Discussion: Orienteering Dreams?

1. Very common: I am late getting to the meet site and I can't find the Start. Even in late afternoon, I'm still looking, hpoing that htey haven't taken it down yet.

2. New one: Sprint course. Good start, but then I get to the center of a control circle (playground or something) and can't find the control. I notice that I didn't pick up a clue sheet, but it doesn't seem worth going back to get it. Then I can't find my map. But lots of my old maps are lying around - not very useful:).

OMG - I have the same kind of dreams, but I call them nightmares. They almost always wake me up. And they are almost always about organizing, not running. I never have the same nightmare twice - my mind is always able to find new ways to create anxiety during my sleep.

My latest was actually pretty funny. I had set the courses for the morning race and someone else had set courses using the same map for the afternoon. Just before a race was to start I wanted to check the SI units were turned on. But it turned out that every control site I had used, coincidentally so had the other course planner. And he'd just put his SI control right beside mine. And I didn't have time to run around the course and take out all of his controls. And they were all different numbers. And the race was about to start. And just about then I woke up - without a solution.

My nightmare is driving out to an event with the old style SI boxes being used for start and finish in the car beside me. The rest are in the field. At the designated turn on time I hear nothing....

>OMG - I have the same kind of dreams, but I call them nightmares. They almost always wake me up.

Barebones was supposed to create an anxiety-free race organization atmosphere AZ.

I haven't had it much lately, but my most common one is a running dream. Despite putting out as much effort as I can, I'm unable to make much progress, like I'm running through molasses, or sometimes I'm having to crawl. Sometimes there are navigational aspects as well, which often involve trying to find my way through the rooms of a building to get to some controls.

I have plenty of dreams like those, but also have one that are only tangentially related to orienteering. Last night I dreamt that I was getting a ride to work from Barack Obama (I was late, he was going the same way) and it turned out that he (in the dream) had been really into orienteering in the 80's. NEOC, in fact. Who'd a thunk it?

I have these a lot. They are usually awesome dreams though, not nightmares. The courses in my dreams always have really cool and wild controls or neat maps. I remember one on a tree in a greenhouse, some being in a city, running inside buildings, etc. I've also had dreams where the control is on an island in the middle of a lake, dangling on the edge of a cliff face, etc. and ones where I can somehow run the course even though I don't have a map at all. For awhile I used to keep a dream journal, I'll have to see if there are any in there.

I've had some like Ricka's #1, about getting to Start late, not having the right shoes, watch, equipment, etc., but that's usually as far as it goes.

Mine are typicall nightmares. They ususually involve course setting a two day A meet, it is the second day, and I am just begining to think about getting controls in the woods.

I've had the same orienteering dream for over 20 years. Same map, same course (if I ever get this course in a race watch out). The race always goes well (heck I know where all the controls are now) until the finish line run-in which is always in slow motion with everyone running by me like I'm standing still.

>>OMG - I have the same kind of dreams, but I call them nightmares. They almost always wake me up.

>Barebones was supposed to create an anxiety-free race organization atmosphere AZ.

Oh but this dream isn't about Barebones - at Barebones we'd never bother turning on the controls for the first runners ;-)

The funny thing is that as an organizer I find the more I worry the less things go will wrong and therefore the less anxiety I have. Conversley if I'm not worried about anything I get really scared.

I'm trying to find a control, usually in the woods. I'm aware of starting with an attack point and aware of coming out somewhere on the other side without a punch. No recollection in the dream of actually looking for the control. Endless loop. I never find the control.

not having the right shoes, watch, equipment, etc.

I´d say dreams/nightmares are OK. It´s when these things happen in real life that you´re in trouble!

attack badgers, anyone?

Speaking of them--how about that Toyota ad?

I entered a map and the contour lines were a maze, kind of like the Hopi maze. Just the afternoon before the dream I was looking at a Hopi maze on car window sticker and mentally trying to go through the maze.

I dream that I have dropped my map but I don't realise until it's long gone ... very scary.

In my dreams I can make up terrain, courses and maps that I've never seen before, all perfectly detailed, and I run around seeing in my dream what I would see and look at in real life. Unfortunately I also commonly have the "running through molasses" type dreams that jjcote talks about. Glad I'm not the only one!

The molasses dreams are a part of your sleep cycle where your muscles are completely relaxed and you actually can't move them, so you will never get to the surface of the water, the finish line, or anywhere else. Probably there's a neurologist on AP who can explain more accurately.

I am seeing this dream quite often over and over again that I am racing Hammer and John Torrance up some steep re-entrant. They are runing in the middle while I am on the right-hand side and I am about to catch them up on the top. I am feeling very light and fast jumping over fallen trees while looking at my map. But then I never see the ending and am not sure how things play out at the end, kind of frustrating, isn't?

I don't know why I dream this, perhaps this has something to do with our visit (me and Boris) to the traning camp in Toronto back in 2004 I think.

Not only orienteering dreams but rock climbing dreams - although I have not actively climbed in years - Usually the same theme: I am on a nasty lead with bad protection and I am about to come off the rock. Lately I manage to make it past the crux. Phew. Otherwise, usually wake up just as I am falling.

Not specific to orienteering, but I grew up lucid dreaming fairly frequently (for some unknown reason). Anyway, one of the trigger's is the "slow as molasses" run or being chased by some monster (attack badger?). These triggers usually make me conscious that I'm dreaming and I often end up flying around and marveling at the level of detail my mind can come up with for terrain.

If you can make these anxiety triggers work for you, it does act as an immense stress release in those types of dreams.

>>These triggers usually make me conscious that I'm dreaming and I often end up flying around and marveling at the level of detail my mind can come up with for terrain.

yeah, that's all well and good until I have to stop you from running off a cliff ;-)

Zman wrote:
>I am racing Hammer and John Torrance ....But then I never see the ending

it may have gone something like this....

Hammer jumps off a 2m cliff, hyperextends and twists his left knee, tears his medial mensicus and suffers a bone cyst and cartilage defect, and undergoes knee surgery....

Hmm... that is a nightmare alright.

One dream and two nightmares:

1) I'm running without losing breath, feeling strong, almost like flying.

2) I'm searching for a control, but can't find it, though I know I'm in the right place. I kick, I cuss, I'm like Young Goodman Brown on a rampage through the woods and I decide to quit, but then remember I have to go on because they'll send a search party for me, but I still can't find it ...AHHHH!

3) Same dream as two, but now I'm at Cliff Cave Park, and I can't find the control, but THIS ONE IS NOT A DREAM! It's Real! AHHHH! (cf. Cliff Cave O-meet, Feb. 2008)

Cristina, well this isn't too much about orienteering, but I am glad to hear that I am not the only one who would like to get picked up by Barak Obama! In real life, I actually touched him on his right shoulder. This was last year when he came to St. Louis, MO and spoke at Forest Park to support Claire McCaskill for the U.S. Senate. My friend Lea (also a SLOC member) biked over to Forest Park and waited with all the other folks in the cold. It was exciting. But I haven't actually had a dream with Barak in it. But I have read both of his books. Zan will be totally mortified by this comment on AP.

"can't find the Start"

Sometimes the hardest part of an O-day is finding the Start. I've had this experience too many times, for real, esp at new areas.

"can't find the Strat"

When you walk onto the stage with Double Trouble, about to lead the way on a two hour set but you can't find your Strat, you know it's going to be a long, bad dream...

Re: Barack Obama and orienteering...

I've always wondered how it would work if a president went orienteering. Have bodyguards shadow him around the course? Would the secret service get with the course setter beforehand to know the course so they could cover all possible sniping locations? Sounds like a logistical nightmare to me.

I've always wondered how it would work if a president went orienteering

I have an opinion of what it would be like if the present one were, but this is probably the wrong place for posting such opinions ...

but this is probably the wrong place for posting such opinions ...

Probably, but I'd still like to see how he'd do. On a really long course. Several hundred km, say. And a compass from the wrong hemisphere.

Getting a little bit off the original thread, but talking about presidents and orienteering leads my thoughts into this:

The Swedish King Carl-Gustaf has actually completed the famous Vasaloppet Ski Race three times! He has been seen at major orienteering events too, but I don´t know about his own orienteering abilities - he´s usually there to hand out the prizes.

"Hammer jumps off a 2m cliff, hyperextends and twists his left knee, tears his medial mensicus and suffers a bone cyst and cartilage defect, and undergoes knee surgery.... "

This may explain why I never see the ending, it is worse than a nightmare....

I too have those running through molasses type dreams. And here I thought it's my subconscious telling me I need to train more to get faster! Now I know it's just my muscles being relaxed.

My recurring o-dream, which fortunately hasn't visited in quite a long while now, involves starting out on a course in a pleasant forest (not anyplace in particular that I know, and usually a different place each time). So far so good. After a bit I come by a parking lot, and a large hotel or country inn. At that point it seems to be important to take a route choice that involves going through the inn. Alas, it turns out to be the Hotel California, and I spend the rest of the time in increasing anxiety going up and down long corridors and staircases, looking for flags in little out of the way rooms, and occasionally gazing out a window at the place I need to get to be back on course. No resolution, and I certainly don't finish the course. Just wake up cranky.

I have o-dreams eerily similar to all of these, normally only during the o-season. But reading this thread yesterday caused me to have a series of o-dreams last night! The last dream had an interesting twist. It was a Billygoat, and (as usual in my o-dreams) I was late, and everyone had already headed out to the remote start. I finally found someone to give me directions, but as I was arriving I realized (also common in my o-dreams) that I had no compass, so I ran back to get one. When I got back near the start I saw everyone taking off, which would have been OK but I had no map and didn't know how to get one. But then, the new twist: suddenly everyone just stopped in their tracks. It was a false start! Everyone had to go back and do it again. Woke up smiling.

Not exactly a president, but one of our state members of parliament fronted at today's event in Victoria - he was a reasonably regular orienteer some years ago but now that his political activities have become more prominent we only see him once or twice a year. (He only won his district by something like 27 votes out of 35,000, so he needs to do all the local campaign work he can).

A couple of years ago a day of the Scottish 6-Days was held on the Balmoral Estate. There was speculation that the Queen might show up (in which case the instructions were apparently to give her a VIP parking spot and a free entry into W75) but she didn't.

Getting back on topic, I've mentioned in another thread that I often have dreams before major events which involve missing the start in some form or other (which is particularly bizarre because I've never gone close to missing a start at anything more significant than a Melbourne street-O).

I can't believe you people are making me feel abnormal for NOT having orienteering dreams... (Had an orienteering nightmare today but it probably doesn't count if you're awake at the time)

Another "birdman" out there! Glad to meet you!

Make that three. Working summers during college doing groiunds maintenance at a small park (Kuliga), the full-time workers designated me "the birdman of Kuliga" after I nursed an injured robin. Still doing a little birding, with a count of 89 species in Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II (see blocks 74A1NE and 64D2SW for my data).