Trail O

[Mrs H]

I did one day of the JK trail-O at Kyloe a couple of years ago when it was right next to the main assembly area and enjoyed it, although as others have said it was rather difficult.

This was an absolute godsend to us when the younger Miss H was enduring her 18months on crutches - and she did really well and enjoyed it.

The previous year under the same circumstances we did the Precision O as the Swedes call it, at the O-ringen which was a most enjoyable event held one beautiful evening round a semi rural housing estate (tarmac roads and cabins interspersed with open ground). It was very challenging and something I would definitely do again.

[Freefall]

I was organising the JK2009 at Kyloe and indeed we did have Trail-O co-located (nearly) at assembly. For JK2012 we have an event at Faskally - this is on the way to or more likely back from Day 2 (Dunalastair). The Day 3 Trail-O is a few hundred metres from the main event, There are issues trying to run TrailO (and String courses for that matter) alongside i.e. in the same forest as orienteering.

[JK]

Andypat:

Foot-O with Trail-O on the way round is a bit like micrO (as opposed to mikro-orienteering) where you have section of blown up map that you enter (unlike Trail-O) which contains dummy kites and unlabelled boxes. I did a full Micr-O course (with penalty loops and crowds too boo and cheer when you did lots of loops ... or none!) in the 21E public race at WOC 2009. It was weird though and no-one had the same course, you only visited one control in each cluster, but did 4 loops in the forest with penalty loops after each of the first 3 for your mistakes.

Micro featured at the first 2 Daresbury Chasing Sprints events, but not at the 2010 Sprint Jamboree. It might make a return next time, in fact I suspect there will be some aspect of Trail-O in there next time we hold the event.

[andypat]

Sounds good to me JK!

[Ravinous]

TrailO is great. If you like standard "F" Orienteering (I don't want to annoy Graeme using the word 'Foot') then you will like TrailO.

SkiO and MTBO are good too, but your proficiency on (and ownership of good) skis and a bike can affect enjoyment. (Not to mention lack of snow in places for SkiO and this weekends races I am going to cancelled due to it being too cold! minus 23 indeed...)

TrailO is much more accessible. I got into it having had a dodgy knee+op. Now I look to do as much as I can fit around my other F Orienteering. Sweden had 45 ranking races in the 2011 season. A mix of standard, TempO and Night. This shows you the numbers involved.
http://www.orientering.se/ImageVault/Im ... ndler.aspx
Marit in Second place is only 20? and has EOC Silver, and was just ahead of Clive Allen in 2010
Night TrailO is good as you can do your F O in the day and do the Night TrailO in the eve. JK will know if there has ever been any Night TrailO in the UK but I think not.

2012 is the year to try TrailO. The JK TrailO is accessible. You can hang on after the Scottish Champs and do the WTOC Spectator races. You can do it at the O-ringen (several courses but may not be compatible with F O, but they have it on the rest day) and at OOCup.com (you can do both F O & TrailO if you tell them - they will give you earlier starts on the F O.) plus others...
(search Swedish TrailO races/race weekends on Eventor - the Swedish events system)

WTOC 2012 Spectator races are sponsored by CompassSport in that I am supplying prizes It will be a great week after lots of Scottish F Orienteering and a chance to do some tourist stuff.

British Trail O Champs. - CompassSport will pay the entry for any Orienteer who goes to BTOC 2012 who is ranked in the top 100 in BOF rankings (and not a TrailO 'name'). For details see John Kewley/elsewhere in this thread. This is an attempt at getting some 'top' F Orienteers to the event. We'll see if it attracts anyone!? There will be some F O to do and the area is good for physical training.

A couple of other things. Doing TrailO, you dont need to warm up. It felt a bit weird just walking up to a start line and them saying 'go' and you just walking off to a decision point! Max times are quite long (couple of hours) so you feel no physical pressure. the pressure is all mental!
I have joked with O acquaintances about "I better get my electric wheelchair charged as I am doing TrailO in the morning", and they believed me! You don't need anything except a old style pin punch (to mark the control card), compass is useful, and yourself to TrailO!

[kedge]

Its been interesting following this thread. Fortunately JK has already said many of the things I wanted to say.

The British Orienteering TrailO Committee would love clubs to put on more TrailO events, or TrailO courses at what I'm happy to call FootO events or, once we get a bit more daylight later in the year, as part of club midweek training sessions.

We are keen to encourage more Trail O events in the UK and to publicise the discipline in the lead up to WTOC 2012. We recognise that most Foot Orienteers don’t often have the time, or indeed the energy, to do both a full Foot O course followed by a Trail O course on the same day, particularly during the shorter daylight times of the winter months.

Which is why I'm so keen on the LVO club's concept of preO (to use what is now the preferred way of spelling it). See my article on p23 of the latest issue of Focus

http://www.britishorienteering.org.uk/images/uploaded/downloads/marketing_focus_winter11.pdf

This allows FootO competitors to sample a few TrailO controls on the walk from the Car Park to the Start, and has proved quite popular both in N Ireland and on the couple of times I've done a preO course at my own club's local events.

[andy]

as part of club midweek training sessions

This is what I was considering looking into. I really like the idea of on the way to the start, assuming if in the winter there is somewhere to leave your kit while you run your FootO course.

[AnneH]

Thank you Andy for starting this thread - good to see people talking about TrailO.

There is an easy answer as to why there aren't more trailO events available - there aren't the people with the necessary experience to plan them. Getting the standard right is hard - too easy and people will not get anything out of it, too hard and people will be put off. So we have a chicken and egg situation with events and participants.

In Scotland there are no regular TrailO competitors, hence me (who's done it once about 15 years ago) being called on to organise the WTOC. The planner is from Devon!

One of the purposes of the public events at WTOC is to get more people interested in TrailO so we can start putting on more events. New people are essential if TrailO is to flourish and in particular if GBR wants to stage the 2015 WTOC alongside the WOC. You can try the TrailO at the JK (not at elite standard, and after your run) to get a bit of experience before giving it a go at WTOC. More info on this, including how to enter, coming soon...

It's challenging, and fun I tried the courses at WTOC2011 and got about half the controls correct - surely you can do better than that?

[andypat]

In Scotland there are no regular TrailO competitors, hence me (who's done it once about 15 years ago) being called on to organise the WTOC. The planner is from Devon!

This might be a daft question but why is it happening here if we dont have any competitors?
Is there some sort of rota?

[AnneH]

All previous WTOCs have been held alongside the WOC, but for 2012 the WOC organisers Switzerland said they couldn't do it. So GBR stepped in (I think to make sure that there would be a WTOC2012). The TrailO gurus wanted to hold it alongside a major event, so the first idea was the JK - but this was dropped as being too early in the year (the leading nations need the spring for their selection events, plus possibility of poor weather), and it would be difficult to find athlete accommodation at Easter. Fortunately the Queen is celebrating her jubilee this year and has arranged for the Scottish Champs weekend to be extended and held a week later than usual - in June, meaning that we can get university accommodation. We expect WTOC to provide some extra competitors for the Jubilee weekend (as JK has said, some TrailO stars are also top orienteers) plus we want people at the Jubilee5 will stay on to do the WTOC spectator events.

Running a major event without club 'ownership' and mainly on working days during school term is a challenge. The number of competitors may be relatively small, but TrailO is labour intensive in terms of helpers, and this is a world championships so needs to be done to the highest standards. A lot of nice people have already offered their services, but I still need more volunteers to help for part or all of the event (trailO experience not necessary) - please?

[andypat]

Cheers Anne - your website looks the business too!

[Freefall]

Please note that details on the JK2012 website have been updated including EOD Trail O. Maybe after this we will have some idea up here what we are talking about so will be well versed for WTOC.

[Ravinous]

Fancy some TrailO training from the comfort of your PC? Try this...

http://remox.posterous.com/trail-o-wint ... na-candida

Straightforward right (A) or wrong (Z). See how many you get wrong

There is quite a lot of online TrailO if you look it out...

[madmike]

Wow, I ran on that map at the back end of last year