Alex Rosenberg:
Today we went to Nobscot Reservation. We trained for 3 hours, each of us doing three courses. First, Adeline, Keegan, and I warmed up on a white course. We then got to the start point where Keegan and I did an orange course, and Adeline ran a yellow shadowed by Ethan. This training’s focal point was navigation, and we all took it slowly. Then we all dropped a difficulty level, Keegan and I focusing on speed during a yellow course and Adeline doing white. The training was good, and I got in some practice and a workout.
Keegan Harkavy:
The light reflects into my eyes off the snow as I step out of the car. We have arrived at Nobscot Reservation for a orienteering practice. The air is crisp, and pockets of snowy ice scatter the ground.
We start by running a white course. This course is all about warming up our muscles, not speed or navigation. The navigation is easy, and it is really fun running through the ice with orienteering shoes (normal trail runners but with metal studs on the bottom).
After the warm up our group of five splits up. Adeline and Ethan go to do a yellow course, Alex and I an orange, and Barb stays to watch the gear. The orange course is at the edge of my orienteering abilities, so I know the course will be hard. As we start out I am still a little cold, so we jog and try to navigate. After we hit the first control, we realize we cannot run or else we will mess up. We downgrade to a walk. The first few controls go smoothly, but once we hit number six we get a little cocky and distracted. This causes me to go in the completely wrong direction. Not knowing I had done this, Alex and I get completely lost and are forced to head back to the start, skipping the rest of the course.
As you can imagine, this demoralizes me a tiny amount, and I am ready to end. There is one more course I have to do, however. This is a yellow, so it is a bit easier than the orange. After the first control on the yellow I am more confident and finish the course fairly quickly with very minor mistakes.