kay won the gold in W50 60, Noreen Parish won the gold in W70 60 metres, Peter Crombie after a terrible start in the M66 60, came motoring home for a silver.

Maria O please note that your time of about 2.45 in the 800 a few weeks ago would have won the Gold medal here, quite a few other ladies from Vets would not had been out of place, if Kathy Southgate had run then Maria would have got Silver.

A morning run and chewing the fat

Because I don't race now until Friday afternoon and I decided to try and run parts of the half marathon course this morning, I made my way down to the lake from the hotel (less than a K away), i can remember seeing the brochures about these champs showing the beautiful lake that we will run the half past, except at the moment, it is completely frozen over, covered in snow and ice, people are actually walking across it. I did about 10ks along the path, I had to be really careful with the ice on the paths, I didn't want to fall arse over t.., I wore a beany, gloves, long tights and 2 shirts (short over long), it was probably around -8, the coldest run I have ever done, my chin was numb for the first 2ks, I didn't really warm up at all, I ran in my older marathon shoes but the tread is wearing out, for the half on Sunday I am hoping that the tracks will be more worn down then and a lot less ice, it is being run at 12.30, so if the Sun is out the conditions should be ok, but I still might have to wear my track shoes which have more grip on them.

Yesterday on the way back to the Hotel, I stopped at the sports store and bought a new Gortex Jacket for 99 Euro (about $125) which was reduced down from 350 Euro (about $450), it feels really nice, I also bought a pair of walking shoes that are Gortex for 60 Euro, that I will use to walk around town and to the Track, I have been worried about slipping on the icy paths and falling over, these shoes have great tread and should be great to wear out and about.

The Scandic Hotel I am staying at, is fantastic, there would be people from about 20 odd countries staying here, the Russians, Germans, Spanish, Americans, British, French, better than the UN, the breakfast in the morning is recommended, after my run this morning I am now well stocked up.

Also I do find it amusing that people are cycling around on really basic bikes in the snow, the Scandic actually has bikes you can borrow, you couldn't pay me to ride one at the moment.

My first Indoor event in Finland - 800 metres

    Today was the day of reckoning, my first Indoor event (800 metres) here in Finland, it started early got up at 6am, shower and then breakfast at 6.30am, coffee, juice, a couple of boiled snags, scrambled eggs and finished off with Fruit Salad and Yogurt.

    My race was at about 11am, I headed out to the track at about 9ish, at the Hall where the Indoor track is, I did a few warm up runs in an under ground indoor soccer pitch. I went to the Call room where all the Athletes assemble before the race, There is up to 8 per heat in 4 lanes, I was in Heat 3 Lane 1 Inside, all up there was 23 in 3 heats. Talk about intimidating, they all look very fit and thin, I was at least 10 kilos heavier than the next runner, I was feeling nervous.

    I end up running the 800 in 2.40.34, my best time for a couple of years, I went thru 400 in 1.17.5, died a bit in the 2nd half, I was trying to hang on for sub a 2.40, but I can't complain about my time, I was really focused on my race and didn't worry that I was way behind the last runner, I am looking forward to the 3km Friday and the 1500 on Saturday, I can now plan those races based on how I ran the 800.

 Just to let you know there was plenty of snow overnight, it is very white here now, I then watched Peter Sandery from SA win the M70 8km xcountry in very icy and snow conditions.

Opening Ceremony - It is really snowing

Tonight was our Opening ceremony, it is has been snowing all afternoon, there is probably 5-10 cms of snow on the footpath, it was hard to tell where the paths finished and the roads started, we had a walk along the pedestrian mall, it was a bit slushy, 5 of us were following our flag/sign bearer Doreen, we then marched into one of the Hotels for a few speeches, I listened to a couple then left, I am running in the morning, I need to have a good nights rest, even walking back to the hotel was tricky, I have also a shot of what it look outside my Hotel window, I am glad that I have not entered the Xcountry, it should be clear before the half on Sunday.

Made it to Jyvaskyla - a balmy -2

Its Monday afternoon here, the snow is settling in for the day, it started mid morning and it turned all the place white, have to be careful walking along the footpaths. Yesterday I registered at the Indoor centre and then had a run around the indoor track, there is 8 in the 800 race, so there will be 2 in each lane for the first 50 metres, which could get crowded, the top lane will be a bit scary being about 50-60 cms off the ground, I wouldn't want to run wide on the bend, you will run out of track. Here is me standing on one of the bends

 Last night my roomy Steve from NT arrived around 10pm, he is nursing a very sore Knee, with him doing the 60m sprint and hurdles, he is looking doubtful for both races, he has already pulled out of the Pentathlon. Today he went and registered at the main Hall, I followed along to do another run around the track. We then caught the bus back to the Hotel, here is me standing by the Bus Stop with Steve (middle) and another Aussie John, tonight we have the opening ceremony.

First night in Helsinki and then off north

After wandering around Helsinki until 2pm, then checked into my Hotel which was very central point of the city, across from the railway station, closer to where the bus goes back to the Airport, it is where I will stay 3 times in Helsinki, I come back here after my Athletics comp for 2 days and then for 3 days at the end of my trip. I did a 10km run in the afternoon following the paths close to the Harbour, stays away from crossing the roads. then I did the pasta buffet with salad for about 10 euros, for dinner, that filled a spot. I hit the sack around 7.30pm, I couldn't stay awake any longer, I then managed to get a 10 hour sleep, broken up a few times. I got up around 6.30am just before sunrise and did a 7km run following the other part of the harbour i didn't do yesterday. Then had the nice buffet breakfast put on by the hotel, I will have to keep the exercise up or will undo some of my good work in the past 2 months.

 I then checked out of my hotel this morning, off to Jyvaskyla by train, it takes a bit over 3 hours, looking forward to today's min there of -12 rising to a balmy 1, it should be warmer tomorrow of -9 to zero. I am hoping to get a light run on the warm up track this afternoon and tomorrow before my 800m on Tuesday afternoon.

I am surprised the amount of snow that is around the houses, fields and lakes as I travel along in the train, I will have to like the colour white.