Triathlon at Retirement

I realize there are several "worlds largest" sporting events in Sweden, and I think O-ringen is one of them with over 16 000 participants. It is a classic orienteering competition and a "must do" for most dedicated orienteers. I am so impressed, entry fees are not that high and there is so much complexity in organizing an orienteering event.  There are classes for everyone, from the littlest doing intro orienteering, play orienteering or just going to the free child minding, to the class for 80+ and everyone imaginable in between. There are full length courses, short length, and easy courses, in every 5 year age group! Then there are elite classes and courses that are age-less. Basically, there is a suitable course for everyone. All of this demands many checkpoints in the woods (many in difficult to reach places) and a specially produced highly detailed map. The arena has several finish lines to handle the complex class system, (handily named by sponsors to the even

That's right, there is an open water swimming event that crosses the Arctic Circle. To make it even more exciting, the swim goes from Finland to Sweden and starts at midnight under the midnight sun! Open water swimming event - Swim the Arctic Circle (swimac.eu) Swim the Arctic Circle takes place on the Tornio River (Torne Älv) that separates Finland from Sweden. Start is in Finland 5 minutes past midnight, and finish is in Sweden, 3 km downstream in the village of Jouksengi. For the slightly less adventurous, there is a 2km event as well that occurs on the Swedish side during the day. Year 2019, I did the 2km event, at the time, I was unsure if I could handle crossing the river which has a strong current. It was cold, about 60f (16C) in 2019, or even slightly colder, but the 2km went fine and I decided to come back and do the real thing next time! Well, Covid made me wait until 2022 as border crossings were almost impossible with all the restrictions and the organizers were forced