Helsinki – the Esport arena

With about three and a half hours to go before the start of the race, many of the runners will probably be having breakfast around now, before making their way to the Esport arena for the pre-race check-in.

The Esport Arena is located about 20km from Helsinki City centre.

Last year's 24hr race

Naturally we don’t have any race photos at this stage (the internet is amazing but isn’t yet capable of time-travel), however to give you a feel of what things will be like at the Esport arena here are some photos from last year’s “Endurance” 24hr race.

the Esport Arena

Helsinki – Send a message to William

Send a Message to William Sichel in Helsinki - Runner # 36

Anyone wishing to send a message to William (or any other runner) during the race can do so by using a free on-line message service which is located here

Send a Message to Paul Hart in Helsinki - Runner # 35

NOTE : To make things a little easier for both you and the folks at the other end

William Sichel is race # 36

Paul Hart is race # 35

Helsinki / Espoo

Finnish Flag

To avoid potentially offending any Finnish readers or confusing the rest of you, I thought I should briefly explain that the “Helsinki” 24hr race isn’t exactly taking place in Helsinki (the city) but rather in Espoo (which is actually another city).

Espoo is part of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area along with the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, and Kauniainen.

Espoo (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈespo]; Swedish: Esbo, [ˈɛsbo]) is the second largest city and municipality in Finland.

For those of you wanting to know more, Espoo shares its eastern border with Helsinki and Vantaa, while enclosing Kauniainen. Today, Espoo is the only municipality in Finland to fully enclose another municipality. The city is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, in the region of Uusimaa.  The population of the city of Espoo is 244,353 (31 December 2009), or currently a little more, due to all the visiting ultra-runners!

Helsinki – 24hr race – Scottish runner Paul Hart

Paul Hart - Perth 2008 in the 100Km

Scotland has two entrants in the “Endurance” 24hr race. As well as William (from Orkney), Paul Hart from the Dumfries Running Club is also competing in the event.

While William is running “below” his preferred distance in this race (William specialises in multi-day events so 24hrs is on the “short” side for him), Paul is “moving up” in distance from his previous speciality, the 100km.

Paul Hart is generally regarded as an excellent 100Km runner and, having run for Scotland at this distance, has recently moved up to longer distances.

Paul had a great run in the 2009 West Highland Way Race (95 miles) coming 5th in a time of 17hrs 12mins 26 secs (for those who don’t realise, the West Highland Way is a very different kind of event from an indoor track race, so Paul is evidently pretty versatile).

Paul made his first serious attempt at 24 hours in the Tooting Bec, London track race in October 2009, coming 2nd with a very respectable 226.830Km.

Paul Hart will now be looking to better this distance and achieve the GBR qualifying distance (235Km) for the World 24 Hour Championships in May 2010, in Brive, France.

Thanks to Alan for providing some background on Paul Hart for this post (and the photo too).

Helsinki – 24hr race Female entrants

Here is the list of Female entrants in the 24hr race  (as of 28th Jan 2010)

#	Last Name	First Name	Country	Born
1	Ahlholm	Tuula	Finland	1962
2	Siimes	Outi	Finland	1971
3	Hausmann	Martina	Germany	1960
4	Inagaki	Sumie	Japan	1966
5	Broadwell	Sharon	Norway	1961
7	Fonn Hartikainen	Torill	Sweden	1967
8	Kristiansen	Tina	Danmark	1962
10	Vennikas	Pille	Estonia	1964
11	Ikäläinen	Tuulikki	Finland	1966
13	Renqvist	Johanna	Finland	1988
14	Renqvist	Yvonne	Finland	1963
15	Sinisalo	Marjukka	Finland	1960
16	Thorström	Jaana	Finland	1963
17	Toivonen	Mari	Finland	1972
18	Valtonen	Eeva	Finland	1963
19	Vauhkonen	Hanna	Finland	1966
20	Andersen	Emelie	Sweden	1984
21	Guest	Liselott	Sweden	1971
22	Nannis	Carina	Sweden	1961
24	Rosenqvist	Kerstin	Sweden	1974
25	Silversjö	Sandra	Sweden	1979

Helsinki – 24hr race Male entrants

Here is the full list of Male entries for the “Endurance” 24hr race in Helsinki (this list as of 28/01/2010)

Female entrants list to follow in the next post

William is listed as # 36 (which should mean he’ll be wearing that number on his vest during the race).

The numbering goes up to 125 although at present 119 runners are due to start (this is because of some non-starters prior to the race).

#	Last Name	First Name	Country	Born
26	Vennikas	Peeter	Estonia	1958
27	Heerman	Mikael	Finland	1969
28	Klasila	Janne	Finland	1979
29	Salomaa	Kari	Finland	1977
30	Baier	Andreas	Germany	1969
31	Tanaka	Katsuhiro	Japan	1971
32	Alfheim	Per-Gunnar	Norway	1959
33	Heskestad	Per Audun	Norway	1955
34	Sørstad	Gjermund	Norway	1979
35	Hart	Paul	Scotland	1969
36	Sichel	William	Scotland	1953
37	Andersson	Mikael	Sweden	1972
38	Hartikainen	Reima	Sweden	1963
39	Bøgevig	Peter	Danmark	1972
40	Dirksen	Jakob Bork	Danmark	1969
41	Hansen	Lars-Uffe	Danmark	1961
42	Hansen	Rene Vang	Danmark	1967
43	Hornbech Christensen	John	Danmark	1965
44	Kronborg Nielsen	Tom	Danmark	1975
45	Steen Nielsen	Jörgen	Danmark	1969
46	Steenberg	Thomas	Danmark	1971
47	Anttila	Hannu	Finland	1963
48	Arjanne	Sampsa	Finland	1985
49	Ekegren	Timo	Finland	1952
50	Feldt	Mikael	Finland	1965
51	Ginlund	Hans	Finland	1960
52	Haavisto	Ville	Finland	1974
53	Haka	Sakari	Finland	1959
54	Henttu	Jussi	Finland	1974
55	Holma	Harri	Finland	1970
56	Honkanen	Mikko	Finland	1970
57	Hyvönen	Timo	Finland	1961
58	Ignatius	Antero	Finland	1946
59	Ikäläinen	Keijo	Finland	1966
60	Jumisko	Juha	Finland	1981
61	Jääskeläinen	Kari	Finland	1963
62	Koivu	Tapio	Finland	1958
63	Kuikkaniemi	Mikko	Finland	1971
64	Lahti	Markku	Finland	1957
65	Lehtola	Jani	Finland	1975
66	Leskelä	Jyrki	Finland	1971
67	Lietzén	Petri	Finland	1965
68	Lindholm	Tero	Finland	1969
69	Liukkonen	Mikko	Finland	1948
70	Lundström	Tom	Finland	1969
71	Manni	Erkki	Finland	1966
72	Morishita	Yukio	Finland	1948
73	Mustonen	Eero	Finland	1957
74	Mäntyniemi	Timo	Finland	1965
76	Nugent	Sean	Finland	1969
77	Näreaho	Antti	Finland	1967
79	Patova	Kari	Finland	1967
80	Perttilä	Petri	Finland	1965
81	Pietinen	Ari-Pentti	Finland	1962
82	Rantanen	Kari	Finland	1970
83	Saukkonen	Kalevi	Finland	1943
84	Siljander	Ilpo	Finland	1967
85	Soikkeli	Jari	Finland	1970
86	Sukanen	Jarno	Finland	1980
87	Syväniemi	Martti	Finland	1951
88	Sällylä	Tapani	Finland	1962
89	Talvitie	Tapio	Finland	1958
90	Teirikangas	Jukka	Finland	1958
91	Toiviainen	Timo	Finland	1967
92	Tomppo	Jari	Finland	1966
93	Uusitalo	Reino	Finland	1945
94	Welling	Petri	Finland	1965
95	Ylä-Nikkilä	Pekka	Finland	1961
96	Hottas	Christian	Germany	1956
97	Cockbain	Mark	Great-Britain	1972
98	Batzoglou	Vagelis	Greece	1967
99	Baxevanis	Constantin	Greece	1956
100	Tarascio	Vincenzo	Italy	1959
101	Andersson	Frode	Norway	1959
102	Dørum	Lars Christian	Norway	1953
103	Frykholm	Geir	Norway	1956
104	Nossum	Erik	Norway	1953
105	Kovalev	Evgeniy	Russia	1988
106	Andersson	Hans	Sweden	1967
107	Dahl	Johan	Sweden	1982
108	Forsström	Mikael	Sweden	1961
109	Hällstorp	Georg	Sweden	1973
110	Joyce	Patrick	Sweden	1963
111	Kilander	Johan	Sweden	1975
112	Koplimäe	Sigvard	Sweden	1950
113	Larsson	Björn	Sweden	1965
114	Liljegren	Mats	Sweden	1976
115	Manning	Stefan	Sweden	1956
116	Norström	Tommy	Sweden	1967
117	Nyström	K-G	Sweden	1938
118	Palmqvist	Bertil	Sweden	1946
119	Pelander	Bo	Sweden	1943
120	Pohjola	Ari	Sweden	1961
121	Sjölund	Kent	Sweden	1957
122	Skogman	Torkel	Sweden	1970
123	Kukko	Jyrki	Finland	1964
124	Höytö	Petri	Finland	1967
125	Peltoniemi	Kari	Finland	1961

Helsinki – 119 runners to start the race…

Finnish Flag

At the time of the last update from the race organisers (2.47pm Finnish time on Jan 28th) there are 119 entrants in the 24hr race.

Of these, 63 runners are Finnish “locals” and the other 56 are drawn from the rest of the world (with a fair number coming from other Scandinavian countries).

There are 21 Female entrants and (for those of you who can’t be bothered to do the maths) 98 Male entrants.

Of the 119 competitors, 19 runners are rated as being at the “Elite” level, with the remaining 100 being of mixed racing ability and experience, from seasoned veterans to ultra-racing novices.

As you can see, this race has a very large number of starters; this can be an issue in any race but may prove “interesting” in an indoor arena….

“Tour-de-France” style pile-ups are perhaps unlikely but this many competitors on a track at one time is liable to make running even more of a challenge – there will be a lot of runners occupying a limited amount of space.

In the early stages most of the runners will probably be bunched together fairly tightly but this is likely to change as the event draws on and different running styles and strategies come into play (for example, William will be using a deliberate combination of running and walking to maximise average speed throughout the 24hrs, while other runners will be running swiftly from the start then slowing to a crawl as the hours pass).

This means that throughout much of the race, runners will be lapping each other – and passing other runners with a field this size will in itself be a challenge….

Shaun

Helsinki – Out & About

Out and about in Helsinki

William and his crewman Alan have been enjoying the sights of sunny Helsinki today – or at least they have been enjoying looking around in -12c temperatures and accompanying snow.

Here’s a shot of William (below) outside the Suomen Urheilumuseo. Or if you can’t read Finnish and want a translation,  Finlands Idrottsmuseum (Or, if you want the translation into English rather than Swedish,  the Sports Museum of Finland).

Sports Museum of Finland

William will no doubt be doing his best to eat well then get an early night tonight but I should be chatting to Alan a little later on this evening and will update as-and-when.

In the meantime, before the excitement of the event itself, I’ll post a few details concerning the race, so watch this space if you are interested.

More shortly,

Shaun

Helsinki – Arrival

William and his crewman Alan have arrived safe and sound in Helsinki. They got in at around 10:30pm (local time) last night (Thursday 28th Jan.) and were faced with a chilly start, the local temperature being a none-to-warm -17c.

Happily today has been a lot more snug and cosy with daytime temperatures of a mere  -12c.

While some people consider ultra-distance running to be a somewhat masochistic sport, even the most die-hard competitors tend to draw the line at running through snow in sub-zero temperatures so thankfully William and the other runners will not be having to cope with extremes of weather during the 24hr race as this takes place indoors in the Esport Arena – “Esport” is a bit of a pun in the native Finnish on “Espoo” (the city in which the arena is built).

Esport "Espoo" Areana - Helsinki 24hr Race Venue

More coming up shortly & throughout the race (which starts at 10am UK time / 12 noon local time in Finland).

All the best,

Shaun – William’s Training Advisor