orange you easy

once again i'm reminded how small i am and how little i know :) signed up for the weekend trip to edinburgh because i saw the word "ceilidh" on the agenda. am proud to announce that after my first ceilidh last christmas, i'm a competitive dancing convert. gotta love the energy of a ceilidh and the atmosphere is electric! however, this selective reading, a skill acquired over years of skimming reams of lecture notes, did not serve me well. little did i know that there was a two day orienteering race involved. 

remember getting the email from K to pick a course while at a bar in salzburg. too absorbed by the mug of gluehwine i was nursing, i casually tossed my phone at the manfriend and asked him to sign me up for the easiest course. he didn't miss a beat, "you mean the one designed for 6-8 year olds?!". despite my drunken insistence, the manfriend refused to comply, putting me down for the course one level up and "ideal for experienced youngsters and novice adults". oh he gives me more credit than due.

so the weekend rolled around and it was off to edinburgh, there i was thinking the race route would be signposted, with smiling volunteers pointing the way. or not. guess i should've realised that defeats the purpose of 'orienteering'. almost had a panic attack when i saw the city race (day 1) map. WHERE WERE ALL THE ROAD NAMES?! and, hang on a sec, what's this spinning thing with arrows K's distributing? vaguely recall being taught about lodestone in primary school science. could this, gasps, be a compass??? to my immense relief, help came in the form of J and E, two lovely coursemates who very kindly let me tag along. so the three of us set off and while the two of them conquered edinburgh, i contently trailed behind in a state of "social loafing" (ooH! new behavioral pattern! the things medsch exams  teach you...)

J and E were absolute superstars and they found ALL the 29 checkpoints dotted around the city and we made it back to the finish line, proudly 60-62 out of 66. not too shabby for a start! for the uninitiated, an orienteering race is one where runners are given an unmarked map with a list of checkpoints and we're to find each point sequentially and beep in to log that we'd completed that part of the course. as if running 13km wasn't hard enough, try doing that in an unfamiliar city, navigating with a compass while weaving in between throngs of curious tourists...

the next day, we set off bright and early for the rural orienteering around arthur's seat. this time, J and E were doing the intermediate course while i had been signed up for pre-beginner, as per above. but again, as luck would have it, A and T were on the same route. as were the young, the elderly and an intellectually disabled young man... have nothing but respect for the children and little old ladies who made the race look so easy, scampering up and downhill, and for the intellectually disabled young man who beat me hands down at map reading. really shows the power of unconditional love and support to raise him to practically normal function. aww :) 

gathered at the registration tent

having ran the whole 13+km yesterday, T and A decided to take today easy, and me along with them :)

lovely view from the side of arthur's seat

not something to be proud of, but a kindergarten troop on the same course whizzed right by us :/

after a grueling hour of thrills and spills, we rewarded ourselves with some giant cake and coffee while waiting for the rest to finish. doesn't A look so happy? :)

back home and have learnt so much about orienteering i feel one step closer to being a fully-functioning adult. also, being overtaken by wee babies taught me that all the race winners must have been orienteering since they could walk. it's such a different lifestyle where parents accompany their toddlers on these races, and children as young as 6 run the easier course on their own. have to admit that for all of five seconds i held my parents responsible for my lack of orienteering ability. if only they'd imparted the relevant skills earlier.

can't wait for the next trip - to the cairngorms, i hear! heading to the north of scotland in the dead of winter isn't quite my idea of fun, yet, but yay to overcoming fear.