Nov 2

Nov 2 A city run and biking through the Nuuksio National Park - Helsinki, Finland

I got the opportunity to go to Helsinki, Finland to speak at my company’s customer summer conference a few years back. The conference was on a Friday, so I booked my trip to include the weekend to do some exploring in the area. This trip was before I was regularly running ultra distances, so I planned a 60 mile (100k) bicycle ride instead of a run.

When I tell people at work that I went to Helsinki the most common question I get is whether I took “the boat”. Helsinki is a very short flight from Stockholm, but it can also be reached in about 16 hours via a ferry. These overnight trips can also be used to visit ports in other Baltic countries, and would make an interesting way to get away for an ultrarunning destination weekend.

For a warm up run, when I got to town on Thursday, I ran about 9 miles (15k) around the main part of Helsinki. I researched the Helsinki Marathon and used part of its course as the basis for my run. However, it is unusual for a big city marathon because it is a 4 loop course, so it didn’t provide inspiration for covering much of the city. My run was easy to navigate though since the course mainly followed the shoreline around the city.

The Nuuksio National Park is also located very close to downtown Helsinki, and there is even regular bus service. In addition, there is a separate bike path for a lot of the way there, making it safe to ride or run from the city. I rented a road bike early on a Sunday morning and road directly from the shop to the national park. The roads were quiet and the ride to the park uneventful. A road bike may not have been the best choice since many of the roads in the park are dirt roads. There is also the Haltia - The Finnish Nature Centre where you can stop to buy some food and drink so you need not carry everything with you. The park also has many miles of hiking paths that could be used for a long run. The national park is home to The Nuuksio70 Trail Ultra, whose course can be used a basis for your own ultrarun.

This last weekend I had hoped to do a run in the Tarvantovaara Wilderness Area near the town of Karesuvanto, in the very north of Finland. However, they got a lot of snow which is, according to the owner of the lodge I stayed at, unusual before All Saints' Day. As such, I didn’t feel like driving an hour over the snow-covered roads to get there, and the snow would likely have made the run impossible or very difficult. I flew into Kiruna and tried to run around the ski mountain right in town, but I sank into the snowdrifts on the side of the mountain up to my waist, not exactly a great omen for a 50k run.

Finland has many national parks where you can plan an ultrarunning destination weekend. Helsinki is easy to get to if you are in a Nordic country, and the Nuuksio National Park makes a convenient location for a ultrarun or long distance bike ride.