Orienteering race 18:24 [5] 2.8 km (6:34 / km)
Deutsche Park Tour, Bottrop
Qualification Sprint
Ran the DS (Damen Schell, i.e. open) class. The run was around the city’s park, which was great for spectators because it was total madness as people raced all over the place. There was a bit of stress at the start because people had been categorized as either race “A” or race “B” but the control descriptions at the start and the maps were labeled differently and had either race “1” or race “2” and all the control descriptions were out of order and scattered everywhere. Luckily I got myself sorted just in time (some people didn’t, and one girl even ran with the wrong map, poor girl) and it was off and racing pretty quickly. I started conservatively, with the aim of having a clean run, concentrating on route choice in order to avoid coming up against dead ends (always my fear in sprint races). This worked really well and I got faster during the latter stages of the race, which finished in the soccer stadium near the park. Had a great run, no mistakes, and came 8th out of 14. Made it into the “A” final, woo hoo! This really made my day.
Orienteering race 24:07 [5] 2.8 km (8:37 / km)
Sprint Final
Unfortunately there were many disqualifications from the qualification race, because people either mispunched, took the wrong map, or, controversially, ran illegally through flower beds. There were several protests and the start for the final was delayed by 45 mins. Then, the organizers put up the start list only 10 mins before the first start, and so there was a big crush of people all trying to see their start time in tiny print on one A4 sheet of paper stuck on the wall. To top things off, halfway through the starts, the organizers decided that they would combine the men’s A and B finals into one big A final, changed half of the men’s times, and basically caused massive chaos at the start.
Anyway, I knew this race would be more difficult so I focussed on properly planning every route at each control, making sure each route was safe, and then running like hell. The Final was on a different map to the qualification, around the streets of the town centre in Bottrop, finishing in the soccer stadium. I had the best fun in this race. The locals were great - the kids gave away some controls, while others shouted encouragement (although some locals were rather insulting). I had no problems with my chosen route choices, played it safe, and only had a few small difficulties finding some controls which were well hidden behind bushes or in doorways. One man in particular had a good laugh at my expense because he could see a control hidden in a doorway but I couldn’t! Got a bit stressed when I had to run through a wedding party (they cheered) but then nearly lost it when I saw 2 young orienteers illegally jumping over a big fence….being photographed by an official….. this distracted me and I accidentally started running the wrong way around a building and had to turn around. Luckily a local helped me a bit by yelling out “you’ve already been up there!” I checked my map and he was right. How embarrassing! After that I had no more problems and just powered on home until the finish. I was worried that my route choices were not optimal (and some weren’t) but some were very good and overall I was happy with the run. Unfortunately the results weren’t put up until the following day, and I was convinced I was last, being 4 mins after the other girls in my club. But as it turned out, I was 16th out of 29. Yay!