The Orienteering Saga

This is a story of a would-be orienteer, it all started at a competition two weeks ago. She had never even heard of the sport before, and when she was told that it was simply a race through the woods with a map and a compass, it sounded a little strange to her ears. She was overwhelmed by the crowds of people from different nations all gathered in the forest to race each other. Still, she watched this strange occurrence while waiting for the racers to come back. As the racers finished, each one would systematically gather around their maps and discuss what happened with their families and friends. It all seemed a little strange and foreign, not to mention that it was all happening in a language that she did not understand. When Raija returned from her race, she attempted in Finnish to discuss what happened, but the lack of understanding of the sport and of Finnish, led the young woman to be even more lost about all that was going on.
They went to the competition a second day and she had a chance to try it out, but declined because she really had no idea what was going on in the woods. Also, the reality of being beaten by some 8 year olds was not high on her list of things to do before she dies.

They returned back to the “city” from their journey up north.
The athletes-in-training had twice weekly practice times and once again invited the young woman to be a part of this other world. Seeing that the pressure was lessened (this was not an international competition, and therefore a better place to learn a new sport) and also being offered a guide, she took on the challenge. Now, as it happened, the guide had actually never done the sport before either. However, his job centered on the forest (seeing as he was Finnish) and the athletes believed there was less chance of the young woman being completely lost to the world and meeting seven dwarfs.

The twosome set off to find the “controls” or check points and to try and follow this map with strange symbols and markings. There was a slight but not complete language barrier in this team, but they managed to come back out of the without getting lost. Unfortunately they did not find all the correct controls and this frustrated the personal drive for perfection of the young woman. She decided that she was ready to try it on her own next time.
A few days later, there she was, compass and map in hand setting off alone into the woods. She also happened to have a cell phone and had assured the athletes that she would call if she became completely lost and needed rescuing.

Now, an important things to do in this sport is to study the map and come up with a logical route to follow and landmarks to use as guides. When studying the map, always look like you know exactly what you are doing!

She ran off into the woods hoping that she was going in the right direction, and soon fond that she was having a really fun time. Thankfully, there were plently of paths around that she could follow, but being a hard-headed thing, she found herself driven to run off the paths and “challenge” the terrain. How else could she learn what the land shown on the map looked like? She didn’t just want to survive; she wanted to do a really good job. There wasn’t much confusion, but she soon found herself laughing and having such a good time feeling like a child playing in the forest once again.
She wasn’t always sure exactly where she was, but she always knew the area. When she came running back to the finish after just 42 min (on a 2 km course), her previous “guide” was quite amazed at the speed she completed the race in. Out of 5 or 6 competitors she was 3rd and just 13 min longer than the fastest person.
Not too bad for a first solo try! It almost seemed too easy.

She had one more chance to try out this sport before her travels took her on in the world, and this time she wanted more of a challenge. She took the next level of a map (approx 3 km) and headed off once again.
The first two controls went so fast that she couldn’t belive it – and then she found herself drawn off the trails once again and suddenly she was in the middle of a swamp and flowers that were almost as tall as she was! Laughing about it all, she continued in her direction and came out not too far behind her experienced friend (this friend had chosen the wiser path, which did not go through the swamp). She ran and ran and found one control after the other and she felt confident! She was really getting the hang of this! Then, in order to pass some people, she set out over indistinctive terrain with just her compass to guide her. Unfortunately, she did not have much experience with the compass and made a slight error in following it. She soon found herself absolutely lost, and way off course! Finding higher ground where she could identify landmarks she soon discovered that she had gone way off course into the green areas of the map that she had been told to avoid. Well, that explained the immensely tight forest that slapped at her face and kept her from running. Now she knew what green was like! It took some time to get back on course and find that one last control, and the whole time she laughed and thought; “Now I know what it’s like to get lost!”
Later that evening she poured over her map relentlessly and compared times between controls with her friend (who ended up beating her) and deciding where she went wrong. She learned that she needed to pause more and plan at times instead of just running ahead (although that was quite fun). She found two areas that she could’ve picked a better route, and then decided that she needed to make sure to follow her compass correctly!
Next time, if there is a next time, she’s ready to go again and challenge the forest!