Occassional thoughts about orienteering
|
|
| okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering |
|
|
Tuesday, April 08, 2003 W.P. previewI'm running the A-meet at West Point this weekend. I spent a few minutes thinking about it today.I'm running M21. That'll be tough for me. I'm not in great shape. The terrain and courses at West Point can be brutal. It is going to be interesting to see how it goes. The races are on the Popolopen and Bull Pond maps. I took a look at some of the courses I've run on those maps before. Here is a clip of the Bull Pond map. 
The terrain is really nice. The forest is open. Some low bushes and some mountain laurel can slow you down. The contours are usually quite accurate, you can read a lot of the details without much trouble. Both maps are hilly. I think they've had a lot of snow this winter and the weekend forecast is wet. So, the blue features on the map will probably be wet and distinct. The rock features are the maps are usually large and distinct. The ground is rocky, making running tough. Popolopen is hilly. The courses are often very tough with several big climbs. Bull Pond has a fairly dense trail network. Long legs (over 1 km or so) often have trail options. Courses at Bull Pond often have a lot of legs. Short legs keep orienteers from having long trail runs. I looked at five or six courses at Bull Pond from different years and the overall layout of the courses is very similar. If I spend some time studying those maps, I won't be surprised to see legs this weekend that are very close to legs I've run before. How do you orienteer at West Point? Looking ahead and around is important. The visibility can be very good and it is often possible to navigate by features that are far away. In particular, large boulders and cliffs are often visible from a long way. The physical demands can be a big factor. The footing is rocky (which is really tough if you're not used to it) and the hills are big. Sometimes it can pay to run a long trail route to avoid a tough climb or rough footing. Some of the steep downhills can be slow unless you're a strong downhill runner (and I'm not). Looking at my routes over the years, I've had a few runs where I've done a bit of unnecessary climb. Controls along the side of hills can be really tricky. It is easy to drop a few lines more than you planned (or even climb a few lines more than needed). A mistake on the side of a steep hill covered with small cliffs and boulders can cost a lot of time (e.g. the area around control 8 on the map above). The opposite of unnecessary climb can also be a problem. In some runs, I've avoided a few lines and taken a much more technically difficult route. Avoiding a couple of lines of climb but risking a big boom isn't usually worth it. Don't give up. The terrain can be tough. The courses can be brutal (and West Point doesn't have a reputation of having the best course setting). The weather can be dismal (cold and wet). Everyone faces the same conditions, when it is tough, some people are beaten already. posted by Michael | 7:34 PM 
Comments:
Post a Comment
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
||||
|
|||||
