Just Me and the Dog: Whitsun Orienteering Event

As usual, the whitsun weekend has been spent orienteering. I think, in the last 12 years, there has hardly been a witsun weekend where I did not run at least one course, and I think that must have been the year I was in the US. Both husband and I ran the medium distance course yesterday. The whitsun Orienteering meet in Hedemarken is always a big occasion. The Craft cup (Norway cup) is part of it and you could follow the progress of the runners on a big screen. Our own Marte Narum (from our club) won the womens 17-20 elite class by seconds. It was an exciting race. The following pictures are meant to illustrate what a major orienteering event looks like: The meeting area was full of tents (there were occasional heavy showers), though our club had forgotten to bring a tent. We were all sitting by the finish line in rain gear and umbrellas to get the best view of the compeditors.

The participant/spectator tents. Each club typically has it's own tent with a flag in front. Our club sat right along the runup to the finish line , equiped with raingear and umbrellas, but no tent.

The run up to the finish line, with the wide screen on which spectators can watch the elite runners progress superimposed on their map (they are equiped with gps), and video footage from selected points along the course.

Inside the tent at the finish line.

Juice is served at the finish for hot and tired runners.

The kiosk that serves coffee, soda, home-made cake, candy and hamburger tickets.

The grill which served delicious hamburgers, you add the dressing, tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber yourself.

Portable Sporting goods store (comes to all major orienteering events). Good to have if you lose or break your compass, tear your clothes or need new orienteering shoes...

Here are the boards where you can check your start time before the race and where results are posted.

And finally a sign post. Necessary at big events in order to find your way around.

I ran 2 different levels this weekend. Yesterday I ran a 2,6 km A-level course. Finished in 54:31 minutes, 3rd to last. I was actually very satisfied: firstly because I took under an hour, and secondly because I wasn't last. I am definitly making progress with my A-levels. My orienteering is pretty consistent. The problem is speed. The course almost never follows paths so you mostly end up pushing your way through dense undergrowth, marshy or stony terrain. I am too afraid of spraining an ankle or falling and breaking a limb to actually run unless it is very open and flat ground.

Today, however, I ran a 3,1 km C-level course. In spite of the fact that I was running almost the whole time - a good bit of the course followed paths - I spent just under an hour on this race as well. The fact that so many of the controls were placed at path intersections, making the whole course seem like a piece of cake, caused me to become over confident. Thus whenever a control was placed away from the path, I'd just light out in the general direction, instead of taking a painstaking compass course. And of course I'd miss it and have to try again, and again. I ended up taking 56:36 minutes and finishing in 32nd place of 37 :( If you look at the map it was the first and the 7th controll that I wasted a lot of time looking for.

Finally a couple of pictures from the tuesday "business races". These are sponsored by various businesses that compete with each other, and are an informal and fun weekly event. I almost always run with Lucy at my belt in these. In the big events running with dogs is prohibited.