Anyone here know about orienteering ?
I want to do this event tomorrow.
http://www.harlequins.org.uk/event_details/20110206_hawkbatch_finaldetails.pdf
I’m in the M45 category, so I should be doing the Brown, 7.9km route.
After a hurty knee caused by two unscheduled dismounts in the past two weeks and an almost complete lack of running training, I reckon that would be too much for me.
Can I enter an easier route, possibly Green, 3.8km, or Blue, 5.5km ?

Yes,colours are advisory only

^ Yep. Good luck.

OK, thanks both.

I did the Blue, 5.6km route in the end, although I probably ran or walked about 7 or 8km going round in circles looking for the control points.

3rd from last. 8)
http://www.harlequins.org.uk/results/20110206_C3_Files/local_results.html

Not so bad, VeganGraham 😉 Inspired to try some more?

i used to do quite a lot when i was a youngster, having started running again last year perhaps i will see if TVOC have any events nearby in the future…

I definitely want to do some more events.

The navigational part of it is very different to trailquesting.
Trailquests only use RoWs and the control points are usually on easily found land marks, like a telegraph pole or bridleway sign post. As long as you’re on the right road or bridleway, the CPs are normally pretty easy to find.
Orienteering CPs are literally in the middle of the woods and rely on taking a bearing and estimating the distance from some terrain feature.

My navigation wasn’t too bad, apart from one disaster, spending 24 minutes searching for a CP.
However, my running needs a lot of improvement.
I can hold a reasonable pace on a bike for long distances but I run pretty much the way you’d expect for a 95kg 48 year old. 😳

Orienteering has given me the motivation to improve now. I did one 10km running race a couple of years ago and it didn’t really inspire me much.
Running through the woods looking for little orange and white triangles is fun, I want to get better at it.

Orienteering has given me the motivation to improve now. I did one 10km running race a couple of years ago and it didn’t really inspire me much.
Running through the woods looking for little orange and white triangles is fun, I want to get better at it.

Pleased to hear that. I don’t really enjoy running on the roads, though running through the hills is quite fun, but it’s orienteering that I really enjoy. I reckon a lot of people on here would think the same if they gave it a go. Given your claimed <50 minute 10k, your running speed isn’t so bad – you’ll be surprised how much you lose to people running slower than you even where you thought you got it right, so lots of room for easy improvement!

You know where to find about more events?
http://harlequins.org.uk/fixtures.html for the local club stuff – get out your headtorch, there’s an event on Thursday – it’s a nice friendly club, be sure to mention Adventure Racer has encouraged you along (most people will know who I am based on that description!)
or http://sloweb.org.uk/ollie/map/index.php?p=DY14 for a map of all events local to you.

Ah, that brings out happy* memories – I grew up going orienteering every weekend. And I have to admit that it makes running a lot more interesting…

If Harlequins are your local club, as aracer says you should get in touch – they may have some training sessions to help with the map reading etc. From your description, it sounds like you had a good time, which is always the key. Personally I was never that big on bearings, as I never got them quite accurate enough – my technique was often to get an approximate bearing and keep an eye out for an overshoot feature (a path, gully, re-entrant etc).
Oh, and don’t get oversold on the gear – there’s a few retailers making a mint from selling ‘orienteering-specific’ shoes, trousers, compasses etc, when realistically most decent fell-running shoes, any small compass etc will do.

*-not always actually happy, mind – when it’s snowing and you can’t feel your feet and you’ve spent 20 minutes looking for a control you KNOW is round here somewhere, you get a bit miffed really… Plus M21 is full of nutters who do nothing but train all week by fell running…

Personally I was never that big on bearings, as I never got them quite accurate enough – my technique was often to get an approximate bearing and keep an eye out for an overshoot feature (a path, gully, re-entrant etc).

I never take a “proper” bearing – in fact my compass doesn’t have any numbers on and a dial which doesn’t turn. Very rarely even take a very accurate bearing over a distance, as you should be relying on the map not the compass, and there is normally plenty of detail on the map to help you (sadly the West Midlands has some flat forests with very little detail, in which case you have to rely on a bearing). The usual technique is to go to something nice and big nearby the control you can easily find and then make a very short bearing off that – unless of course you’re aiming for a point on a long feature (eg a stream), in which case I’d almost always aim off to one side a bit so I knew which way to turn. Often though you can just make do with what’s on the map and not rely on the compass at all (the World Orienteering Championship has been won by people not carrying a compass).

Oh, and don’t get oversold on the gear – there’s a few retailers making a mint from selling ‘orienteering-specific’ shoes, trousers, compasses etc, when realistically most decent fell-running shoes, any small compass etc will do

I agree to some extent. If you’re just out to have a bit of fun, then normal stuff will do – and in fact I often do run in normal off-road shoes. However the orienteering specific shoes have tougher uppers (you wreck normal shoes running off-track through forests, thus making orienteering shoes good value) and metal studs on the soles which give you grip on wet wood (lots of that in forests) where rubber soles will just slide. Orienteering specific compasses are very expensive, but then they’re also very steady – the needle on a normal cheap compass will bounce around all over the place when you’re running, but an expensive orienteering one will stay steady. From what I know of the retailers, the mint they’re making is similar to the mint all small LBSs make out of charging more than CRC 🙄

Cannock Chase has got some good courses – if the mtb’ers don’t get in your way;-)

I raced from 1974 to 1991and it was great fun.

Yup, Cannock is a regular place for events; Star Posts/ Swinley used to be, too. It gets you to pretty interesting places, actually – a few times I’ve been to some of the dunes on the north coast of Cornwall (bit windy, good fun, but you need to be able to read fine detail on the map), tank training grounds near Aldershot (one of them was used in a Brosnan Bond film). It’s quite amusing now going biking how much overlap there is between orienteering and mtb’ing destinations

I do a bit of Orienteering and Rogaining which is longer distance (up to 24hr). I always enjoy the Ori events as they do tune up your nav and after you overrun the first control (why bother checking the map scale i always say !) you get into it. Defintely helps me for doing adventure racing as sometimes in the long races we get Ori bits in the middle so if you are confident and tuned you can clear them quickly even while your brain is minced from not sleeping. I am however regularly beaten in Ori events by young people. Damn them.