The pictures in this series have little to do with the story. I'm just including them because I visited the harbor today before picking up my daughter from school.
I dropped by the harbour for a change to take a few pics before collecting my daughter from school. It's snowing or sleeting again. Along with 1500 other kids, she and her class took part in Children's Finlandia, a side event of the annual Finlandia Ski Marathon held a couple of weeks ago after the main event. The main race of ski marathon is 50 km long and it is open to skiers of all levels. It has been held in Lahti for many years. Traditionally, it covered the 75 km distance from Hämeenlinna to Lahti. Unfortunately, it had to be canceled many times because of a lack of snow before the organizers decided to hold the entire event in Lahti. I tried to find the kids at the ski stadium but their event in different location up the hill and not at the stadium, so I don't have any photographs. The kids' race was four kilometres long.
Poor visiblity makes it seem as if Lahti was on a seacoast.
The longest distance I have ever covered by cross country skiing during one day was 90 km. I took part in a ski marathon called Pirkan Hiihto. The start was in a garrison in Kankaanpää 90 km from Tampere and the finish was in Tampere. It took me about ten and a half hours to complete including all breaks the longest of which was lunch about 45 km after the start. I hadn't done any of my ultra cycling tours by that time. I'd never been as tired in my life. I had only done about 100 km of cross country skiing that winter. Naturally, I had thousands of kilometres under my belt from the previous couple of decades. But that winter I'd mainly just been to the gym doing strength training. The worst part of it was the second to last ten kilometres. During the final ten, I was running on fumes but it was mentally much easier because I knew the finish line was not far.
Ski marathons like Finland or Pirkan Hiihto are mass events and serious competitions rolled into one. I've never raced in skiing. In fact, the only sport at which I've ever competed in any kind of way is orienteering. When I think back to the days when I was physically active, I can't help thinking I should get off my butt and start exercising again. My paternal grandfather died of heart attack when he was the same age as I'm now. He had certain risk factors I do not have and my close maternal relatives have all lived long lives, though.
