Stars Thomass

Today I ran in my own club's Thomass Race in the Huron Natural Area in south Kitchener. Getting there was orienteering in itself, map memory from Google maps and bus timetable route maps, but when I did get there (after a bus ride and about 3.5 km of running) the course was pretty fun.


A local outdoors shop was sponsoring the race and was offering free use of snow shoes for the course. Since it snowed loads yesterday I thought I'd try them. They certainly helped in the places where I was breaking my own trail but a lot of the course was on paths and they had been deliberately trodden down by the control hangers. I think it was worth trying them, if they had been smaller and lighter they would have been better for running in.


Not sure where I finished, or my time actually, but it will appear at www.orienteering.on.ca and stars.kw.net. I was pretty high up though, most people who beat me benefited from a handicap.

A took a friend from the XC team who wanted to give it a go. I took him out in a Waterloo Park (the XC team training area before the snow) yesterday to give him an idea of what he was doing and today, at his first orienteering event, he won! I must be a good coach. Being a novice his handicap helped as well. He's going to come along to the race next weekend as well.