okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering
Thursday, July 06, 2006
You know you're getting old....
You know you're getting old when you start saying things like, "back in the day it was much tougher."
The first time I ran the Swedish 5-Day was 1984 in Blekinge. Kent Olsson and Karin Gunnarsson won the elite categories. Back then, winning the top elite categories meant 5 days in a row of tough orienteering. The courses weren't quite normal one-day distances, but the courses weren't short.
This year, the "super elite" run three races: a middle distance (back in the day, middle distance was called "short") a sprint, and a classic distance.
"Back in the day it was much tougher."
To be fair, I think they've made the event a bit wimpy in order to attract the top elite runners who might otherwise skip the competition to avoid getting worn out before the WOC.
One of the interesting features of this year's super elite event is that the third day is on an old course from 1975. To make this stranger, the organizer published the old maps and courses. So, today's super elite will be able to study the course and make their decisions ahead of time. That sounds like fun for a training event.
Check out PDF's of the 31 year old courses for the men and the women. This year, they run the same courses but get a new map.
posted by Michael |
8:30 PM
