Sandis Trail 9K 2019

I've lived in Helsinki forever. I have never set my foot on Santahamina island in District 51, a military restricted zone without civilian access. Until I had a welcome chance to run Sandis Trail 9K this weekend.

My son Jon joined me. They checked our passports at the mail gate. Only Finnish citizens, whose  name was on the registration list, were allowed to enter. With 430 starters, we saw many friends, like Juha and Juupek. 

Taking photos during the race wasn't allowed. Some parts of the course were really beautiful. Fortunately they had some official photographers. Running over smooth boulders and rocks by the seaside offered amazing scenery. We weren't far away from the city centre, which was visible from the highest points.

I've never before participated in a race with big signs by the course warning "DANGER - SHOOTING". This worried me a bit, as I heard firearms shooting nearby. The organizers had assured that we'd be totally safe, as long as we stayed on the course. They even made us run through an easy obstacle course.

The course was well marked, but there wasn't a trail at all in some technical sections. I took a wrong turn in a dense forest. I noticed pretty quickly that the markings stopped, so we turned back found the route again.

After finishing in a little over an hour we were served an army style meal. We enjoyed Sandis Trail!

Jättäri100

Jättäri100 is our private event involving running 100 times up and down the highest hill in Helsinki. The elevation gain/loss using the steepest and shortest path called Fasaaninousu is 66m x 100 = 6,600 meters. The distance is about 36km.

Yours truly was the sole finisher in the first edition five years ago, on May 31-June 1, 2014. It took me 12:12. I did 101 ascents, because I wasn't sure if I had done 100. Later on, MP beat my time with 8:54 FKT.

The start was scheduled at 14:00 on Saturday, August 10. The day dawned clear and sunny. I couldn't resist riding my bike to the hill after breakfast. My solo false start at 9am felt great. Soon some friends arrived and joined me. It was fun, but relatively hot for Finland, and we were sweating like pigs. 

My son came to photograph the official 2pm start. I had about 2,000 meters of elevation gain, and kept going. I decided not to attempt to finish all 100 climbs on the official course, and showed some other interesting trails around the hill with my son.

Most competitors dropped out. Antti kept on logging sub-5-minute laps. I stopped around 9pm with over 4,000m ascent in the bag. Antti set the new gorgeous 7:57:15 FKT. It was getting dark so I cycled back home. Juha and Juupek continued and did finish in 10:50 and 12:02.

I've never been happy with a DNF before this event. Running about 35km in almost 12 hours with friends was slow 3 km/h, but so much fun. The weather and people stayed fabulous all day long. This provided good training for Tor des Geants 359km (222 miles) on September 8-14. See you in Aosta Valley in four weeks!