okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
S is for Sprint Orienteering
I ran a sprint course in Alabama on Monday. You can see the map, with Peter Gagarin's routes, below (click for higher resolution).
Some thoughts about sprint O':
Nearly everyone at the event ran the same course. It was nice to be able to talk with anyone -- from a top M21 to a middle of the pack F16 -- and have run the same course.
I liked having a map that was so easy to read. I've gotten used to using a magnifier, but it sure felt good to be able to read the map without any help.
I liked the feeling of running a sprint. There wasn't much margin for error. A small miss (and I drifted on two legs, losing maybe ten seconds on each of those legs) hurt. Take away one of my small misses and I finish ahead of Tom Carr. But, you can't take away the misses, so I finished 5 seconds back of Tom. That feeling of "seconds matter" isn't something you get at most races in the U.S.
I'm looking forward to running more sprints. Maybe I'll even get around to organizing one for Orienteer Kansas.
posted by Michael |
9:25 PM