"Must Do's" in Orienteering

[brooner]

Following on from the Jukola Thread...

Please post below your must do orienteering events/challenges/moments, that either you have done, want to do, or would urge anyone with an interest in orienteering to do at some stage in their lives... Post a bit of a spiel too about why you think they are a must do, and I'll compile the best of the bunch for a guide at some point.

Have done:
Jukola/O-Ringen - The biggest events in the world for teams/individuals.
Fantastic organisation, brilliant atmosphere, great (usually) terrain, the sort of events that all other events should aspire to being as good as. Only complete with a post run cider in the sauna at Jukola.

Urge others to do:
In addition to the above...
Race at the Grand Bazaar (Istanbul 5 Days) - An incredible venue for a sprint race round the narrow lanes (watch you don't crash into anything outside of the stores!) and up and down the steps between the multiple levels in this ancient market.

and race round the City of London

Want to do:
Venice Street Race

[eddie]

Nice one

Have done
Jukola (twice) both of them awesome especially the speakeathon aftermath of a top ten position
Alternativet Tour from Stockholm to the Artic Circle
Uppsalla (Sweden) to Hagusand (Norway) on £20 (okay not strictly orienteering but it was an adventure)

Urge to do

The Takas and Kapas (Lithuania and Latvia) on the Sanddunes were unreal
Get involved with British Orienteering (i'm being serious - all we are saying is give BOF a chance!)

Want to do

Go on another serious orienteering road trip with some cool customers Ice Cube, Easy E and MC Ren to drive to Eastern Europe for six weeks
O- Ringen without pissing about
Brooner's recomendation of Istanbul

[Gross]

A little contribution...

Done.... best ever Jukola above the Artic Circle in mid 90's, controlling World Universities & the party in Aberdeen afterwards.... hearing Mr Palmer say 'pay back' time after climbing out of the hot tub in Japan with Fuji in the background..... and being lucky enough to orienteer in over 40 countries so far:)

Urge to.... Vilnius 3 Days or Takas before modern Europe takes over Eastern Europe (but not Takas that's on this weekend coz forests are crap)

Want to do....complete a pet project & get some orienteering going properly in Cuba:)

[rebbid]

must get my diehard badge award on nopesport

[fish]

I strongly agree with the two must do's of Jukola and O-ringen.

1st leg of Jukola was amazing, and I'd encourage clubs - or groups of clubs - to get together to put in a team, it really is special.

O-ringen - first time I went was in Sodertalje, and I think the memory of multiple lane run-ins and thousands of people will stay with me forever. Really must do.


I'd also encourage - Running at Kooyoora (aus woc area), Rocky Mountain 1000 day (an alternative venue for a good(but different) holiday event.

Still want to: Run at US woc areas (Harriman State Park?), Venice street-O (sounds interesting), and I'd happily come over to Cuba when you get some races sorted gross.

Might try and add to this over time as I think about it.

[Simon E]

I wrote up my personal Top 10 in the HH newsletter a couple of years ago.

Things move on of course. Since then the JK has added a sprint race, and I've run Jukola. And if I wrote the article again it would be a close thing between Jukola and the O Ringen for the top spot.

[rocky]

Areas you should run on
Lindtjern (Halden, Norway)
Lunsen (Uppsala, Sweden)
La Marina/Guardamar (Alicante, Spain)
For a real challenge try one of the above at night or on a contour only map or both
I forget the name of it but there is a mountain area to the north of Modum in Norway which is absolutely stunning, semi-open forest with just moss on the ground. The map I ran on was from 1982 yet was still perfect in 2002 as the area just hadn't changed.

Training Exercises
Overspeed trains - in groups of 4-5 similarly paced runners, do 1km mini courses with a 15s start interval. Huge bragging rights if the guy who starts last gets to the finish first. Do 5-6 with a jog in between. Alternative (for lazy coaches ) is the first runner gets a bigger headstart but has to hang the controls. Forfeits for getting them wrong!
The Speyside Classic - sneak onto Rothiemurchus (World Vets 94, Spey 95) and run a 15-16km course through the open moraine and out the west side of the map straight into Inshriach. Traditionally done with en EUOC sized hangover!
Centurion - nothing to do with the aforementioned hangover, do a 100-control course. A fantastic experience.

Will happen one day
Inspired by the Speyside Classic - An ultra-ultra long race in Speyside. Docharn - Deishar - Loch Vaa (N) - Avielochan - Loch Vaa (S) - Badaguish - Glenmore - Rothiemurchus - Inshriach - Moor of Alvie - Alvie Estate - Craigbui - Balavil - Uath Lochans - Inveruglas - Achlean! Maybe even the possibility of doing a warm up on some of the Grantown areas.

But the best memories
Win something, preferably a relay. There's nothing better than winning a head-to-head race with your clubmates and friends.

[Gross]

But avoid Neil Marston style bobby traps near Halden:)

[Big Jon]

Top few must include :
1st leg of Jukola (preferably for a team in the top 100 as you get to start near the front of the Cavalry Charge) - followed by the obligatory post run sauna and beer.

Lange natten at Tio-Mila - preferably on a year the weather is cold and/or wet!! - nothing beats 2 hours plus of thrashing round a tough grotty forest with freezing cold marshes to remind you why Jukola is so much more pleasant

Plan at a major event - eg BOC, JK, 6-Days etc - you get such a buzz from visiting the forest, then setting out your best courses and waiting till the competitors return and start commenting on your ideas!

Map an area - even a small, tiny area and you will learn so much about orienteering and improve your techniques hugely.....

[Big Jon]

Should have added to the Jukola note - after sauna eat a couple of "Grilli Makkara" (sausages) for breakfast, then crash out for a few hours!

[graeme]

From my personal experience...

Events

Run leg 1 at Jukola when you're young and fast. If you start at the back and overtake 1000 people on the run out, don't then bin 5 mins at the first control and have to pass them all again )

Run any other leg at Jukola/TioMila when you're older and have some idea where you're going.

Go to O-ringen. Run any class.

Places
Jicin, Czech
Fontainebleau, France
Laramie, Wyoming
Harriman/West Point, New York

Stuff
Plan a great course for a big event on a good area (Like Jon says, its frightening
until the people start coming back).

Plan a good course on a crappy area (dont expect the same level of compliments, but the personal satisfaction is enormous).

Find an area nobody thought of using before, and map/plan/organise the first event there. With the rise of Urban orienteering there's still lots of scope.

Start a new club.

Achieve
Finish narrowly first in a relay or mass start. Like Murray says, there's no buzz like actually beating everyone home, and waiting for them to finish, and no pressure like having a pack on your tail, even if its only a local event.

Get yourself a decent 10k and marathon time while you can. For the rest of your life everyone outside orienteering will ask you about it, and woulda coulda shoulda is pretty lame.

Aspire
To do all the things listed in this thread you haven't done yet.

[Knee Deep Mud!]

Events
I think every orienteer should experience the O-Ringen at least once. It is so much bigger than anything in the UK. The first time I went (Gothenburg) there were twenty three thousand competitors! Running down the 8 lane wide, 400+m long run in being cheered on by a few thousand spectators is just awesome. When I went I had only just run out of fingers to count the number of blue courses I had ran. Getting an A3 map with only one or two paths on it was really eye-opening and after five days of having to practice real navigation, as a relative beginner it gave me my biggest ever improvement in technique (worth about 20 minutes on an average blue course when I got back).

Running first leg of any relay event (even better if you are fit when you do it).

Beat someone who normally runs Elite. As a non-elite runner this is sooo satisfying to do! I've only managed it once - admittedly, this was at a night event on a small grotty area, and I had a bad run too, but I still beat the elite runner!

Other
Plan an event. Its great fun, and offers a real insight into the sport. It is also really satisfying when it all comes together properly, and the technical challenges you have set properly test all the competitors. My favorite - a score event I planned with 316 competitors, where there were 301 different routes taken based on the order the controls were punched. My aim of making sure this really was a score event, rather than a normal cross country event with the lines removed was a success.

Want To Do
Find a well planned course on an amazingly technical area, and have a good run!

Do an urban type race around somewhere that is scenic, with a real rabbit warren of streets and alleyways (Dubrovnik in Croatia would be my suggestion for a good venue).

If Gross gets orienteering going in Cuba, I'd happily go back for another visit!

[Lard]

Must Do

Orienteer in Slovenia/Croatia. The karst terrain, gorgous forests and cheap prices!
Like the OO Cup this year.

Irish O Ringen in SW Ireland - terrain like nowhere else and great craic!

Small events in Norway/Sweden/Findland - where you see the real orienteering taking place - I hate large events, crowds, people getting in your way, miles to walk to the assembly and easy O at the end of your course to get you back there. Ostgota 3 days is a great example of a scandi small but friendly event.

[Kitch]

how about

Run M/W 21 elite (at a race where the top elite are all there and really up for it)
No matter what your age class - do it just once to get a sense of just how fast people are - At BEOC Oli was still 10 minutes faster than I thought was reasonable (and I've been up there!). (if it helps think of it as a long 'O).

Take part in the World Championships - especially the relay.
there are 2 ways of doing this
- get in the team
- go support the team.
the relay at WOC '95 was the most intense orienteering experience I have ever had; unbelievable pressure, intense racing, total concentration. The last control was at the top of a steep lung buster of a climb - I ran my nuts off to keep with the lead pack, punching the last control I was on my kness, enter the field and WHAM ! the wall of sound from the British supporters was physical ! It carried me across the line.
Its amazing to have support like that.

[EddieH]

Rocky recommends Lunsen near Uppsala. I could interpret nothing there (1m contours) and only found the controls by compass. The late Tim Watkins found none!

It's sadly too late for the greatest event ever - Swiss O Week 2 years ago - utterly awesome it stil gives me goose bumps thinking about it.