Do you have a happy place? A place where you can relax, calm down and maybe even your blood pressure decreases? I have, the nature and especially the Finnish nature. Let me tell you more about it.
The beginning of loving nature
I was born in 1976 and even before I learned to walk, my parents took me and my big sister to the nature. We made trips to the forest and ate snacks by the campfire. Nothing was better than a hot sausage eaten outside and surrounded by the silence. Me and my sister learned to respect the nature and its animals. When I turned seven years, I had no other choice than join the scouts, it was my biggest dream. That scouting journey lasted until I turned 25 years. I learned so much and still carry those things I learned with me.
How about now?
Nowadays I love hiking, just walking in the nature and cross-country skiing. Lapland is naturally the best place to do those things, but you can also find nice places in your own corners like I did last weekend. I visited a nice Lemmenpolku-path in Muhos, only about 30 kilometers from Oulu. When walking that path, it felt like being in Pieni Karhunkierros in Ruka, Kuusamo. Landscapes were quite similar at many points along the path.
I usually spend all my holidays in Lapland. Cross-country skiing in winter and hiking in other seasons. For a longer hikes, it´s nice to have a friend with me, but the day trips I like to do alone. Those are the moments when I really relax and feel that even my soul is relaxing. I have always made the biggest decisions of my life when sitting on the top of some fell in Lapland and I believe that I will continue to do so in the future as well.
Love-hate relationship with trail running
One day in 2019 I saw an ad on Facebook about a trail running competition and thought that that´s something I have to try and that way take my love to the nature a one step further. Sometimes I think that was a big mistake. Since that day I have participated three to four competitions per year. Not aiming for the best rankings, but just racing against myself with the goal of reaching the finish line. I have been successful in that so far, but sometimes when I have run trails in challenging conditions or climbed up for example Levi´s black slope with cramping calves, I have been thinking if there is any sense in doing that. But when crossing the finish line, I always forget those negative thoughts.
How the future looks like?
I know my love for the nature continues and I also will continue my trips to the nature as long as I can, hopefully for a very long time. And those trail running competitions, well…I have said quite many times that never again, but somehow there are two competitions marked on my calendar, NUTS Karhunkierros in Ruka and Ruskamaraton trail running in Levi.
