Sunday dawned bright and sunny which was a relief as the exercises planned required much drawing and scribbling, and marker pens do not work well in the rain. We had a good turnout for the first training event of the year, with just over twenty people coming along.
There were two main exercises, both focussing on map memory and none using compasses.
The first was a point to point, or Nordic course. Here the runners are shown a map with the start and first control on it. They then had to run, without the map, to the 1st control point, where there was a map showing the 2nd control and so on around the course. The idea is to remember enough of the map that you don’t have to run back to the previous control to check where you are supposed to be going! People were clearly concentrating as I don’t think anyone had to retrace their steps – or maybe they just didn’t admit to it?!
The second exercise was a little trickier and a bit more work. Here the runners had to run to a map posted some distance away from the start, which had the entire course marked on it. They then had to come to the start and were given a plain piece of paper with just the course overprint on it. They had to draw on enough detail on the paper, so that they could get to the first couple of controls of the course. They then ran to the checkpoints using their hand drawn map, and coming back to the start to do the same procedure for the next couple of controls. I had a look at the maps that had been drawn and it was incredible to see the difference between the detail that had been included for the first couple of controls compared to that for the last few. Aidan Dawson was surprised at just how simple you could make the features and still be able to navigate to the control. The word of warning from him was not to be so simple that you didn’t know on which side of a path you were supposed to be looking! Lisa Lampe said she found that without the compass she relied less on direction and more on specific features, something she said felt like sprint orienteering. I shall have to put the next map memory training in some deep dark bushland and see if she still feels like that!
It was good to see everyone who came along. Angela Murray was one of the first to arrive which helped calm my worries that no-one but the Joneses were going to be coming to training. Dave Lotty pretended he had only come along to get Mary Jane to sign some cheques for him but it wasn’t long until he was stripped down to his shorts and donning his signature headband. Brian Cleland and Ian Mackenzie quickly sized up the exercises and were off without much need for explanation from yours truly. Ron Garner and his son Adam whom we met at a Sydney Summer Series at Sydney Olympic Park, were among the new faces. We also welcomed Cormac McMullan and his son Sean, a new family who has recently joined Uringa. There was another son but he was injured from a vicious rugby encounter with another Sydney school and unable to run. We hope he is recovered soon so we can have more entries into the Junior Series and mount some sort of a challenge to the Garingal juniors this year! One of our other juniors, Jared McKenna, was out playing soccer instead of orienteering – argh! but Jane upheld the family honour, getting in some good preparation for the State League events next weekend. Garingal families, the Dawsons and Curries, were also along and on good form. Michele and Aidan whipped around the courses quickly which brought out the mean streak in both Ian and me. Ian invented the IJK race – a time trial to three more distant controls which Lawrence dubbed the ‘Ian Jones Kilometre’ but which was clearly longer than that and probably owed more to the letters he had printed on the control points! Duncan and Georgia were also looking too relaxed so I encouraged them to join Sophie as she did a map transcription exercise (described by Dave McKenna over a recent dinner) which involved multiple hill reps. It was gratifying as the coach to see them all end up sweaty and out of breath! I shall be asking Dave for some more ideas....
The next training is a track session on the 17th May at ES Marks track in Kensington at 6.30pm sharp. I’m hoping people will come and give it a try.
Is this the next move you will see on "So You Think You Can Dance" or Nick getting a little Physio on the wounded hip?
Well you have read about the cold and windy weather- you have viewed a number of photographs and so now it is time to get the news on just how well Uringans performed over the weekend.
