Third stage of POM 2016. Well, it is for this type of event, I keep going to Portugal in pre-season. Another pretty extreme terrain, which is probably not too enjoyable at any other speed than competition speed. But I had much fun and tried to get the best of this experience today.
ResultsMy race went mostly well, with the clear idea of avoiding much of the different layers of vegetation when it was possible and still reasonable (i.e. not too far from the red lines). Still didn´t succeed to find the best routes to couple of the legs
(16th - probably faster more to the left; 28th – the right side of the hill was probably more runnable). Last stage of POM tomorrow! Let´s see what the organizers have been keeping in their pocket.
2 quick Note :
- IOF banns GPS watches in World ranking event. Nothing new. But still think it is a shame, and on a day like that, it also kills a big part of the fun with post-race analysis, especially when there is no tracking offered by organizers. I would be curious to know how a GPS watch could help to find a control faster than by reading the map in this green and stony mess…
- Also for IOF… or better to say to the members of IOF mapping commission. Most of those guys are offered 1/7.500° scale at competition. According to the rules they set, we have to run in those terrains with 1/15.000°, and today I spent 99% of the time reading my map with the magnifier glass stuck over the map. In some places, I didn´t even knew what I was looking for (2nd, 23rd), or couldn´t even read the map (to the 15th). Well, for me, orienteering is not a competition about who have the best visual acuity. I am not blaming the mapping style which was great today, and it was also a good long distance course with different route-choices. But I will always support the idea that the map scale should be adapted to the terrain. Not the opposite. Dot end.
#YesIamGettingOldandSeeNothing