I enjoy relaxing backpacking treks without a hurry, but I have to confess that I also love to ride MTB or run on the same trails. I like the peace and quietness of nature - but sometimes it's just fun to go fast...

The ugly background

I played basketball on competition level for most of my childhood, so I do have a youth background in sports. But when I went studying I had all these other activities and after studying and all my photography etc. I didn't have the time to exercise - or so I told myself. After graduation I started working as a researcher at HUT, and slowly became your typical overweight office worker with the fitness level of a potato... But when I looked in the mirror I really didn't like what I saw – so after a few years I decided that life would be much more fun if I was in a better shape. So I started to run… and that led to my whole way of life changing: nowadays I don’t see running or skiing etc. as an exercise anymore – it’s become a passion.

It started with running...

When I was a teenager, I actually hated running. I didn't even turn up for my basketball teams summer trainings as they involved running exercises. I just wanted to play ball… I think my longest run those days was around 6km.

I think I hated running until I was 30 years old. It was around that time when I gave it another chance - just because running seemed like the easiest sport to start with - no joining a team, buying expensive equipment etc.... Even though I was badly out of shape, after a few weeks I started noticing that it was...well, kind of fun... So I started running more actively and when my weight started to drop, I soon realized that I'm falling in love (with running, that is). Who would have believed... When I started I could barely run a kilometre or two. I remember my first goal in 2004 was being able to run a loop around the local roads - it was only 4,5km with a long uphill and I couldn't do it...

Slowly I started to get in shape and after a year or so I finished my first 10km run - and I was so excited I sent SMS's to people about it. After all, at that point it was the longest run of my life. Now it seems funny, but back then it was a huge step for me and I felt like a winner…

Well, my runs got longer and longer, and after a year or so I was running 15-18 km runs. And a little later I run my first half marathon. Nowadays I'm running 25-50km a week, sometimes less, sometimes more. My usual run is around 10-12km, a long one is around 15-20km. Longest ones have been a bit over 30km. I've also "run" longer distances like Lahti-Lusi, but that hasn't been clean running - I've had short breaks and walked a bit here and there. I'm dreaming about a marathon during 2010...

What comes to endurance, I'm now at the best condition of my life. That's not much though, and I'm certainly not stopping here. I'm aiming higher. After loosing over 25% of my weight so far, I'm now able to run further and lighter - with less stress on legs etc. So I’ve been able to increase my training distances. If you ask me, I've only scratched the surface of what I can do. My wife now calls me a sports maniac and I'm kind of proud of that.

Besides running…

Cross country skiing

Living in Finland I’ve always skied. When I was a kid my mom used to take us kids skiing on the nearby frozen lake and skiing has always been a part of my winter activities. After running for a year or two, I started to ski a bit more. First it was only 300km a year or something, but last winter I finally started to ski skate also – and last winter I skied over 1000km.

Orienteering

As an orienteer I'm still a beginner. My first encounters with the sport are from childhood, and I've always enjoyed it. But I've been more active only for the past few years and when you talk with orienteers, you often hear people saying: well, I think this is my 20th year... So I feel like a total novice. I try to go orienteering as often as I can (there are evening races five times a week around my hometown...) and lately orienteering has been on top of my list of sports. Although I know I'm too old to become a competitive orienteer, I'd like to develop my personal skills further - as a fitness level orienteer. That's actually one of the reasons why I like the sport - I can do it on my own level.

It has started to fascinate me a lot, I’ve started to record my routes with GPS and analysing my choices trying to learn why I make the mistakes I make etc. It's a tough sport - some call it a cross between trail running and chess. You have to try to run as fast as possible while avoiding navigational mistakes... As you get better in navigation you can speed up, but then you face the same problems again...

My long time dream was fulfilled when I run my first Jukola-relay in 2009. I also attended Raatojuoksu the same year, but I'm still running without a competition license - so it's not that competitive. One of my only regrets considering sports is that I didn't try orienteering when I was younger. But I was playing basketball 5 times a week, so I really didn't consider anything else.

Kayaking

When I was a kid, my father and I used to have a canoe and we paddled it on the nearby lakes etc. The canoe was sold years and years ago, but I ended up dreaming about buying a canoe or a kayak one day. Years went by and few years ago I ended up building my own glassfiber sea kayak. It's an Arctic Star 570-hull, with a few modifications of my own. As I write this in the spring of 2010 I’ve just ordered another kayak – this one is a Welho Bigfoot #1 modified to my personal specifications by Welho. It will be ready in May 2010.

After paddling for a year I got my dad interested also, and now he has bought a kayak too. We've been paddling few trips together again and I've also done some trips with my wife. When visiting our family’s summer cabin, or my parents in law on the coast, I usually take a kayak with me. I'm a member of a canoe/kayak club Vesisamoilijat and I've attended their "advanced kayaking" course with the goal of becoming a kayaking instructor some time in the future.

Rogaining, Adventure Sports and Others

I'm also competing in rogaining. It's a sport that has also been called endurance orienteering, or adventure orienteering. To keep it short it's a long distance orienteering race, where you determine your own route. The races are usually between 8-24h, with 24h being the official length in championships etc. You are given a map with numerous control points and you decide yourself which ones you are going for. The control points have a point value based on difficulty, distance etc - the idea is to get as much points as possible inside the time limit. So the winner is usually not the one who finishes first...In may 2010 I'm involved in organizing a rogaining competition called Salpaus-rogaining near my home. I'm the course setter/coordinator/pr-man/etc.

My friend Petja and I have an outdoor oriented sports team called C9H13NO3. We've attended national rogaining-races, and in 2008 our first Rogaining World Championships. In 2009 we also competed in our first multisport/adventure races. We’ll be doing more of those in the future.

I also play badminton in the winter and years ago I also built a Marin IFT mountain bike from scratch. So I try to also go mountain biking when I find the time... When I have office days at work, I try to go by bike if weather and work schedule permits. The route to my workplace includes some short trails, and when going back home I can make a few curves to find more trails...I’m in the hunt for a cyclocross-bike also…

Like I said in the beginning of the page, I'm also an ex-basketball player - I'm 202cm tall after all... I played during my childhood into a teenager, and I've made a comeback every now and then. It's been a while though - the last time I played more or less actively was during the winter of 2000-2001 in the 3rd national division...Not exactly NBA... After that it's been very occasional, but I love the game and would play more if I had the time.