Orienteering — the Coolest Sport You Don’t Know.
What is this sport? Why do people like it? Why you should start orienteering?
Orienteering is a group of sports that involves running fast and running smart.
There are a lot of variations of orienteering, but I’m going to tell you about the classical one a.k.a. Foot orienteering which you can see in the picture.
I have been orienteering almost all of my life so I feel quite confident telling you about this sport.
What is Foot orienteering?
Foot orienteering or just orienteering is a sport that usually happens in the forest. Runners use a map, a compass to navigate their way through the forest to find the checkpoints (controls). Runners need to find all the controls in their course, in the correct order. The fastest orienteer wins.
How to read a map?
To do orienteering you need to know how to read the map.
In the map, as you can see, is a forest. The map might look complicated but it’s not. All of the white is a forest that you can easily see through and run through. The green is also a forest, but remember: ‘’THE GREENER IT IS ON THE MAP, THE HARDER TO RUN THROUGH IT’’.
Yellows are fields. The blues are rivers, lakes, ponds or swamps.
The black lines are roads, paths.
The purple lines and the little circles are the course that you need to run.
In the right corner of the map, you see a table. That is the MAP LEGEND. In it, you can see the descriptions for each control (things you need to find). When you start orienteering you don’t need to know the symbols. You’ll learn them over time.
Why do people like orienteering?
A lot of people like orienteering more than just running because speed is not the most important thing to win. Being slow is sometimes an advantage because you can slowly make decisions and make a better route choice than your competitors.
Why YOU should start orienteering?
Orienteering is an amazing way to relax. Imagine this. You’re in the forest alone, surrounded by trees and birds, you need to focus on your route choice, on finding the controls. You don’t have the time to think about work or other stuff. Plus, it’s a fun way to exercise in the fresh air.
The sport is also an amazing way to get to know your family members, your coworkers, your friends, because being in the forest will show you how they deal with unfamiliar situations.
And even if you’re not keen to exercise, orienteering is an amazing sport because you don’t have to run, you can walk in the forest, enjoy nature and talk with your friends. You can also make a lot of new friends because orienteers are kind and fun people.
You will also explore your city, state, country because orienteering races happen in places you wouldn't usually go to.
Orienteering like an addiction.
When orienteering you can see a lot of old people in the forest, sometimes even 90-year-olds. Orienteering is like an addiction, but a good one. You can never get enough of this sport because it’s NEVER the same — each time you run a different course, in a different place. The thing that it’s never the same is why a lot of people are attracted to this sport because every time you start a race, you feel like it’s your first time orienteering.
If you are interested.
I can almost guarantee that there is a club near you that organizes races. To see if there is, Google ‘’Orienteering clubs near…’’
If you want to know more, I recommend that you watch this video that the New York Times made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3TLmTNOb5E
International Orienteering Federation webpage: orienteering.sport
