Tuesday, November 21, 2006
The story so far...
Sorr yfor not updating. It has been a busy few weeks for me, clockin g the last crucial block of training and doing a few small events.
Firstly, i need to get this off my chest: DO NOT CHEAT IN ARs!!! My team did that last week, and we did not bother to ask questions as to whether we could visit CPs out of order... and we copped it. Without the 1 hour penalty, we would have come in 3rd in the Men's and 4th overall. So there.
I think there is a real need (in spite of the goal to come out as fast as possible) to pay attention to briefings - aka practise what i preach. It is not that straightforward when the race course doubles back on itself in a navigation-heavy event. In retrospect, paying complete attention to the Q&A session at the pre-race briefing would have helped lots, as would have been reading and understanding every single race rule, no matter how mundane or routine the procedure may appear to be. I guess the superior skills of rogainers and orienteers out there have still got a very firm hold on the top end of the aussie-style sprint ARs (proof: we were beaten by an all female-team again). It may seem alien to those used to linear, navigation-light courses - but make no mistake, the fact that the most skilled (and fair-playing) folks come up on top regularly is a testament.
We cannot afford to make mistakes like that anymore... penalties are not worth the effort saved. Take the moral high ground, delve not into trickery, and let it be known that top teams always play fair.
Firstly, i need to get this off my chest: DO NOT CHEAT IN ARs!!! My team did that last week, and we did not bother to ask questions as to whether we could visit CPs out of order... and we copped it. Without the 1 hour penalty, we would have come in 3rd in the Men's and 4th overall. So there.
I think there is a real need (in spite of the goal to come out as fast as possible) to pay attention to briefings - aka practise what i preach. It is not that straightforward when the race course doubles back on itself in a navigation-heavy event. In retrospect, paying complete attention to the Q&A session at the pre-race briefing would have helped lots, as would have been reading and understanding every single race rule, no matter how mundane or routine the procedure may appear to be. I guess the superior skills of rogainers and orienteers out there have still got a very firm hold on the top end of the aussie-style sprint ARs (proof: we were beaten by an all female-team again). It may seem alien to those used to linear, navigation-light courses - but make no mistake, the fact that the most skilled (and fair-playing) folks come up on top regularly is a testament.
We cannot afford to make mistakes like that anymore... penalties are not worth the effort saved. Take the moral high ground, delve not into trickery, and let it be known that top teams always play fair.
