West side of SFU - Horizons restaurant Wednesday Evening Training

Organizers: Joanne Woods (Event Director), John Rance (Coach), Bruce Rennie (Assistant)

Description

This is a training exercise to work on compass bearings and being more precise when orienteering. Beginners are welcome too. There will be 3 loops, each approximately 1.6 km in length and you can run as many courses as you want. Each course will have a particular type of pin flag, so you can determine if you are at the correct control. One course will be easier for beginners to do.

The courses will have several controls close together, so it will give you an opportunity to work on being precise. What a great prep for Sprint Camp! If you want to add some competition pressure, you can start with someone of a similar running speed and skill level and do a head to head race. If you want to go slowly to practice precision compass work - that's great too. All skill levels are encouraged to participate. Instruction on how to run on a bearing will be provided by the highly experienced and skilled orienteerer, John Rance. See his helpful hints below:

Compass Bearing Practice

• Take great care to ensure that the compass is level and points directly away from the centre of your body in the direction of travel. Twisting the wrist or elbow or offsetting the compass from the centre of the body will introduce errors and lead to much time loss.
• When you have the compass level and directly in front of your body, raise your head and pick the furthest object you can see. Run to it and repeat the process. Sometimes you can run hundreds of metres on a single sighting but at other times you may need to redo your bearing every few metres.
• Take note of your results. Are you consistently to one side or the other? This may suggest a systematic error that you need to find and eliminate.

Using a good quality thumb compass will be beneficial and highly recommended (rather than borrowing a club compass). Thumb compasses are available at Distance Runwear and at MEC. We will have some compasses from Distance Runwear at the WET for you to purchase - please bring cash if you are considering buying a compass. (cost ranges from $75-$95 plus tax). We have one loaner compass for you to try - first come first serve.

Schedule I will try to have the controls out by 6:00 - if you want to try the compass bearing exercise with a bit of daylight

6:15 pm Introduction to Orienteering for Beginners

6:30 pm Starts

8:00 pm Course Closure, participants must report to the Finish before leaving.

Courses

Safety Precautions

Always use good judgement and common sense. Carry a whistle at all times. Headlamps are essential to see and be seen. Take care when crossing roads and parking lots. Watch out for other runners, cyclists, and trail/sidewalk users.

Parking/Start Location:
In the covered area by the public washrooms on the West side of the Horizons' restaurant building.

Post-Event Dining

We have options: Horizons is a fancy restaurant with a beautiful view of Vancouver, the Lion's Gate bridge, and the North Shore Mountains. A bit more expensive than our usual, so we can also go to the White Spot on Hastings and Kensington.

Acknowledgements

Without volunteers, these events cannot take place. A hearty thanks to all those helping put this event on. If you would like to volunteer/help at upcoming WETs/WJRs or would like to organize a WET please let us know.

Location