Are They Treading On Our Toes?

[The Malcy]

Apologies if this has been discussed before and I've missed it but I've just seen this on tritalk.co.uk

http://www.triadventure.co.uk/contact-us/next-race/

Are they treading on our toes? Are Orienteering clubs involved at all? If not should they be? And other questions I can't think of right now...

[SeanC]

No, they're not treading on our toes because orienteering events rarely offer this kind of course.

But it's exactly the sort of thing that could help to revitalise regional events. I don't know if this company works with local orienteering clubs, but it could be a good partnership.. with such companies using their marketing skills and experienced with beginners to put on such courses at regionals, with the o clubs sorting out the land permissions, maps and the car parking and hoping to persuade some of them to come back for more technical orienteering.

[spur]

Who would be responsible for insurance in such a partnership? That's where it gets a bit awkward.

[SeanC]

It doesn't sound like a problem that can't be overcome.

[Paul Frost]

I guess you have to ask who would get the best out of such a partnership.
Do they need us or do we need them?
Does one get "tainted" by the other?

If orienteering was likely to be a better experience, we are the competition.
If orienteers then see a more attractive or professional or friendly or suitable activity you might loose them.

I suspect that the mixture of voluntary and professional activities in one place/time would be fraught with conflicting agendas.

They also have the advantage of not being bogged down with the legacy or structure we have. Or the image of walking boots and rucksack that orienteering has in many peoples eyes. Or the alternative image of old men in brightly coloured nylon pyjamas. Or the insistence/expectation that entry fees should be less than the cost of holding the event.

On the face of it they look like a very well organised professional operation, and if I lived in that part of the world I would be tempted to participate.

[The Malcy]

It does seem to me that they are offering a form of orienteering and perhaps there is something to be learned from their efforts. Call it orienteering and the nylon pyjama, beardy man of the mountains images are struck. Call it Adventure Running and it becomes cool and sexy.

I've long thought that orienteering has lost its traditional UK market to mountain biking and triathlon. Now we see people in those sports looking for the additional challenge that navigation can add. Maybe there is an opportunity to develop something in partnership and revitalise the sport?

Also in my experience triathlon entry fees are significantly more expensive than orienteering, and so is the kit...

[Meat Market]

Visit the registration desk to collect your... SI Card

not "cool and sexy" enough to avoid using that old chestnut in their event notes...

[Meat Market]

Hahahahahahahahahahaha I forgot about the autocorrect facility put in by someone that deserves a Novel prize. Obviously Nopesport > Tri-Adventure

Replace "SI card" with d*bber

Visit the registration desk to collect your... SI Card

not "cool and sexy" enough to avoid using that old chestnut in their event notes...

[Paul Frost]

Those "significantly more expensive" fees are not stopping the massive growth in triathlon though.
Most events are fully booked very quickly and there is not usually any entry-on-the-day option.

I went to the TriathlonInverness AGM this week, it has a membership of about 100, and there were about 30 there.
I went to the swim training session (Mon 9-10pm),they have 4 lanes of the pool reserved and there were over 20 participants with 4 coaches. It costs £2 session on top of your pool entrance fee.

Club membership is £16 and TriathlonScotland membership is £36 if you already belong to a club or £40 if not.

Event fees are often around £30-40.

For info, the annual local event fees were £22 for members with about 200 participants, the amount paid for the timing service was about £750. About a £1000 "profit" was made from the event, which then goes to subsidise the training sessions and fund coach training etc.

Triathletes probably enter less races but do more training than orienteers, which balances the higher cost of events. There are not really options for weekly local races, so races are more special. But then many orienteering clubs don't have as many races now, they have "Activities". So if you want to race against a reasonable level of competition you will probably have to travel. I accept that there are some orienteering clubs with a large membership and frequent races, but that's not typical across the UK.

So the cost of participation may not be the barrier that many orienteers think it is. People will pay their money if they think the product is worth it.

[Glucosamine]

Sounds like a not untypical adventure race (rather than tri) score run&bike format. Offering an option to drop e.g. the biking is not unusual (pity at least some O-events cannot offer an option to add the bike ...). Think Mountain Marathon score on a smaller scale rather than orienteering. "You may run on marked public footpaths, bridleways and permissible tracks – the green and black dashed lines" says it all - OS 25k maps.

[SeanC]

The maps are what we can offer. An adventure racing company won't want to make an O map. We already have. They might want something simpler than what we have, but more complicated/more interesting than an OS map (ie with the potential to offer some adventure). OCAD can strip out some of the confusing detail. Plus as the O club has permission to run over the entire area, not just the footpaths... they can then plan a proper adventure with some mud and streams and steep slopes etc. They're charging £10 for their trail runs, same as regional fees so no problem there.

I really think it could be a good way forward for us... but for them I'm not sure if they would want the hassle of dealing with O clubs and the politics and the people who oppose change and cause enough trouble so it's just not worth the hassle all round.

It would be great if a forward thinking club gave it a try though. If some argue that this would be the end of regional events and big technical forest orienteering... most of it wont be here in 20 years anyway so there is nothing to loose (and no time to waste).

[usuallylast]

We are obviously getting it all wrong. Seen on BBC Look North at lunchtime - it seems the way to spice up a 5k run in Chopwell Woods is to have people dressed up as zombies leap out at you at random intervals. Come to think of it, I pretty much look like a zombie at most of the events I take part in, and have probably frightened a few folk, so it's really nothing new.

[AndyC]

Chopwell Woods are actually an NN area and held the NE Score Championships a couple of weeks ago.
We (Nato) have been contemplating doing something like that at our annual Spook O event but as most of the runners are schoolkids we were rather worried about scaring them too much!