Discussion: Orienteering article in Denver Post

Poor Ryan.

From the article: "Described as running while playing chess..."

This should dampen any potential enthusiasm for the sport. We need better marketing. Cunning running, the thinking sport, running while doing homework, itemizing deductions while running fast, just don't seem to conjure up much excitement.

I had a stock boy help me load 50 gallons of water into my truck for the US Champs. He asked me why I needed the water. I said that it is for the US Championships in orienteering, which is more or less extreme running through the open forest at Dutchman Flat. He said, "Cool, where can I learn more!" I gave him the website, and got an email from him a couple of days later.

I wonder what his reaction would have been if I said, "Come out and try orienteering; it is the thinking sport...[[blank stare]]...[[crickets chirping]]...okay then, thanks for the help."

Right on!

Extreme running? Vlad describes exiting one control at the 5-day:
"Mihai went down the slippery overgrown rock face like a madman. I carefully followed the tracks made by various parts of his body..."

Yeah. Extreme running...

I don't think I've crossed this many barbed wire fences in one week before.

Speaking of barbed wire, I'd say I hurdled about 2 fences, climbed up & over about 10, stepped over about 5, went through about 2 and went under about 3. Anyone else use other techniques? More or less of one or the other?

Being height-challenged, the belly crawl is my method of choice. Last week I went over 2, through one, and crawled like a slug under two or three thousand.

The most entertaining fence ccrossing I ever saw was SVO's Megan Donahue in Wyoming a few years ago. She was something like 16 months pregnant and there was a fence across the finish chute 30m from the line. She ran to the fence, went up one way then back the other way looking for a crossing, then finally lay down on her side right next to the fence, rolled over on her back under the wire and ended up on her other side facing away from the fence. Then just got up and ran in. A barrel-roll sort of thing.

Whenever I go under a fence, I inevitably find some sort of droppings when I'm half way through.

Jeff, how is this: http://thewaterstop.org/What_is_Orienteering.html

I think it reads great and I like the links to the videos, too!
Note the spelling of Tero's name: Thierry Gueorgiou.

Looks good to me too!

Thanks for the correction Tapio. I would really like feedback on the page from more of the Attackpoint crowd. I want it to be the perfect thing for Juniors to show their friends when they need to explain Orienteering to them. What is the best way to describe Orienteering to teenagers to make it sound like the friggin awesome sport it is?

John, Good choice to use Clem's photo! Stars, stripes and clearly running like H*%&!

I really love the stars-n-bars top. Its unique, like the maple leaf on the Canucks uniform. I'd like to see the team go back to that or something similarly stylized in the future. It looks like Eric was wearing this top in the long qual, but the only pic I could find shows him from the fuzz, northward (can't see the starz). Its also the coolest (temperature) O-top I've ever run in.

I'd put some route maps---maps with the runner's route drawn on it, at least three showing: (1) travel to an attackpoint and then an attack, (2) a medium long leg with an out-of-the-way route (or several runners' routes), and (3) a sprint map leg with some uncrossable features and a similar out-of-the-way route. I would probably just show a leg or two, and I'd rotate the map so the leg goes up the page. I'm thinking of just a strip of 2 or 3 vertical inches on your web page. Another similar strip might be two photos of the view looking down at your map while running---one of a thumb compass on a map and one of a thumb on a map and a compass in the other hand. I'd probably use the same map for both photos, and have the maps and compass needles aligned, *but* I'd have north at some odd angle (not up/down or left-to-right)---perhaps 45-ish. Maybe the maps would show a corner with some text showing the map is turned.