Occassional thoughts about orienteering
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| okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering |
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Saturday, October 22, 2005 My first night O'I was looking at some old maps and came across my first night O' race. It was a long time ago -- August 1988. I ran the "direct course" at Ostergotland's night championships. I ran with a friend, Lennart Gustavsson, shadowing me. I didn't have much confidence in my ability to find controls at night, and I figured (or maybe Lennart did?) that I'd learn more if a shadow could go over the course with me after I was done.Click on the image for higher resolution.  At the start triangle I took a couple of steps into the forest before I realized that I'd better stick to the trails. I guess that was my first lesson. If my memory is right, I stopped at each trail junction. I remember having no sense of how far I'd gone. A short distance on the map could feel like a long distance on the trail. The control was easy, up a couple of lines with a big marsh just before it.  I stuck with trails as much as possible on the rest of the course. I remember being surprised at how tricky the controls in the open area (3 and 4) were. In the day you'd be able to see far enough that you wouldn't have to even think about holding your direction. At night, you couldn't see far and had to keep an eye on the compass. That would be lession two.  I could use trails for the route to 6. I cut a few corners in the last third of the leg. I was getting a bit more comfortable with running at night.  7 and 8 took us between the buildings. This felt strange -- you could see lights on at houses and wondered what the people in there were thinking as headlamps ran past.  Once I'd picked my route on the long leg to 9 I felt like the course was over. Of course it wasn't. I let my concentration lapse and missed a trail junction (south of the square open area near Halleholm). It didn't cost me much time. But, I learned a lession (lesson three) that a small lapse can cost time. I finished the 6.2 km in 54:37. I was satsified with the time (though in retrospect it isn't especially good). posted by Michael | 6:34 PM 
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