okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering
Sunday, February 18, 2007
No complaints...almost
I had a nice day today. No complaints. I ran an interesting course in Georgia (Andreas Haldi set the course) at a well organized event (Thanks, GAOC). I made it home without any problems. The flight was on time. The luggage all made it. No complaints....except, I missed watching the Daytona 500 on TV.
Many readers know that I like watching car races and, in particular, Nascar races. The racing is interesting and I like to watch and think about how it relates to orienteering. And I'm not alone in seeing the parallels between car racing and orienteering. Here is what Sandy Hott Johansen wrote the other day:
Watching other athletes from other sports on TV is actually a valuable learning experience. I was, for instance, surprised to learn how much Rally and slalom have in common with orienteering. Although I know nothing about rally and alpine skiing, speed adjustment, control and concentration seem to be central factors also for these sports… an over-aggressive attack or lack of concentration will more often than not land you in the ditch or outside the gate. Going all-out after a mistake in an effort to “make up time” also seems like a sure-fire way to end up in the ditch.