Another Bonus sprint leg – this time from the Latvian Championships sprint. The suggestion is from Kalvis Bruns: – When I was running this race, Leg 7 was quite a challenge for me. After the 6th control, I was just standing still for like 3-4sec and trying to scan the map for a better route to take this control…

Can you make a quick choice here?

The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger):

Webroute

Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. Note that there is a problem with the drawn routes here – just ignore the direct line between the controls and the small loop in the middle of the leg (which actually goes to the finish). No analysis provided – I am still enjoying my holidays…

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O has been very popular the last years – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2011-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

You asked for sprint legs – here you get one as the third bonus leg! This one is from the WMOC sprint qualifier in Hungary this year. The tip is provided by Aron Less: – WMOC Sprint Qualification in my opinion was one of the best sprint courses in Hungary ever, Aron wrote in an email, suggesting the current Route to Christmas leg.

- Please note that the area is very complex and might look very different in another competition, since certain gates can be opened or closed arbitrarily, Less continues.

The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger). Note that I took a leg in the M35 course instead of the suggested one in the M40 course due to more fast runner drawing their routes here.

Webroute

Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. No time for any big analyses today – I’m enjoying my well deserved Christmas vacations:) I just quickly note that the left variant seems to be significantly slower based on the ones drawing their routes. If you know or see more from the routes – please add a comment!

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O has been very popular the last years – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2011-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

For today’s bonus leg in Route to Christmas we are again back to the Sandstone terrain in the Czech Republic and the course set by Czech National Team trainer Radek Novotny.

The leg we consider today is a very short leg from control 1 to control 2 – the shortest leg in this year’s Route to Christmas – but not the least interesting one. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger):

Webroute

Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg.

The analysis by Novotny showing four different routes in the illustration below:

- The red one was probably slightly the fastest. And again, you can see a long detour of Sedivy, just 20″ down.

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O has been very popular the last years – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2011-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

For today’s bonus leg in Route to Christmas we are back to the Sandstone terrain in the Czech Republic and the course set by Czech National Team trainer Radek Novotny.

The leg we consider today is the leg from control 7 to control 8. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger):

Webroute

Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. First the Czech National Team runners – then the Varsity match runners. As yesterday it is interesting to see how a different route is faster among the Varsity match runners than among the Czech National Team runners.

Finally we offer the analysis by Radek Novotny (see illustration below regarding the colors for the routes).

- As you can see, straight (red/yellow) and right (blue) is the same here – you probably spare some strength when running right (blue). This leg offers also left alternative (green), which is quite realistic as well. Ben Stevens from Varsity match did 6:19 there and I am quite convinced that the best Czech men would easily make it under 6min there as well.

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O has been very popular the last years – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2011-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

We have saved the best for last: Today’s Route to Christmas takes us to Sandstone terrain in the Czech Republic. We’ve got a fantastic course with a lot of route choice legs – and a short analysis by Czech National Team trainer Radek Novotny, who was also the course setter.

- I have used the same legs for a czech team training race and for the Varsity match (Oxford/Cambridge) one week later, Novotny comments about the course.

- 3 km more on the course in total

And when you take a look at the routes below, it is actually quite interesting to see the difference in route choice between the Czech runners and the British runners.

- Among the Czechs, we have got incredibly interesting comparison, especially between Smola and Sedivy – despite almost the same time in the finnish, they have chosen a totally different tactic. Smola ran mostly straight, while Sedivy took mostly the detours, having run 3 km more on the course in total!

There are several interesting legs in this course. We start with the first one today, and take two more legs as bonus legs the next two days.

The first leg we consider is the leg from control 4 to control 5 (right to left below). The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger):

Webroute

Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. Looking at the Czech runners (first illustration below), you see that the three fastest times are on the direct variant, with Dlabaja running the fastest time.

The analysis by Novotny:

- Straight was best here. We had also Pavel Kubat running the right alternative, where he did 8:00 (check the Hj class, they had same course and Kubat ran excellently on the day).

Looking at the Varsity match runners, it is interesting to note that none of them took the direct route. Note also that one runner takes the right variant (down and up again) which none of the top Czech runners took – only loosing around 20 seconds to the best time. The Czech runners are however nearly two minutes faster.

As a sidenote: Novotny offers training camps in this sandstone area through the webpage sandstones.cz – I have been there several times for Prague Easter and training camps, and the terrain type is one of my favourites.

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O has been very popular the last years – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2011-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

Todays leg in Route to Christmas is a leg from Great Britain – contributed by Adrian Bailey. Nearly the same leg is run in three different courses – and we offer “the solution” for all three courses below.

The race was run on October 16th 2011 – close to Sheffield. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger):

Webroute

Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. Here is the analysis provided by Bailey:

- I found it difficult to decide which way to go, and I think the key here is just to make a quick decision and stick to it. I wasn’t sure how easy the climb up along the wall would be, and the open on the top is slow grass and heather. Contouring round seemed like the safest approach, although it still requires some concentration :-) The in-between route was probably the best, if you’re a confident orienteer.

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O has been very popular the last years – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2011-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

Today’s Route to Christmas is staged in Kongsberg, Norway. This is no big competition – but rather a training event in the middle of May at the map Kjennerudvannet.

Kongsberg is a Norwegian club with many good youth runners – and several previous World Championships medalists and other top runners as trainers. They focus a lot on technical training, and their RouteGadget site is part of it. A lot of interesting maps to see there.

- One of those legs where you don’t see the perfect solution

Now over to today’s leg. We are looking at leg number 7 in the 5.4 km course at the map Kjennerudvannet. One of the runners starring here is Damien Renard – former member of the successful French National Team – you will see his route further down. The Kongsberg is very often run-straight terrain, but on this leg there is a lot of up and down along the line – it is one of those legs where you don’t really see a perfect solution at first sight. But maybe you can spot a good one anyway?

The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger):

Webroute

Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. As you can see there are three main alternatives,

• Left using the big path (Luchsinger / Kihle) – Kihle crossing towards the middle using the path parallel to the power line.
• Direct variants – Renard and Resser taking two different direct variants. Resser takes a bit more height on his variant.
• Right – this seems like a slow variant. If you should go right, you should go all the way to the road earlier. But it is probably too long.

Luchsinger is fastest with his left alternative, but Kihle’s choice might just be the best anyway. Going right seems to be a good and safe option here anyway. What do you think? Did you run the competition?

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O has been very popular the last years – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2011-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

In today’s edition of Route to Christmas we travel all the way over to New Zealand again. This time we are at the Northern Island close to Hawkes Bay.

The terrain is quite complex with a lot of contours which are not straight forward to understand – and several paths making this an interesting place for longer route choices legs. The chosen leg is leg number 4 – a long one with several options. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger):

Webroute

Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg.
As you can see, the quality of the runners who have drawn their route varies greatly. Both of the two fast finishers have chosen the same route – going north. This is probably also the best choice as the other alternatives takes you through several S-shaped turns along the way – and you also loose a lot of height.

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O has been very popular the last years – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2011-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

Todays leg in Route to Christmas is from Latvia – from the long distance championships. This is very marshy terrain – as you often meet in Latvia – and a combination of small hills and some paths/roads makes this an interesting area from some route choice leg.

The event was held on June 6th 2011. The chosen leg is leg number 2 in the Men 21 Elite course. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger). Note that the leg is run from the top and down on the map.

Webroute

Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. As you can see, the direct variant which uses the road for a while in the middle of the leg is fastest. None of the runners drawing their route took the rightmost variant which has most path and road – I am quite sure that many of the Route to Christmas visitors have chosen this variant as it has little uphill, a lot of road/path and is not much longer. I suspect that the road is sandy and therefore slow – and also that the semi-open areas have bad runnability – although it is interesting to see how the light blue route of Kivlenie is the second fastest route even if it uses a lot of semi-open areas.

Did you run this event? Can you contribute to the analysis?

Note! There is an error with the total times regaring time behind due to a DSQ runner.

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O has been very popular the last years – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2011-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.

Today’s leg in Route to Christmas is a really long leg on a colorful Hungarian map. This is one of those maps where it is really tough to run on a hot day. No problem with heat this day – the race was run on February 27th.

The chosen leg is leg number 6 in the M21A course. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is too small, you may click on it to get it larger). Note that the leg goes from right to left.

Webroute

Next you can draw your own route using the ‘Webroute’ below. Think through how you would attack this leg, and draw the route you would have made. Some comments about why you would choose a certain route are always nice for the other readers.

Then you can take a look at how the runners who have drawn their route choice solved this leg. As you can see there is a big variation in chosen routes. The fastest runner of the day chooses a quite direct route – which is probably a quite good option. Based on the times only it is not easy to be sure what is the best option – it may seem like the most important thing here is to be accurate with the compass and steer away from the green area. The long detour to the right seems too long for this leg.

Complete map in Omaps.worldofo.com

You find the complete map and Routegadget info in omaps.worldofo.com at this location.

Omaps.worldofo.com

The ‘Route to Christmas’ series at World of O has been very popular the last years – and I’ve therefore decided to continue the series this Christmas as well. If you have got any good legs in RouteGadget from 2011-competitions – or old forgotten ones which are still interesting – please email me the link at Jan@Kocbach.net, and I’ll include it in Route to Christmas if it looks good. Route to Christmas will not be interesting if YOU don’t contribute.

There will be no analysis about the best routechoice for each leg – you can provide that yourself in the comments or in the Webroute. Not all legs are taken for the interesting routechoice alternatives – some are also taken because the map is interesting – or because it is not straightforward to see what to do on a certain leg. Any comments are welcome – especially if you ran the event chosen for todays leg!

Note that there may be some errors in the Routegadget data (sometimes somebody draws a route for another runner just for fun). Please add a comment below if you spot en error.