O Mountain Marathon on Sunday

I saw a buddy yesterday who told me about teams making really, really elementary and stupid mistakes at Full Moon this past weekend. He'd hear teams nearby (like 200m to 300m), see lights moving away from him (at a CP) and then they'd rock up two hours later!

Dare I say (again) that navigation is a discipline of adventure racing. This sport is no not about running fast or riding like a demon...

Mountain Marathon is the most fabulous O event for adventure racers. Off the top of my head I can't remember the criteria except that to be a Mountain Marathon the course must have a certain amount of elevation gain (more than 500m?) - anyway, it's more than standard cross-country O events.

We only have one MM a year, and it comes up on Sunday at Groenkloof. And, I've just seen from an email that we'll have a RED course. Where BROWN is usually the longest and most technical challenging, RED is longer but not as difficult navigationally - perfect for trail runners starting to find their way around.

Course Distances:
Brown 12.5km +/- 500m (Open M21+)
Blue 9.5km +/- 400m (Veterans M40+) (Open Women W21+)
Green 7.7km +/- 300m (Master M50+) , Veteran Women (W35+)
Light green 3.6km (Masters Women W45+)
Orange 2.7km
White 1.7km
Red ...tbc - aiming for 10-16km.

Date: Sunday, 1 September 2013
Venue: Groenkloof Nature Reserve

Registration: from 09h00
Starts: from 09h30

Courses: Six courses catering for beginners to advanced. Red course suitable for trail runners wanting distance without complex navigation

Fees:
R70 Members
R80 Non-­members
R100 Groups

Pre-­entries -­ www.orienteeringonline.net
R10 discount for pre-­entries with payment into ROC account before 30 August

Please pre-enter if you intend running this weekend, even if you don't pre-pay and get your R10 discount you will still have a pre filled in entry form and save us capturing details on the computer at the event.

Also entry to the reserve is covered by your entry fees so please make sure you mention you are coming to the Orienteering event at the 'Boma'

Rand Orienteering Club Bank Details for Pre-­Entries:
Standard Bank
Boksburg 011842
Account no 025096311

FYI: Colours of courses (From British Orienteering Federation site)

• White Courses (XS) are very easy with all controls on paths. They are mainly used by 6-10 year olds and family groups. 
• Yellow Courses (XS-S) use simple linear features like paths, walls and streams. They are mainly used by under 12’s and family groups. 
• Orange Courses (S-M) progress to basic use of the compass and route choice. They are ideal for novice adults or experienced youngsters. Long Orange courses are used mainly by novice adults wanting a longer run. 
•  Light Green Courses (S) are ideal for improvers as the navigational difficulty begins to increase and uses simple contours and ‘point’ features. 
•  Green Courses (S) are used mostly by experienced under 18’s and adults wanting a short but challenging course with a very hard navigational difficulty. 
•  Blue Courses (M) are a longer, more physically demanding course in comparison to the green. The distances are more varied between controls and the course attracts experienced orienteers. 
•  Brown (L) and Black Courses (XL) are very physically demanding and have a very hard navigational difficulty. They are for experienced orienteers only.

(Red is the longest but is navigationally easy - targeted at trail runners who want distance but don't have practised navigation skills)