Orienteering, Take Two

Went orienteering again this weekend-- this time it was at Chico State Park in Louisiana. Competed in two different events.. The Motala, which is a bracket tournament-style event featuring successively shorter courses after each elimination. Somehow, managed to come in 5th place on this, which is amazing.

Even more amazing (To me, at least) is my first place finish on the classic course on Sunday. The husband finished first, too, on his course. How exciting!

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Orienteering...

So I went orienteering this Saturday. It was my first go at it-- Husband does it fairly regularly, so he dragged me along not-so-unwillingly.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, orienteering is basically running (in my case, walking, huffing, puffing, crawling, and trudging) through the woods with a map and a compass. The map shows a series of "Control points" which you have to go to in order. At the point, you punch a card with a pin puncher that makes a series of tiny pin-sized holes in the correct square of the punch card. More advanced courses use a nifty little electronic thumb pad.

Mostly due to my husband's insistence that the easiest course, White, was "for little kids", I was running the next easiest course, yellow. Again, I'm using the term "running" quite loosely.

As far as the actual map reading and locating skills went, I did fine. Didn't get lost, and only had a small amount of trouble finding one point.

As far as the physical skills required to walk 3-4 miles through woods that seem to predominately consist of steep hills... well, I wasn't quite prepared. I discovered this as I was clinging to the edge of a gully, frantically trying to scramble up as my fingers and feet slipped through the mud and grass.

I made it, though. Covered in mud, wheezing like an asthmatic octogenarian, and swearing that I was going to kill my husband, I came up over the last hill and enjoyed a leisurely (flat) walk to the last two control points.

The results haven't been posted yet, but I'm fairly certain that I placed first in my category owing to the fact that I was the only one in my category. If there was another 19-35 year old female running the yellow course, well, I didn't get first. I can just about guarantee that.

All in all, it was fun. I should probably be in much, much better shape, but I survived and finished, so that should be something at least. There's another meet in two weeks, but it's larger. The suggestion was made that perhaps I should run a white course this time around. I'm not arguing. Read More......