Jukola/Venla
In 2005 and 2006 we had great trips to these races, with three joint FVO/JOK teams in 2006 (7 men each) and one JOK women's team (4 women). It is a fantastic experience and one to be highly recommended. This year the races are on the weekend of 14 and 15 June, at Tampere (and hence near an airport).
The format is that the women's race is on the Saturday afternoon (about 900 teams last year) and the men's race starts in the dark that night and finishes in the day (about 1400 teams last year). The assembly field has big screens with results display from the radio controls on each leg, plus each leg also has several video controls, so the whole thing is well set up for spectating when you are not running.
Our teams were 389th (women) and 270th/567t/833rd (men) in 2006 so the standard is good but not too high! The legs are quite long enough to give you your money's worth however....
There are a number of options which can be combined as people like!
- go just for the weekend
- combine with the 'phone games' sprint race nearby on the Thursday evening beforehand (which is excellent and includes a World Ranking Event for those of you who like that sort of thing)
- take in the Suunto Games two day event the weekend beforehand near Helsinki
Jon Cross will arrange the JOK teams and car hire etc for Jukola and Venla, plus he is happy to look at the Phone Games and Suunto Games if people tell him they want to do them too.
So please let Jon know if you would like to come along - it really is a fantastic weekend and the more people who are there then the better fun it is!