okansas.blogspot.com
Occassional thoughts about orienteering


Sunday, November 10, 2002

Some notes on course setting

 

I'm setting the courses for an upcoming Orienteer Kansas event. We're hosting a short/middle distance race at Clinton State Park the day before the Possum Trot.

I've been setting some possible legs on paper. A couple of weeks ago I spent a few hours on the map updating some trails. Gene has also been updating the map.

Tomorrow, I'll go to Lawrence to test a few legs and control locations.

Poking around the internet, I was happy to bump into some comments about short/middle distance courses on Tore Sandvik's home page.

Tore Sandvik on short/middle distance courses

I didn't have time or energy to translate the whole thing, but here is a summary of some of Sandvik's comments:

A short/middle course should emphasize navigation. It should mostly use small and medium size features.

The course can have some route choice, but shouldn't have too much. A good course would have one route choice leg and it shouldn't be longer than 700-800 meters.

The course should have lots of direction changes.

The course should have lots of variety in leg length.

A good short/middle distance course should have a winning time around 22-26 minutes.

The course should be in relatively easy to run terrain with plenty of detail. It shouldn't be in a very hilly area.

The map should be at a scale of 1:10,000.

The starts should be at an interval of two minutes.


If you can read Norwegian, you can read Sandvik's article.

What would Sandvik think about my course?

I'm not sure what Sandvik would think about my course. For one thing, it isn't yet finalized. I'm "violating" at least two of Sandvik's ideas: the race will use a mass start and the course is likely to have one route choice leg of over 1 km. The terrain isn't especially detailed (we don't really have detailed terrain around here), but it is not hilly and the running speed will be high. The courses should have plenty of variety in leg length and direction changes. The map will be 1:10,000. I'll aim for a winning time around 25 minutes.

We're using a mass start (the Possum Trot the next day also uses a mass start) and I'm not certain what technique I use to spread the field out a bit. I might begin by having a small area with 4-5 controls that the runners can either take in any order or a requirement that the runners take any two of the 4-5 controls. The ultra-long world cup in Sweden spread out runners by having too few punches at some of the early controls; I don't think I'll do that!

posted by Michael | 6:35 PM

0 comments


Comments: Post a Comment
March 2002April 2002May 2002June 2002July 2002August 2002September 2002October 2002November 2002December 2002January 2003February 2003March 2003April 2003May 2003June 2003July 2003August 2003September 2003October 2003November 2003December 2003January 2004February 2004March 2004April 2004May 2004June 2004July 2004August 2004September 2004October 2004November 2004December 2004January 2005February 2005March 2005April 2005May 2005June 2005July 2005August 2005September 2005October 2005November 2005December 2005January 2006February 2006March 2006April 2006May 2006June 2006July 2006August 2006September 2006October 2006November 2006December 2006January 2007February 2007March 2007April 2007May 2007June 2007July 2007August 2007September 2007October 2007November 2007December 2007January 2008February 2008March 2008April 2008May 2008June 2008July 2008August 2008September 2008October 2008November 2008December 2008January 2009February 2009March 2009April 2009May 2009June 2009July 2009August 2009September 2009October 2009November 2009December 2009January 2010February 2010March 2010April 2010May 2010June 2010July 2010August 2010September 2010October 2010November 2010December 2010January 2011February 2011March 2011April 2011May 2011June 2011July 2011August 2011September 2011October 2011November 2011December 2011January 2012February 2012March 2012April 2012May 2012June 2012July 2012August 2012September 2012October 2012November 2012December 2012January 2013March 2013April 2013May 2013July 2013September 2013
archives
links