The first event of the Big 5 O Week was held today; a middle distance event in the same area - the other side of the highway - as yesterday's training map. It was fantastic!
For this event, I decided to run in the W35 category. You can run below your age, but not above. For seniors older than 21, M21 (men 21) and W21 (women 21) is the main competitive category. The next age group is M/W35 and thereafter in five-year intervals. For my age, I should be running W45. But, as you go up the age groups, the distance gets shorter. The control locations are not a much easier as the actual course length is less and there will be fewer controls to locate.
Having been out of O for so many years, I figured that I was outside of the competitive W21 arena but that I still wanted distance and lots of controls to find - so I opted for W35. There are only five of us in this age group (only six in W45). Yes, I'm in the age-grouper realm, which opens opportunities to get results.
There are multiple courses of varying distances and multiple age groups share courses. I was on Course 4, which is shared by my W35 group and also by M20, M21L and M50 giving a total of 25 participants on this course. I'm 1st in my age group and 12th on the course, which is pretty cool and unexpected.
The course was great, offering a mix of mowed footpath navigation (first few controls) and forest orienteering with sections that called for compass work (13 to 14. I didn't have to search for any controls, hitting them all pretty much spot-on or popping out within 5-10m of the control - so I could see it.
There are definitely sections I should have moved faster on and other areas where I need to trust myself more - being out of orienteering for so many years has left me somewhat unsure of my skills.
As the crow flies course distance today was 4.1km. Real distance maybe 5.5km (a friend on Course 5 at 3.9km ran 5.2km, as an indication).
In marking up my map, I remembered what fun remembering and drawing in your route and comparing split times can be. I forgot to start Strava so I didn't have this recording to compare.
It has been toooooo looong. I really have missed orienteering. Just these two days with the training map and now Day 1 have had me feeling like I had no food for too long and now I've had a hit of sugar. It is good.
Tomorrow is Day 2 and this is a Long course - my old favourite.
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| Adventure racing friend Jose Pires from Portugal is in South Africa for this event. I also saw ARers Jeannette Walder and Ugene Nel today. |
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