Month: July 2007

Categories
Orienteering Events Log

Race 9: Reigate Priory Map Memory

The ninth race in my pre-tour prep, down near Reigate. I arrived in the town in a torrential downpour, it was hailing and the hail was coming down so forcefully it was bouncing right back up in the air! However it stopped just before I set off on my course, which was a map memory course, 18 controls in 5km, leading through the grounds of Reigate Priory School and up around the woodland and hill to the south. I didn’t have any problems remembering the legs, although there were a few tricky (but short) legs. With so many controls on the course, it was important not to spend too much time looking at each map fragment.

A couple of observations – yet again, my mistakes were made when being distracted by the presence of others. Also I pace counted a couple of legs for the first time in (I think) any race I’ve ever done, and was pleased to find my pacing was spot on – I worked out one control was as far away again as the distance between two junctions, counted 47 double-paces between the junctions, and then it was there on the right after a further 47 paces.

I was pleased to win the race, in a good time. The weather probably put off more people from turning up though, so there were only around 10 runners altogether.

Categories
Notes

1000km

I passed the 1000km mark on my bike today, 77 days after buying it. The figure is based on my cycle computer’s odometer which I don’t always have clipped in, so I’ve probably gone a bit further than that. I was pretty pleased to be averaging 13km a day, until I realized my basic weekday commute is 10.5km there and back. Looking at my training logs, it looks like the commute accounts for around 1/3rd of my time in the saddle.

Looking forward to the next 1000km, hopefully some of this will come from a cross-England bike ride across northern England I’d like to do once the weather gets a bit more stable and summer deigns to arrive…

Categories
Orienteering

GPS in Events – BOF

Interesting extract from the most recent BOF events committee minutes:

Agenda item 07/24: Use of GPS systems at orienteering competitions – Competitors are currently not permitted to use a GPS device as an aid to navigation at any competition registered with British Orienteering. However at this time Rules Group was unwilling to ban the carrying of a GPS device by an individual who wished to use it as an aid to personal post-event analysis. An item covering this should be placed in the next publication of Focus.

This is encouraging as it matches my own thinking. I carry a GPS at some events – but it remains concealed, such that it not easily useable during the event, but useful for post-race analysis. As long as it remains in my pocket, I don’t consider myself to be “using” it during the race. Still, I probably would leave it at home at a British Championships…

On an unrelated note – am waiting with anticipation for the new BOF website going live, especially the “My Orienteering” information, integrated results service athlete stats. Also sounds like they’ll be doing an events map, like my Google maps mashup of the fixtures list. I talked to the BOF CEO before the SCOA AGM a couple of weeks ago, and he was promising a fairly spectacular revamp of the site. Looking forward to it!