MTB Orienteering - and some new Redwoods Trails for the 2014 collection

After much indecision, I entered the Woodhill to Whaka MTBO event, nervously taking on the Whakarewarewa stage amongst all the Kiwis and Aussies in their national shirts.  I've done MTB Rogaines before, but to do Orienteering amongst this crew is fairly intimidating.  With a Rogaine, you head off in your own direction, choose what checkpoints you want to find, and go for it.  Orienteering, everyone in your division is on the same course, starting minutes after each other, going in the same direction.  It's much more like a race, less like an adventure......

As it turned out, I still managed to have adventures.  I was guided through the tricky starting box system, 1. Clear your timing chip 2. step into the first box. 3. confirm your name and entry details. 4. step into the next box. 5. take a map. 6. start.  All timed each minute being told to move forward.

From there, I had a couple of hours of good clean fun and hard work.  I made mistakes, two quite costly ones.  I decided to opt for the tricky route choice, and it was tricky beyond my capabilities, meaning I rode an extra five minutes around the trail to get to the same place.  I also got horrendously lost in the spaghetti junction of Turkish Delight.  But, who doesn't? 

Once, I had two ladies on the same course pass me, but THEN, I noticed on my map that I could enter the next trail further down the road, and avoid a big windy xc single track, so I beat them to the next control.  It was a short lived gain, but I'm owning it. 

I did a whole bunch of trails I've never been on.  I was probably fortunate to be a local and have some idea of directions in my head, and I could even recognise some trails.  If I had have been in Australia for this series, I would probably still be wandering the Outback. 

Here are the results:



Actually, I'm pretty pleased with that.  Marquita is a World Champion I think, and I was told afterwards that Carolyn Jackson is a top Aussie MTBO.  With some local knowledge, and a bit of luck at times, I had enough knowledge and legs to not make a fool of myself anyway.  :)  And that's two experienced orienteerers at the bottom, who mispunched and missed controls.  It seems so harsh that it's an immediate DQ rather than losing points, I'd be just gutted. 

One of the OBOP guys sat down with me afterwards to talk through my route choices.  The first point was that for my first proper MTBO I should probably have done the rec course rather than facing up with the experts. 

Key learning point - stick to the roads.  You go so much faster on a road, you can cover twice the distance in the same time, so don't be fooled by a shorter, tougher route.  (But really??? What's the point in doing MTBO if you can't say, "Oh, that's A trail, my favourite run, I'll enjoy a good blast down there!".   I guess in the future I'll have to ask myself if I'm racing or having fun.

Learning point #2.  Don't navigate CP to CP.  Ha ha ha aha haha ha hah!!!!  At this stage, I'm navigation cp to cp alright, with many minor decisions in between.  Apparently it's called 'riding into the map' int he early stages.  Choose easy trails so you can ride blind and read ahead on your map, make your decisions for the next 2/3 cp so you can punch and disappear straight away.  I'm such a novice.

Anyway, MTBO was the winner on the day, I think I'll be back!