Marching 70 kilometers in less than 24 hours is not a typical Sunday-afternoon-walk. However, almost 200 soldiers from different nations signed up to spend weekend of Feb 2-3 participating in the 'Cold Day March', organized by Finnish Battalion.

The Cold Day March was not a competition, but an event open to all KFOR-soldiers. Marchers proceeded in teams of five soldiers.

Those who completed the march received a diploma and a knife manufactured specially for this march, with the logo of the Finnish Defence Forces.

The march began in Camp Ville on at 1600 hrs and the route went through the western part of Finnish Battalion's AOR. The marchers finished the first day at the overnight area in Sedlare 35 km away, which had to be reached before 2400 hrs. Sleep was quite limited, because the march began again at 0600 hrs the next morning.

While there was enough road to walk on the road conditions were quite bad, which made the march even harder than planned.

Despite the event's name, the weather was quite warm, which made the road really muddy. It was quite hard for one's feet to march in mud, and marching in nighttime, with poor light is of course even harder.

Many teams had problems with their feet, causing some to give up. The importance of good preparations proved critical, and those who had trained in advance had no serious problems.

A march like this needs both physical and mental strenghth. Despite their blisters and chafes, many carried on all the way thank's to strong will, even if every step hurt.

The fastest team comprised of Cpl Lee Price and Privates Julian Harris, Philip Barret, Luke Richards and Gavin Brown, representing the Royal Regiment of Wales. They regarded the march as appropiately difficult. Their mood was surprisingly high, although they were quite tired.

There was a clause in the march-rules, stating that the march of the team is not completed if the team does not reach the finish line together.

However, Commanding Officer of the Finnish Battalion, LtCol Jorma Ala-Sankila ruled that everyone who reached the finish, they would receive the knife and the diploma, because all teams had shown the proper attitude by continuing.

Special attitude was shown by WO Szczepan Pietraszek from The Polish 5th Mountain Infantry Battalion. He reached the finish with the winners even though the rest of his team was forced to quit.

The march proved to be a tough challenge. Thirty-five teams started, but only 23 teams finished together. Six teams finished the march shorthanded. Luckily there were no serious injuries and the main reason for quitting were various kinds of foot blisters.
"When we were planning the march, some regarded the route as too easy," says Capt Marko Nieminen, who was in charge of the whole event. "Luckily we did not make it harder. This is already the hardest march in Kosovo, and I really salute everyone who managed to complete this march."

The captain was also pleased with the success of the event; "In my opinion the idea is good and things went smoothly. This march will definitely be arranged again next year," he added.

Not every marcher was signed up in advance. The pet dog of Camp Kollaa named Paavo started together with the marchers, and followed them all the way to the finish line. She even crossed the finishing line with the fastest team. Paavo was not blessed with a body of a greyhound. When looking at her one would not believe that she could walk for more than a few meters. Therefore Paavo was also given a diploma for completing the Cold Day March.