5 Excellent Reasons to Run in Finland

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5 Excellent Reasons to Run in Finland

5 Excellent Reasons to Run in Finland

The Land of the Midnight sun offers great settings for both beginners and more experienced runners.

Running is one of the most popular sports activities around the world. And one of the easiest to start – just put on a pair of running shoes and venture out into the wild. Trail running, also known as hill or mountain running, has also became immensely popular in recent years.

There are countless good reasons why you should come to Finland to run on trails and other locations alike – but here we present the five most important. Scroll down to check our list.

1. Clean air

According to international studies, the air in Finland is clean. In a world-wide study, Finland was amongst the countries that have the best air quality in the world. The air quality is good, even in the cities, and the quality is absolutely never bad enough to force people to restrict their activities. Good air quality is a very significant matter to all of us – especially for long-distance runners.

2. Exceptionally long summer days

Finland lies above 60 degrees north latitude. Because of the northern location, the summer days in Finland are exceptionally long. North of the Arctic Circle it is possible to experience the ‘nightless night’, aka ‘the midnight sun’, when the sun does not set below the horizon at all. To put it simply: In summer, Finland offers the most daylight hours for runners!

3. Beautiful nature

Finland is known as the Land of a Thousand Lakes – the exact number is 187 888. There are several different nature types in Finland, accessible in the 40 national parks. Because of the traditional Finnish legal concept of “Freedom to roam”, known as “Everyman’s right”, it is possible to enjoy the natural environment freely without any particular permission. It is also possible to experience the beauty of the Finnish environment in many of the running events.

4. High quality running events

Finland has a long tradition in long-distance running, and there is a wide range of high quality running events. Long-distance running is a popular and valued hobby and the biggest running events in Finland attract more than 10000 participants. Thousands of foreign runners participate yearly in Finnish running events – and more and more of them come back.

5. You are warmly welcome

Even though it’s a well-known fact that we Finns are not the most talkative people in the world, we get along very well with our international guests. When the ice has been broken, we can talk and discuss all sorts of topics until late in the evening. You also get a warm reception at the Finnish running events where the international runners are always most welcome.

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5 Excellent Reasons to Run in Finland