okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Walking around
I'm sick enough that I decided to skip today's race. I was going to just hang out, maybe take a few snapshots. But Sandy planted the idea of walking the Brown (M60) course. That's what I ended up doing.
Walking a course is more fun than it might sound. You realize that if you can't afford to make a mistake (not because of the time, but because someone will see you making the mistake and then give you grief - "You were walking and still couldn't find the control"). You also realize that if you work at it, you can shave seconds here and there and over the entire course, those seconds add up.
Walking the course was fun...but not as fun as running a course.
My plan is to walk tomorrow's course, unless I feel a whole lot better by the time the start rolls around.
I have encountered a problem when having to walk during orienteering. I can't understand the map on slow speeds. Whenever I am running, I look at the map, understand it and make quick decisions. When I walk, my mind wanders and I have hard time matching the map with real landscape.
