Koupio Jukola

Last weekend i was running in Jukola, it was my third Jukola (2011,2013) and i was still very exciting. i was selected to run in the Finnish club Koovee in the second team in the last leg.

Two days before the competition i ran a model training near the Jukola map, i was a student of a club mate Topias, he showed me how to use the  compass, big thanks to him! i got fely very comfortable with the compass work afterwards.

A day before Jukola i ran the training near the arena, the terrain was very tough, similar to Tampere, and very challenging. i  got an impression that this Jukola will be extremely challenging and tricky.

I started my leg with a top 80 position together with the first Koovee team (they were disqualified) and some other runners. i was quite alone from the first control and tried to focus on not making mistakes and to run on the top of the hills where is it quite open and runnable.

On the 6th control i met the first team runner from Koovee and ran with him and with two more runners together until the 9th control.

On the 10th control i got a forking control and made a little mistake and "said goodbye" to the group and lost them.

Until the 16th control i was running alone and i lost some time in the green areas, i wasn't aggressive enough. i was just trying not to make any mistakes.

I was catching a few slow runners and ran away from them until the 17th control and then i ran very good until the end.

The terrain was extremely challenging, very demanding and very slippery, in the second half of the course i lost my pace and ran much slower.

After a long period in Finland i learned a lot and had a legendary time with my Finnish club Koovee, Tampere is definitely an orienteering capital in Finland.

After the competition i took a bus directly to Riga and after 16 hours i was in Riga.

Now some easy training in the next few days and on Wednesday and Thursday some orienteering trainings.

On Friday unfortunately i am leaving back to Israel after 78 days of many many many training and competitions, but hey not for a long time, 12 days of final preparation for WOC in Italy are looking for me in the Israeli mountains and i will be on the road again!

But now i am waiting for Friday, home sweet home! :D