Canadian and US teams about to start running in Jukola 2016

There are four North American teams registered this year in the world's largest relay race - Jukola. At 23:00 Finland time (13:00 PDT, 16:00 EDT) on Saturday, June 18,  there will be a mass start of 1717 teams, running seven legs each through the night. If you want to follow the action, go to http://www.jukola.com/2016/en/live/. The two Canadian teams are from Ottawa (team #380) and the Yukon (team #384).

Here is the Yukon team, in running order from left to right: Pia Blake, Leif Blake, Forest Pearson, Jennifer MacKeigan, Ross Burnett, Svante Larsson, and Caelan McLean. Go Yukon!

Other teams to watch are the two US teams: Cambridge (team 230) and the US Junior Team (team 1701).

Earlier today, the all-woman Venla relay ran with 1345 4-person teams. Some well-known Canadians were running for European teams: Emily Kemp ran the anchor for Angelniemen Ankkuri (team 46) which placed 20th (she will also be running for the Ottawa team!) and Louise Oram ran anchor for Bäkkelagets SK 2 (team 365) which placed 60th. Amazing performances!

Go Canada! Go USA!