Route to Christmas: 2011
Route to Christmas 2011: Day -104
Still a long way to go until Christmas – but there were so nice, long routechoice legs at today’s Swedish Champs long distance that we make an early start this year – 104 days ahead of December 1st. The leg in question is the leg from control number 10 to 11 (there was actually also a very nice leg from 3 to 4 – I have saved
Route to Christmas: Day 1 2011
Todays leg in Route to Christmas takes us to beautiful Austrian terrain – to the JEC 2011 in Arnoldstein, Austria. In the Bulletin the runners were met with the following warning: - You are on the way to the largest rock fallen area in the Alps. So be careful in stony areas. The chosen leg is the first leg in the M20 course. What would you d
Route to Christmas: Day 2 2011
In today’s Route to Christmas we are moving north from Austria to Germany. Todays leg is the 4th leg in the German Championships long distance in Bad Harzburg, Germany – close to the area which will be used for WMOC 2012 in Bad Harzburg. Thanks to Christian Gieseler for the tip. Route to Christmas Day 1: See what the 250 readers of Worl
Route to Christmas: Day 3 2011
In today’s Route to Christmas we are traveling all the way to New Zealand – to a very interesting, open terrain south of Auckland on the map Ngapuriri. Todays leg in Route to Christmas is leg 8 in the Red 1 course. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would
Route to Christmas: Day 4 2011
For today’s leg in Route to Christmas we are back in Europe – to a long leg in hilly terrain in Switzerland. Todays leg in Route to Christmas is leg 14 in the Men Elite course from the first day of the Swiss O-week 2011, organized at July 31th 2011. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look
Route to Christmas: Day 5 2011
Today’s Route to Christmas takes us to Ireland to the last race of the 2011 LongO series at Tollymore organized in March this year. Over 80 orienteers enjoyed fair weather and endured tough courses as you can read about here. To set you in the mood for today’s Route to Christmas, here is the terrain description from the event webpage:
Route to Christmas: Day 6 2011
Today we travel to Kongsberg, Norway – to a long and interesting leg from the last day of the traditional Kongsberg Pinseløpet. The leg we focus on in today’s Route to Christmas is leg 3 in the H40 course. Thanks to Terje Mathisen for the tip. As a bonus for today, we have got an analysis of the leg by former WOC bronze medalist Kjetil
Route to Christmas: Day 7 2011
Todays leg in Route to Christmas is one of the nominations for Course of the Year 2011 – featuring Thierry Gueorgiou and Marc Lauenstein – two of the runners nominated for The Orienteering Achievement of 2011. Thanks to Benoit Cochey for the tip. We have headed over to France – to one of the preparation races for the World Oriente
Route to Christmas: Day 8 2011
Todays leg in Route to Christmas is a celebration of the winner of the Course of the Year 2011 which was announced today. Thus we visit France for the second day in a row – and some of you might already be familiar with this leg. The course in question is the WOC middle distance organized in Le Feclaz, France. The leg is as usually first prov
Route to Christmas: Day 9 2011
Todays we are visiting a new country in Route to Christmas: Moldova and the Moldavian Championships long distance organized on May 14th. Compared to the legs we have seen the last few days, this leg does not have the same technical challenges and analysis possibilities, but one of the nice things with Route to Christmas is the possibility to show
Route to Christmas: Day 10 2011
Monsterleg! 4.5 km long! Today’s Route to Christmas is the longest leg in this years travel through the orienteering world. I choose a Saturday for it as I guess you all have some extra time for Route to Christmas in the weekend. Todays leg is leg number 34(!) in the 25 km long H21 course from the Finnish Champs Ultralong, organized on May 2
Route to Christmas: Day 11 2011
In today’s edition of Route to Christmas we visit Hungary for another long leg in an ultralong event – although the leg is not as long as the Finnish one of yesterday. The leg is from the Men 21 Elite course in an event organized on April 4th. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it
Route to Christmas: Day 12 2011
Today we are finally travelling out of Europe again – to some quite intricate terrain in the forests of Whitehorse in Canada! Todays leg is from the Western Canadian Championships Long distance 2011 organized on July 17th 2011. Thanks to Will Critchley for help with terrain description and analysis. The leg is as usually first provide
Route to Christmas: Day 13 2011
A long leg and many stones and boulders! Today’s leg in Route to Christmas brings us back to France again – but to very different terrain from what we have visited earlier in the 2011 edition of Route to Christmas. This leg is taken from a national league championship that was the first important race of the season. Thanks to Mathieu Ke
Route to Christmas: Day 14 2011
Today’s leg in Route to Christmas is a long leg up in the northern UK on Holme Fell. The event was used as World Champs selection races, and thus there were a lot of top runners present. The terrain is quite marshy, with a lot of contours to be fought. The leg in question is leg number 10 in the Men 21 Elite course. To get in the mood for the
Route to Christmas: Day 15 2011
For today’s Route to Christmas we travel far away from Europe – to Blue Mountain and the US Timetrails long distance. – Blue Mountain is lovely terrain. The forest floor is largely clear, with very little rock or vegetation underfoot for the most part, course setter Neil Dobbs explains. – Visibility is also pretty good, but
Route to Christmas: Day 16 2011
Todays leg in Route to Christmas is from Czech Republic – one of the countries which is really active with RouteGadget with a lot of interesting terrain for long route choice legs. This leg is from a regional competition in hilly terrain – and we are faced with a classical “direct or around” question. The leg in question is
Route to Christmas: Day 17 2011
In today’s Route to Christmas we are off to the British Championships long distance organized close to Sheffield in the middle of May this year. Thanks to Dave Schorah for the tip. Course setters on this British Championships long distance were Oli and Jenny Johnson – both elite runners in the British Team. - The challenge of three R
Route to Christmas: Day 18 2011
Today’s leg in Route to Christmas is from the Elitserien race in Bonäs in June this year. This is a race for which there was full GPS tracking for 50 runners, and thus there are interesting analysis possibilities. Thanks to Eva Jurenikova for the tip. This was a middle distance race, and there were not many interesting route choice legs. Th
Route to Christmas: Day 19 2011
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
Route to Christmas: Day 20 2011
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
Route to Christmas: Day 21 2011
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 c
Route to Christmas: Day 22 2011
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 o
Route to Christmas: Day 23 2011
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 &#
Route to Christmas: Day 24 2011
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 r
Route to Christmas: Bonus 1 2011
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
Route to Christmas: Bonus 2 2011
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 inter
Route to Christmas: Bonus 3 2011
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. - Pl
Route to Christmas: Bonus 4 2011
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 qui