SnowRunFest 2014

Fun, Entertaining, SnowRunFest. - Short description of the hottest, different, running event of the winter. 

(my most sincere apology for the long and detailed posting in advance)

When I heard about the original "mudrun 2013" running event, I knew that was going to be entertaining and I just had to participate on it. Unfortunately the time and location didn't fit into my timeschedule and the best I could do was to watch the event from pictures posted on the event site.

Luckily enough, the organisation who made the mudrun 2013, came up with an idea to make a tour of "different kind of running events" - colour run, mudrun and the latest I participated on, the SnowRunFest. The location and time fit me perfectly so there was no hesitation to hook up and participate on the most intresting winter event -ever?

First SnowRunFest running event February 8th, 2014

The hype for this was big. The marketing team of the funrun.fi organisation made sure people got hyped of the event before it even happened. I was rather sceptical at start, how this could be the best event ever, with bad weather and not that much snow on the ground... Luckily I was proven wrong by the event. It was simply awesome.

The event was held in Hietsu (it's a famous beach), in Helsinki. Getting to the location was easy, since there was tons of participants and following people with the event hat/ running shoes on was made easy. My mapping skill is kind of bad, so I just joined the line of runners and followed them to the event place.

Closing in on the event place

Closing in on the event place, you could hear the music already being played by maybe the best DJ's in the world (:D) DJ's were part of radio station energy Finland (NRJ) staff. My initial first thought was "hey, the party is on!" There was this large event stage, which we saw from miles away. Nice!

Party stage was visible from miles away

Group 5

Me and my friend (later known as bunny) had signed up for running group 5, so we had time to check around the event area. There was lots of intresting sights to see, mainly the awesome carneval costumes the other runners were having on. The whole event got this really awesome feeling to it, with everyone putting effort into what they wear. I didn't dress up that nicely, just had a penguin hat on as my helm. If I knew there were this many "cosplayers", I would have purchased some digimon suit or autobot suit to wear. There was also people from Finnish fitness gym called Fressi warming people up all the time, while music was playing on the stage.

Fressi warming people up, while DJ from NRJ playing music

 Time to run!

There were a total of eight different obstacles. The lenght of the running course was 2,5 kilometers, which would be run twice. So in total of 5 kilometer, with obstacles passed twice. If you couldn't pass some obstacle, you could pass it by going around it. Which was nice.

I'll shortly describe the obstacles: there was snowhills, sumo wrestlers (which on the first lap was rather disapointing, with the mass start they were quickly passed. Though it was rather hilarious that some runners started to scream. So surprised they were of them!), then there was big slide, which you had to climb on top of with ropes (I kinda injured myself on the first slide haha), then there was sea of coloured balls which was fun. More climbing obstacles and stuff.  Oh and then there was a tunnel which you had to crawl from under. Fun!

One of the obstacles, this giant slide which looked like a lion from far away, but turned in to a lamb when we go closer.

While it doesn't seem that long of a lenght to run, it really gave a nice sweat. I liked the course. I would have probably enjoyed it more, but my bunny decided that it was going too slow and we moved our pace quite a lot. Young people have too much energy, hard to keep up with them!

Entering the finishing line

Unfortunately like everything fun, there has to be an end somewhere and our run was finishing it's two laps. Me and my bunny entered the finishing line and the medals for participating was given to us. Yay, this years first medals!

Me and my Bunny after finishing the run

SnowRunFest 2014 medal

If I had to give feedback about SnowRunFest, I'd say it was one of the best running events I have had the luxury to join (well, participate at). The course was lighted up in disco theme, which gave it's own touch. Music was loud enough, so the runners would hear it, obstacles were hard enough and people gave their own touch by having most awesome costumes ever!

Awesome costumes. Teletabbies "Let's hug, again again!"

TLDR (too long didn't read): It was awesome!

Now time to go party some, while the DJ's still playing music. After that it's time to go change clothes and start moving towards Tiger nightclub, where the afterparties were supposed to happen!

Olympics Sochi 2014

Time for winter Olympics, this time in Russia, Sochi!

One of the most spectacular event in any professional atheles career, is participating in Olympics. I'm far from being a athelete fit to represent my country in Olympics, but I do my best representing my home couch and watch the olympics sports the best I can. Cheering my home country is not optional. It's something you do from the bottom of your heart.

You can watch the majestic pictures of Olympics 2014 here:
http://www.olympic.org/photos/sochi-2014

Looking at pictures of the Olympics openings, it's massive. Grand. Epic, or should I call it... Legendary? Maybe Legendary isn't the best word to describe it, with Sotsh having problems with hotels and the brutal news of them hiring a company to slaughter stray dogs/ cats. - While it may be horrible to hear, the stray animals do risk the health of f.ex ski jumpers...

With 400 millions euros put into these olympic games, you'd think there would have been an alternative method, which would had gave purpose to both animal lovers and the haters.

Unfortunately, the stray animals issue isn't only thing thats putting shadow over the olympics. There was newsitem that a airplane was attempted to kidnap and terrorism news... I just hope people respect the sport of olympics and everything goes well.

Back to the business though. While the Olympics are under way in Sochi, Russia, everyone will cheer for their teams, or maybe have favourite atheles to cheer on. Finland being a igloo and polarbear country, we should do well on winter olympics.

I hope Finland wins at least 1 gold medal, few silver and few bronze medals.

My top choices for the medals are: speed skating (Mika Poutala), Finnish Women and Men hockey teams (Selänne, Selänne, Selänne!), skiing, snowboarding and women curling. I'm sure there are also few surprisers in the atheletes, that could bring medals back home.

• 2 Gold
• 4 Silver
• 1 Bronze

That's my list for Team Finland - What its like for you?

What other teams you cheer? Or what country you cheer for?  Which team has the best uniforms? How do you pronounce Sochi (is it sotsh?), Comment below!

Challenge: "The veggieweek!"

Challenges make life intresting. It could be new intresting challenges in work, sports, or in life general - as long as you can overcome the challenges given, or chosen by you. All of my new year promises are still valid, even the candy strike: But let's spice this year 2014 up a little by adding monthly challenges. February challenge is: the veggieweek!

What is "veggieweek" and why?

Earlier this year, the Finnish goverments health&nutritions councelling office gave new recommendations for the food nutritions (can be found by clicking here). There was some changes, like eat less salt, red meat is bad etc. Some things however, like eat more vegteables didn't change. Overall it's a good read for everyone.

The recommendations made me think of my choices for my everyday eating habits and how I fill up my eating diary. Even that my food diary has seen significant improvements, as how how I eat now, compared to months back when I started to write down everything I eat (I still need to learn to put down my morning weight... ) - I started to think, how else I could start eating properly.

With the helpful push from certain webplatform newsarticle, I thought: "Hey, let's became a vegetarian for a week!". I then consulted a friend of mine who is a nutrionist specialist and she told me some very devastating facts about being a full-time vegetarian. Some horror stories like "they dont eat milk, eat cheese, chicken or fish. - I can understand almost everything except the milk part. Why? Just why!?

So my "the veggieweek" will be a semi-veggie'ish. I won't eat meat, chicken, or anything like that. But I am still allowed to eat/drink milk products.

Starting the challenge

The challenge already started off 1st of February and will last all the way to 8th of February. Or maybe until 9th of Feb, I'm slightly busy that weekend, because of SnowRunFest (read more about it on the earlier blog).

The foods I've made gave so far been rather creative and have tasted like something out of a culinary restaurant. I'm just that good of a cook (take notes girls ;) !).

Will be rather exciting to see how this challenge turns out, will I fall and eat meat, or will I finish this like a real endurance runner finishes marathon race?

Looks delicious! Maybe I put too much chili on it... again.

Paying off already!

It seems like going veggie lover for a week has paid off already. Just two days in and I got a lovely letter from my bank, OP-Pohjola. No, it wasn't a bill or anything like that, but free tickets to floorball games this season! I took part of a Facebook competition and I was one of the lucky winners to get free tickets. Yay for lady fortuna! Now if I would get a dream job, or win in big time lottery, I might think about going veggie loving full-time. Food for the thought, eh?

Free tickets to watch floorball games

Superbowl

Speaking of seasons and coachsports. The superbowl XLVIII was held this weekend and I had the luxury to watch the match from tv. The hype about this seasons best attack team vs the best defense team was surprisingly good. Match between Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks should be very exciting to watch. Or so I thought...

I've been intrested in american football mainly because of the advertisements that come up every year during the super bowl, but lately since a friends of mine plays the finnish american football league, I've started to watch the games even.

(picture capture from ruutu.fi)

Among all great sports that come from America, it's safe to assume super bowl between  the best teams gathers viewers. After all it's a magnificent event, that gathers viewers from all around the world.

The match was slightly disapointment. It was super boring. Seahawks destroyed Broncos and were already leading 29 to 0 after first half. Last time there was team shutdown in super bowl was years ago (yes very specific i know, I think it was in year 80's-90's? or so ).

Bronco's still having fighting spirit left
(picture capture from ruutu.fi)

The score didn't matter at the end, because the event was super entertaining with red hot chili peppers performing during the break. Oh and the cheerleaders... Yes, one of the reasons to watch football is the cheerleaders. They know how to make the games intresting for viewers.

Seattle Seahawks 43  - Denver Broncos 8

Sums the feelings of Bronco's pretty much.
(picture capture from ruutu.fi)

 Good match, Congratulations Seahawks on first superbowl victory. Both teams did great and have many challenges ahead of them. Just like we all do.

Thanks for reading, I'm off to eat some carrots!

Dessert & Snowrunfest

Originally I was planning to make a post about Snowrunfest, but I then I found out about this yummy dessert, which I wanted to try to make. Eventually I didn't know which one I should post about, so here it is. A mans choice! Pick one - no, no! Let's take both of them: Here it is a snowrunfest filled dessert post with no added sugar!

 

Let's start off with the food, since I love making food (read: eating...):

I was hungry, so I decided to make pasta and chicken. Normally I would avoid pasta, unless I know I will be doing lot of exercises, which needs fuel, like marathons etc.

I spiced the chicken by using mexican vegteables once they were almost ready. They are provided in a bag that can be found from stores selling Pirkka-labeled products. I also put some corn-pea-pepperbells in there. I put some chili sauce in there also. Overall the taste was super good. The white stuff is cheese...thingy, no idea of the english name. Sorry!

Chicken pasta ala Janne

Chicken pasta ala Janne

Then like the title already revealed, I made some dessert fit for amateur athlete's like me, who are on a candy/chocolate strike.

These banana-creppes are easy to make and only need few eggs & bananas to make. They taste delicious just the way they are - but you can spice them up with your own choice of fruits/sauce/anything goes (even chocolate proteinshake etc. ). Below is a picture of what I had to choose from:

I had lots of ingredients to choose from - maybe a bit too much ;)?

Suggestions what you can use to top your dessert!

Only needed ingredients for making banana-creppes
Use 1:1 rate for banana/egg

Them bananas and eggs in harmony.
Use blender or mixer to make them into a nice "foam"

In any case, turning these banana-creppes turned out to be slightly difficult. I tried to make them in a big frying pan, but if you have those pans with small holes for creppes - use that. Also you need patience, first few be annoying to flip over, but you get used to it. Also remember the pan needs to be hot!

Making of, happy banana creppe!

Easier if you put them into smaller servings, to flip over, that is.

The creppes turned out OK! in end and I put some fruits on the plate, cashew nuts and poured some coconut flakes on top of the fruits. Really, really, REALLY! delicious. Yum.

Finishing product! Banana creppes surrounded with the love of other fruits, with finishing touch of coconut flakes on top

Finishing product! Banana creppes surrounded with the love of other fruits, with finishing touch of coconut flakes on top

Be warned though, as the main ingredient comes from bananas and eggs, you will be super filled. It's super delicious, so avoid making your stomach explode from the yummies! and no sugar involved, except fruits own sugar!

Last but not least, the second main subject for this blog post: Snowrunfest

So what is snowrunfest?

It's a fun running event with lots of obstacles to pass before you make it to the finishing line. Taken from the organizers website: there are sumo wrestlers, airfilled obstacles, climbing ropes and much more. The whole course is filled with neon lights and there is DJ playing music for people participating (or cheering for the people running).

In total it seems to be super fun event and like the crazy person I am, I'm definetely participating. I also have friend joining, so it is going to be double the fun!

Oh and I should mention it's run outside, in freezing cold and hopefuly there is tons of snow involved. Yes, we finns are crazy!

Map of the obstacle course, provided by snowrunfest organization

The run will happen on 8th of Feb., with after the run there is going to be a nightclub afterparty, which will probably delay the after posting with pictures to the next days... I of course will not drink alcohol, no sir, no no!

You can find more about Snowrunfest here:

http://www.snowrunfest.com/

If you want to participate, you can do so by applying here before 4th of Feb. (the prices can be found there).

http://www.snowrunfest.com/ilmoittaudu

How did you like the foods/ the blogs new look? Are you going to participate on the Snowrunfest?!

Comment below and subsribe to get the latest blog news from achieving dreams...

Ps. you can read the finnish version by choosing the "finnish blog posts" tab at the start of page.

Pps. here is a song called whole again by atomic kitten... I felt so whole after eating so much good stuff and I'm supposed to go have 10km run still...

Playing around with my blog!

 Boring day

Got slightly bored today and started to look at Bloggers settings. Found out, that my blog was super plain and I wanted to try something different with it.

So changed the whole consept of it, with picture as backround and will add a picture as banner on top of the site. I wonder how that will look like.

I'm also testing out, if it's possible to make blog posts, that can link with each other - that way I could have finnish&english written blogs, if someone would enjoy reading my posts in finnish.

Using Bloggers own backround photo, but since I like to claim myself as a photographer (at least as a hobby), I'll try to get different kind of picture.

How you think the blog looks currently? Is the font readable? Does my blog look a lot more cheerful now, than the old black? Comment and subsribe!

--- Maybe I should have added before and after pictures... So the difference could be seen: But you can think of the old blog as "really dark, gloomy and stupid". Compared to this super cheerful blog!

A bit different day!

Train, sweat, competite, repeat and rinse. That's how it's with most sports, but like a finnish rap artist sang once, it's good to take a holiday and do something different... But what is different, well that's up for you to decide, but this is how I spend few days relaxing.

The story starts on a freezing day, in the cold land of Finland, the land of polarbears and igloos. Well, we don't have polarbears, but with the weather currently we could probably make igloos.

I received couple of free entrance tickets to this exhibition fair called NextStep, which is a fair for people to come and check out what schools/job opporturnities there lies in this country and beyond. The fair was held in Helsinki, at the Exhibtion centre, famous of having all kind of cool fairs all around the year. For example, there is a fair run (10km or 21km distance), which is ran indoors, with stairs and everything. It's awesome. Especially if there is lots of snow and it's cold outside (the fair run is being held on 28th of December for those that are interested).

However, since the weather was nice, I went for a slight jog/run. It was nice. Ready for going to NextStep fair now!

Angry Bird Janne featuring my volunteer outfit I received while i was at work during the world ice hockey championship in 2012, that was held in Helsinki. The jacket is very comfourtable to wear.

Visiting NextStep 22.-23th of January

I visited NExtStep on both days it was going on, because first day I wanted to have relaxing time and get to know every cool opportunity there was. Unfortunatly for me, only few intresting options was available. Mainly LIDL had some job opportunities, which to one I aplied to. I also was very intrested in some of the political parties that were around. Maybe I get into politics some day even more.

But best part in fairs are the never ending competitions, where you can win stuff (and candies, but since I'm on a diet/ still on my new years promises, I didn't eat any... ). I of course like the crazy person am, Aplied to all of them and maybe I win some stuff, like movie tickets... Which I won't use, since going to movies alone is super boring.

There was also some artists, but I'll get them later on a bit more... Right now there is this really cute looking froggy coming near me... I want to take a photo with it!

Yay, I got to take picture with this cute froggy.
But I was wondering... don't we look the same? Brother? IS IT YOU?!

At the fair there was also this popular finnish blogger called Soikkuu. She was tiny. Like really. Reminds me of artist called Anna Abreau. Both have common they are super cute! Soikku also has bunny called Sparta, which is one of the reasons I started to watch her videoblogs. You should too! Just search on Youtube Soikkuu and you find her. She's cute tiny blonde girl.
and if you're looking for another extreme type of videoblogger, search up Niilo22... He's funny.

Oh yes, there was few artists playing during the fair, band called Kuningasidea and rap artist called Sini Sabotage. There also was a rap artist / body builder called Black Barbarian. He is epic win!

Not many photos of Kuningasidea, since I was too busy jamming along with their songs, but there's some of Sini Sabotage and Black Barbaari!

Kuningasidea

Musta Barbaari
(Black Barbarian)

Sini Sabotage picture

Sini Sabotage with idol singer Alma Miettinen

Sini with the idol singer Alma Miettinen

 Very good gig presented by Sini Sabotage and Alma Miettinen. Black Barbaari held a good show also earlier, but no pictures of it. It was really crowded though. He is popular!

After the rap artist (Sini Sabotage) was done playing her gig, I was looking around and found this super cool spinning-thingy , which I just had to go test and try-out. It was more fun than you can imagine! Just watch the video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hOA0lauxLg

 

 After the two days of pure awesomes, the fun had to end somewhere and the fair came to an end. It was very nicely organized event, which hopefuly leads to people finding their calling in life, what to do next. Thank you Sakki for organizing the event.

Cakes, we all love cakes!

Oh, I also found a photo of cake my sister once made for me, on my Birthday. It looks really intresting, doesn't it? I can't remember how it tasted, but I'm still alive aren't I ;) Remember to be kind to your siblings!

My birthday cake, which my sister made years back... Looks very exotic doesn't it?

Thanks for reading, next blog post I'm going to tell a bit about the upcoming run I'm going to participate on!

New year 2014 promises

The promises of a new year and the progress how it's going so far.

 

Almost everyone makes new year promises, at least once in their lifetime. But how many how those promises are actually being kept and what is the reason people make them? Why is it that hard to keep up on promises of something that is good to you in long terms, like healthy lifestyle?

Well let's face it, making promises is easy - Keeping them isn't. That's the basic concept which I came up with (aren't I a smart  one :D ). Too high goals, without ambition and drive to complete them isn't the best mix. That is the very reason one should make decisions, or in this case promises, to have long term goals that benefit you. It doesn't matter if you have the ambition to drop eating candies, or starting to go gym regularly, if you are just going to drop it once you slip from your goal. Missing going to gym once isn't the end of the world, the choice to not go at all because of that one slip is though.

This exactly why I have made a counterattack to my lazyness(!) Instead of just one or two difficult promises, I made fifteen (15) promises! Yes you read that correctly. I made fifteen promises, so breaking few doesn't still sink my boat of awesomeness. I even put all of them on my Facebook cover, so they reminds me of their existence. However, the person I am, I'm trying my utmost best to keep them all happening. This is something a rap artist would response "keep it real", but I am keeping it real - at least I dream of making all those goals once in my lifetime.

Promises to do in year 2014

I'll adress here few of my promises I intend to keep (or at least try to):

• run a full-lenght marathon (42km) in under 4 hours
• run half-marathon in under 1 hour 45 minutes
• no alcohol, candies or chocolate
• participate on ironman competition
• learn to dance

and 10 other very intresting promises, like getting a girlfriend (":D"), but some promises are just meant to be broken. I however wish the dream to compete on ironman would happen. The investment for the bicycle might be a bit too much though, we will see.

I'm especially proud of the no alcohol/candies/chocolate promise, it's been 18 days already, so this is now counted in weeks, soon to be counted in months. Just to test my ironwill, I purchased a candy box before I started this diet. Later on I found out Fazer Amica (a factory in Finland, makes sweets, doughs, food etc. )  remembered me with a some brand new sweets. My will of pure iron is on test here, but I will stay strong.

On other note, my Christmas holidays were a blast, ate too much and got some sweet, sweet gifts (which I purchased myself, but hey!). 

 

These included:

•  a brand new pair of Asics Gel Nimbus 19 

• new gps-multisports watch from TomTom

Just married Janne and Asics (shoes), my new equipment for keeping it strong!

So at least my equipment for new year is in good shape. Hopefuly I stay healthy and my motivation is as high as it was last year.

What promises/gifts you guys got or made? Did the promises get forgotten right off, or are you still keeping it strong like a strong athelete you are?

My treasure box

My precioussss... 

Lord of the Rings quotes aside, I said I show you my competition medals (well, they are finishing prizes really). Here they are:

 

My preciouss... Year 2013 finished medals/diplom & competition number tags

The finishing prizes/medals are (not in order):

• Helsinki City Run (21km)
• Helsinki City Marathon (42km)
• Pääkaupunkijuoksu (21km)
• Espoo Rantamarathon (21km)
• Kaisaniemijuoksu (21km)
• Midnightrun Helsinki (10km, it's the certificate/diploma)

I even came up with fixing them a treasurebox to store them into. Hopefuly I don't end up throwing them into garbage bin because of the box. I should decorate the box, any ideas how to make it cute? Or athelete type? Lots of sweat and blood and it's finished? Good idea, maybe I visit some hobby crafts shop for items to make it look better.

Once the photosession was over, here how the prizes ended up like. Maybe I should invest in a trophy cabinet. Time will tell, maybe in year 2014...

 

In the treasurebox they all went, waiting for new friends to arrive from their journey...

Finishing prizes

How is your trophy cabinet/ where ever you store your medals looking like? Or do you even keep them in store anymore?

aaaaaand mr. forrest gump is back, back again!

Forrest gump is back

Hey everyone! I been away lately, needed a trip to get my motivation back on track and I'll put a post about all the fun things I did while I was gone - all sporty things, yesyes ;)

In any case, I just came here to write a little fun information to those reading this blog. I challenged one of my schools teachers to helsinki city run halfmarathon that is ran next year - the challenge was accepted, so I can't backdown now.

The spirit of the game in this case isn't victory, but utter and complete victory!

This means I must get more speed and more stamina to cope up with the speed. My goal for helsinki city run will be 1h.40mins.

I will! yes I will! do it!

BOOM

Pääkaupunki juoksu (½marathon)

Yet another marathon, is this the same though?

No, sometimes you make a bad decision and that is doing sports when you're not 100% health. Cold seems to have taken over me, yet I decided to go try break my personal record of 1.50h in a half-marathon.

I prepared well for the event, bought energy gels, printed a paper that told me how fast I would need to run per kilometer (which by the way is 5.13 minutes/km, for 1.50h time). I was certain I would go under magical 1.50!

But no, no broken record of 1.50h, but instead I broke the myth "dumb people don't get sick". Hehe.

I did break my old record though, but for some reason, this didn't bring me any joy. Well, there is always another day, another race, another given chance to break records! Just need to go forward, never look back!

Disapointed

Personal record was broken, but it didn't bring any joy. But there is always a new day - NEVER look back!

 

Thumbs up for winning yourself

1.56.12 is still ok

 

Few words about pääkaupunkiseutu marathon

The whole run was tons harder than I thought it would be. While I was running, I made a nickname for the race: "All uphill marathon". No seriously, it felt like the race was going uphill all the time and then few super radical downhills. Very exhausting.

Also I did not like the sports drinks they were serving to us runners. The taste was horrible. I think it was supposed to be mandarin flavour, but it tasted like socks. I don't even want to know what energy drinks they were. Actually yes I do want to know, so I don't buy those myself... Ugh.

Also the drinking stations... They were horribly placed. The first came when we already had ran for over 6 to 7 kilometers of the trip. Seriously what's with that? It's probably handy for the organization, but as a runner, I didn't enjoy the distance.

Positive side (which is a major big one) is that the people cheering at us runners were fabulous! It really matters in endurance tests like these, when people cheer for you, even if they are complete strangers to you.

Some kid had climbed up on the tree for better view

Last race for awhile

This was also my last race for this year probably, not sure if there are any intresting running events coming in Finland anymore, until next year. Or maybe I go try running on different country, see how it feels.

There is one new consept of a run though, that I might want to try, but will tell about it later on.

Congratulations on new world time record on marathon

Yes, it's true. Wilson Kipkang broke the world record and set a new time of 2.03.23. Now that is some sweet running. Around 20km/hour. Could you do that? I certainly would want to! Big heads up to Wilson! Oh I wish I would have been there, at Berling Marathon to see it happen...

Congratulations mr. Wilson, I shall be trying to best you some day!