Me: I should probably ski the letters “ES” and begin the 11 hour, 90km journey on Friday at 7pm

Why? After a month of interviewing Finnish financial institutions on their sustainable investment practices, I was surprised to learn along the way that Finnish savers were not as aware of these developments as they could have

Idea: “ES-Ski”

Full Disclosure: this stunt should not be confused with the pre-existing well known Finnish energy drink “ES” meme

Complete Disclosure: this was the original idea and plan https://homanenmikael.wixsite.com/website-1, but due to last minute injuries and cancellations, alternative arrangements had to be made

More fun details:

1) Water bottles froze & with no shops around, I had to hydrate by eating snow
2) I got a brain freeze from eating snow, it hurt
3) I saw a mini aurora borealis, that was nice
4) Ran out of music, had to start singing a Finnish classic “So Good Wood” by Vesa Matti Loiri, spirits were lifted
5) Phone nearly ran out of battery due to freezing temperatures. At risk of losing my only map – I had to put my phone somewhere warm. Side note: why don’t boxers have pockets I wonder?

News: Snowstorm ‘Valtteri’ to hit Finland hard by Friday evening

Me: I should probably go skiing in the city centre

News Saturday morning: Storm brings 20 cm of snow, chaos was avoided. Videos show swerving cars and a skier in front of Kiasma 

@saldagg

♬ alkuperäinen ääni – Katja Härkki

https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-12293369?utm_source=social-media-share&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ylefiapp&fbclid=IwAR23JRgLfXkXyHXGAVQupw4ZdXFE1ywqYyN71fMwTYpy6HwUHH_hycRBp8o

https://www.hs.fi/kaupunki/art-2000008573814.html

The Cambridge dictionary defines heedless as not giving attention to a risk or difficulty    

I on the other hand, would call it being an imbecile…

This story begins near the end.

I wake up, I head to work, finish some tasks and at 10am I have a pre-booked call with my GP. After explaining, in full detail, what, why and how my left wrist has been hurting for the past three weeks, she abruptly stops me mid-sentence and says “you should have gone to the hospital, immediately, three weeks ago”. After a brief pause she then states “go to the hospital, now”. And, on command, I close my laptop, leave the office and head out.

20 minutes later, I arrive at the A&E. From the reception onwards I continue laughing with staff about my silly adventures and then finally end up getting an X-ray. I meet the doctor and before she has the time to tell me what the deal is, the nurse comes by and says “we’re getting the cast ready” after which the doctor says “soo.. as you’ve now heard, you have a broken bone”. And that, is how I found out about the first bone that I ever broke.

The visit continues. We laugh and I get a nice cast on my left arm. By 12.15, we’re done, I head out and pick-up some pita falafels for lunch. Arrive at work and just in time, make it to my 1 o’clock meeting when my colleague then shouts “you did NOT have that in your arm when you came in this morning!?” She was right.

So what exactly happened 3 weeks ago? Nothing too wild actually. I was playing basketball with a few colleagues. After a few hours, at one point, I make an objectively excellent defensive manoeuvre, i.e. shift in front of the player, with both feet on the ground. Unfortunately, my friend’s body no longer operates under the same speed as he thinks and therefore he ends up charging right at me. I fly across the court and fall on the ground. Unfortunately, as an imbecile, I had forgotten to take off my large metallic Garmin watch before the game started. I land on my wrist and the watch ends up braking one my wrist bones.

Like an imbecile, I grunted a bit, got up and continued playing for another two hours until we all headed out for dinner and back home.

Three weeks pass by and I continue being an imbecile. Not only do I not reach out for professional help, I decide to continue playing sports to the best of my abilities, with the complementary wrist pain of course. Can’t do push-ups with my wrist? No problem, just do push-ups with your hands in a fist position. Can’t swim normally? No worries, just swim with your hands primarily in fist position as well. Can’t go cycling? No worries, just run 50 km with your friend in the forests of south England. No biggie.

I know, I know. I’m an imbecile. But, it gets worse…

Two days before the eventual hospital visit. What do I decide to play again? You guessed it, basketball. Same friends, same place and like an imbecile I tell them “my left wrist still hurts” and therefore, like an imbecile I suggest “I will just join you guys by playing with only my right arm”, because that of course is the normal thing to say and suggest. After a few hours of playing, the same guy from before whom had lost his youthful speed, same defensive position and same charge. I fly against the wall, grunt out loud and like an imbecile, we decide to continue playing for anther few hours. We then have dinner, laugh and go home.

So where is the second broken bone?

Lets go back to the start. On the day of the hospital visit, I leave work, go home, with a cast on my left arm. I sit on my sofa, watching my hand thinking “huh, I have a broken bone”. And as I wonder about it, I am reminded about my deep rib pain that I’d been enjoying since the basketball game few days ago. And then I laugh as I realized, I had a rib fracture as well. In total, two fractures and all just in time one day before the new London November lockdown. Excellent.

And like an imbecile, I google “what exercises can you do with a fractured wrist and / or rib”. Turns out, both injuries work against each other. The exercise one can do with a broken wrist, cannot be done with a fractured rib and vice versa. And so, I sit, for six weeks and for the first time, try to not be an imbecile.

You know that feeling when you’re cycling and a massive insect hits your glasses at full speed and you think to yourself “phew, I am so glad it didn’t hit my face”?

• Well, in Ironman Hamburg it did
• And, it was a big insect
• And, it was a bee
• And, it exploded into one million pieces in my mouth
• And, it stung my lip (tried to remove the stinger thinking it was still there)
• And, it caused my lip to swell up into the size of a golf ball

At this point, I had 80km left to cycle and I thought to myself “hmm, will I need to hold my lip by biting it so that it doesn’t jump around when I start running?”. Also, “I really hope I’m not allergic”. And, “hmm.. the last time I got stung by a bee was when I was 8 years old and it too happened when I was cycling, what an interesting coincidence”.

Once the run began, I told my family, who clearly noticed the swollen lip, “please google if there is a reason to be concerned” to which 4km later they reply “since you’re still up and running, there is no reason to be worried anymore and even if you’d needed medication, we wouldn’t be allowed to give it to you anyway because of race rules”. Luckily, it all ended fine. I completed the race, laughed it off with everyone, and ate tons of pizza. Obviously, this was not a “personal best” race, but I did finish my first bee-athlon!

For many years, prior to every midsummer festival in Finland, I would complete my own “Cottage Triathlon” to deserve the weekend’s festivities (three pretty hectic days). Every year, the journey would consist of approximately 3 km of swim, 130 km of bike ride, and a 33 km run. Year by year the distance could vary slightly and every year the bike-to-run transition involved delicious soup, fantastic cake, and coffee at my uncle’s home in Salo. In addition, I was always lucky to have some of my friends join me for portions of the ride or run as well to lift my spirits and share some laughs. In most years, the journey was relatively smooth (though of course painful) and straightforward, though with the few following interesting exceptions:

• One year, one night prior to the midsummer triathlon, I was abruptly informed by my father that a storm was heading towards the cottage, and it would hit the route by the afternoon the next day. I was told, if I were to make it, I’d have to leave immediately. Therefore, I hung up the phone, left the party, dressed up, got on a bike (no swimming on this occasion), and started to cycle at 11pm. Around 2 am in darkness, I got lost, which added an extra hour to my journey, which was obviously “not great”. The most memorable moment, however, was around 3 am, when I officially became a Disney princess. On my side, rabbits were jumping, birds were chirping as they flew around the bike and a deer ran alongside me. Somehow, they knew I needed them and with their support, I finished the long journey with a smile.
  
  
• In one year, time was once again against me. This time, I was landing from Chicago, where I was working at the time and most pressingly, I was landing on midsummer eve itself. In short, I was already behind my race schedule by the time I landed. What did I do? I asked my support crew to bring the bicycle to the airport. I had naturally replaced the swim with the flight and after finishing the flight stage of the race, I proceeded by changing into my cycling gear in the arrivals area (trust me, I did think of wearing race gear under my clothes during the flight, but decided that the saved seconds weren’t worth the long-distance discomfort. Nonetheless, it would have been interesting to try and wear a tri-suit under my formal attire on a plane). Overall, the airport transition was successful, and I completed the bike and run section of the triathlon with a heavy jet lag adding to the experience.

It started chill. Had a few drinks with friends 🍻 and ended the night at 12pm

And then it really started…

1) 0200 – 0700: Woke up two hours later and ran 37km 🏃

I had to. I was preparing for the upcoming Bangkok marathon 😅 As I ran endless circles in Lumphini park, it was interesting to see how a local running event had organized itself after I’d arrived and ended before I’d even finished.

Got home at 7am, showered and put on my university uniform. Btw, why don’t all universities have uniforms?

2) 0800 – 1700: 9 hours of lectures, back to back 📖

I had to. Admittedly, combining quant lectures with Buddhism economics was a lot to handle. Btw, I believe meditating is possible while napping.

3) 1800 – 1900: Thai massage 💆

I had to. I promised a friend I’d go. Having someone stomp my back after 37km and no sleep was surprisingly nice. Btw, I did not believe napping in this situation was possible.

4) 1930 – 2100: Family Dinner 🥣

I had to. Family were in town and I promised. Food was great.

5) 2200 – 0500: Clubbing 🕺

I had to. I promised my sister I’d show her the town. Drinks and dancing on top of all the activities certified the whole day as an ultra event.

All in all, a great day to connect work, sports and family time 👍