Discussion: WOC-Media Journal Entry
in: Orienteering; General
Jul 28, 2006 8:36 PM
#
Hello dear readers... I will be writing about the team's experiences here in Denmark. I have written a few entries already, and will try to post them here along with the visual aides that accompy the text.
7-25-06- Back Seat -Silkeborg- Team USA is driving to the afternoon training, a sprint map in downtown Aarhus. Eventhough the rental van supplied by Prevas can easily fit the whole team so far ( and likely the entire population of RI) some members of the squad have chosen to skip this training on the sprint map, preferring another nearby map with middle distance relevant terrain. The van not only contains members of the incredibly talented and dangerously attractive US WOC team, it also contains the incredibly talented and dangerously attractive WOC team media consultant ( that's me).
Denmark from the van, appears mostly flat and cultivated in nice golden squares, each cordoned off from the next field with a thin strip of green forest. Along the highway, Denmark gives the impression of being uniformly flat, and one might wonder how the organizers could set a course with more than say 10 feet of climb ( that's approximately 45 millimeters, give or take, for all those more familiar with metric). We are not so easily fooled, having seen that the orienteering maps have plenty of steep reentrants and vegetation that looks anything but cultivated.
The first event in the world championships is on Saturday the 29th of July, and with only a few days left before competition, everyone is entering the final stages of preparation. Many of the runners have been training all year for this one event, and the last several days of adjusting to the map and terrain will be crucial for success.
* * *
After picking up Sandra from the train station, the van headed to the botanical gardens to a map called BOTANISK HAVE ( aptly named huh?). We parked in perhaps the coolest parking lot ever, a sandy circular arena with trees planted around the outside edge which gave shade for the cars while simultaneously indicating the individual parking bays. While the others got dressed, Boris designed a sprint course for everyone to run. Some teams bring along control flags or even sport ident controls for the training sessions, but more commonly streamers of flagging tape or toilet paper are hung at the control locations. We had none of these things with us, so an alternative was quickly devised. Strips of a brochure handed out at the Swiss O Week were taped to the bushes and shrubs all over the garden in short order ( most were even in the correct spots despite being hung by the media consultant). A picture of the map and course is below. Of note, the route choice from 5 to 6 was discussed and the intricacy of the paths near 10, 11, and 17 was bemoaned.
click on the map for a larger version.
Everyone thought that the area was interesting and that the course was particularly enjoyable, but apparently the WOC sprints will be held in areas that don't look much like the botanical gardens and thus the training was really only good for practicing running hard on a 1:4000 scale map. Times were quick, spirits were high, the troops victorious, and thus we headed back to beautiful Silkeborg in search of our teammates and dinner.
7-25-06- Back Seat -Silkeborg- Team USA is driving to the afternoon training, a sprint map in downtown Aarhus. Eventhough the rental van supplied by Prevas can easily fit the whole team so far ( and likely the entire population of RI) some members of the squad have chosen to skip this training on the sprint map, preferring another nearby map with middle distance relevant terrain. The van not only contains members of the incredibly talented and dangerously attractive US WOC team, it also contains the incredibly talented and dangerously attractive WOC team media consultant ( that's me).
Denmark from the van, appears mostly flat and cultivated in nice golden squares, each cordoned off from the next field with a thin strip of green forest. Along the highway, Denmark gives the impression of being uniformly flat, and one might wonder how the organizers could set a course with more than say 10 feet of climb ( that's approximately 45 millimeters, give or take, for all those more familiar with metric). We are not so easily fooled, having seen that the orienteering maps have plenty of steep reentrants and vegetation that looks anything but cultivated.
The first event in the world championships is on Saturday the 29th of July, and with only a few days left before competition, everyone is entering the final stages of preparation. Many of the runners have been training all year for this one event, and the last several days of adjusting to the map and terrain will be crucial for success.
* * *
After picking up Sandra from the train station, the van headed to the botanical gardens to a map called BOTANISK HAVE ( aptly named huh?). We parked in perhaps the coolest parking lot ever, a sandy circular arena with trees planted around the outside edge which gave shade for the cars while simultaneously indicating the individual parking bays. While the others got dressed, Boris designed a sprint course for everyone to run. Some teams bring along control flags or even sport ident controls for the training sessions, but more commonly streamers of flagging tape or toilet paper are hung at the control locations. We had none of these things with us, so an alternative was quickly devised. Strips of a brochure handed out at the Swiss O Week were taped to the bushes and shrubs all over the garden in short order ( most were even in the correct spots despite being hung by the media consultant). A picture of the map and course is below. Of note, the route choice from 5 to 6 was discussed and the intricacy of the paths near 10, 11, and 17 was bemoaned.
click on the map for a larger version.
Everyone thought that the area was interesting and that the course was particularly enjoyable, but apparently the WOC sprints will be held in areas that don't look much like the botanical gardens and thus the training was really only good for practicing running hard on a 1:4000 scale map. Times were quick, spirits were high, the troops victorious, and thus we headed back to beautiful Silkeborg in search of our teammates and dinner.
This discussion thread is closed.