David Currie

517We were up early this morning for the hour and forty minute drive South to the Swedish border and our first big orienteering event since arriving in Norway. Although, like most events here, there was “kids parking”, this was only for those over two so we were subject to split starts – Christine off first on her D21 course and me last off on H21. Christine came back from her run a little slower than expected which she put down to speed in the terrain. Her report of a hilly rock strewn area with the odd impassable cliff thrown in for good measure didn’t exactly fill me with joy!
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I failed to make it to club training tonight. I was going to blame it on the traffic around the city centre but once we’d got past the car broken down in the Ekeberg tunnel it was a clear run home so I was back in plenty of time. It wasn’t even really the pouring rain (which proceeded to stop as six o’clock came and went). I just felt tired…

Yesterday evening I went along to a training session of our local orienteering club – Heming/NjÃ¥rd O-Lag. The training session was held on the 1:5,000 map of the area surrounding Rikshospitalet, just 10 minutes run from home and conveniently also the area to be used for the first Oslo Cup race next Tuesday. The club is relatively small but has a strong junior section, particularly in the girls. There are no elite men and the older members seem happy devoting their time to training the younger club members. Tonight was mass start/relay training and consequently I found myself lined up for a race alongside the club’s finest.
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Shockingly I found myself orienteering again on Sunday. That’s twice in one week. What’s the world coming to?! We were visiting Christine’s parents in Monmouth, partly to say goodbye before departing these shores and partly so Christine could attend at least part of her sister-in-law to-be’s hen weekend. Christine’s parents then graciously offered to look after Emma whilst we nipped off up the road to the NGOC event at Knockalls Enclosure.
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Yesterday I sneaked out for a couple of hours in the afternoon to go to the Army orienteering at Ocknell. I didn’t really have my head in gear at the start. Having had to go back to the car to pick up my compass I then failed to use it on the way to the first control and paid the price. I wasted four minutes circling around the depression where the control lay. This delay meant that I then had Mark Saunders on my shoulder, pushing me on until, at number 12, I went too far right. He spotted this but overcompensated. Unfortunately he corrected more quickly. I wasted another two minutes and only caught glimpses of Mark in the distance in the last part of the course. My legs were starting to tire at this point from the strength sapping mud. Without those mistakes it would have been a great result, with them, mediocre. If, by any chance, I learn to navigate whilst in Norway then I might just be dangerous! The worst part? Making up the time by working in the evening!

Sadly I’m not going to be around for the next SOC street event to be held in Valley Park this coming Thursday evening (see the SOC website for full details – anyone is welcome!) but this did mean I could help Christine with the planning. The area is fairly constrained due to the large blocks of woodland dividing up the housing so it was largely a case of shuffling around the controls from last year a bit. I think we’ve introduced a few new decision points and I’m still not clear in my own mind what constitutes the best route to collect all the controls. It took me nearly two hours to get round two-thirds of the controls but then I was walking with Emma in the pushchair and we did have to stop at the swings! I’ve measured just one possible route choice on the map (not necessarily the best) and at around eight miles I believe it should be possible to get them all. There’s a challenge for the keen reader if ever there was one!