Schwaben – Orienteering Schwaben

Rats Run Kupferzell

Stronger – Faster – Harder

Last Sunday we went a little bit off topic and went together with Paul to a regional obstacle course race. The races was part of south German based series of events called Rats Run. The events normally consists of a lot of mud and trails, so are very suitable for orienteers. As our decision to start was short term, we had started in the last start group. This means there were some obstacles that were blocked with early runners, so that you had to fight to pass through. But we make it all to the finish. No one makes a individual podium but we finished 3rd with the team. For Jakob and me it was the 4th team podium, we different teammates. In Kupferzell we won 2019, finished 2nd in 2023 and 3rd this year. Last year we finished 2nd in Hintersteinenberg. You can find plenty of pictures on the series web page. But I din´t spot any of our team on it.

World Orienteering Week

World Orienteering Week is coming. Have you already prepared your event?

Merry Christmas

18. Rammert Run

Mid November the 18^th edition of the now traditional training event Rammert Run took place. It´s an 3 h Score on a topographic map. Participants are mostly from outside the orienteering community. For me it was the 3^rd time at the Rammert Run. I ran it first time in 2022 were I won the race together with Jakob. Last year we hosted the race as there is now a Gentlemans agreement that the winner will host next years edition. Jakob had already run it several times before with another partner.
This year the race took place in eastern are of the Rammert. Jakob and I tried to have not too much pressure as we both said we don´t want to win this year. Even I would say we both have know that this isn’t really true. Planing is on that kind of maps isn’t always easy, so we didn’t start with complete plan. At the beginning there were two passages with hard running that slows us down. But we were still good in time at control 30 which was our first target to plan further. We then were discussing our route on the run. That part of the forest. went faster so we were able to add some controls on the go.The last part we need to go a little faster but this was OK as it was mostly downhill. We managed to take 21 controls and ensured the victory. You can find the map in our map archive.

Season opening

The “4-Löwen Pokal” (4 lions cup) marked this years season opening for 4 German states. The competition consist of 4 races other 2 days. First race was a forest competition that also served as our regional long distance championship. The forest was open and with good runability but the course has less to do with a long distance. Unfortunately this is a quite common issue with long distance course in Germany nowadays. In the championship Jakob finished 4^th and Steffen finished 7^th in M 19.
Second race was a night sprint in Külsheim. A very tricky course including controls in and around the local castle.
Final day has a sprint and sprint relay in the medieval city of Wertheim. Both races include a climb to local castle that has some tricky passages. The sprint relay has a good route choice up to the castle that splits the trams very well.
You can find the results here.
The maps are visible in our map archive.

End of season / start of season

Last weekend we had the last two orienteering races of our regional season. The races were moved from beginning of October so we had a very late season end. I was on training rake from mid October and only back in training for one week so for me it was more the start of season.
We had a double sprint race at Saturday in the city of Wannweil. The sprint were Ok but my speed was still very slow. Sunday were our regional long distance champs. They took place in the nearby mountains were there was already snow. Running didn´t worked well for me so I end the race after 4^th control, what w2as the last chance to shortened the race. For me it would have been better to skip the races and focus on winter training.

Rats Runners OCR Kupferzell

After being alone at the Rats Runners events in 2021 and 2022 we were back with a team. Nico joint Jakob and me so we had a competitive team again. Last year the event in Kupferzell was mid June and really hot. This year it was still warm but much more likeable conditions. His year they were able to update the course and the course had a nice amount of trail and forest track running. Obstacles at the rats runners series are not too extreme or strange and often fit orienteers demands very well. So I could recommend orienteers to try such event. Not only for training effect but also to annoy established OCR runners a little. We had quite good results. Nico finished 2^nd in Young and Wild (youth), Jakob 3^rd in Rats (men’s main) and I was 6th in silver boy (men’s 40+). Together we finished 2^nd in the team competition (Rat Pack), so everybody has a trophy to tacke home.
You can find the results here and pictures here.

World Maze Race 2023

This year my club hostet a event for the World Maze Race for the first time. The concept is easy. One identical maze all other the world to find the world fastest maze runner. Building the maze was quite easy and surprisingly faster than setting controls on an orienteering map.
I tried two of the training courses and the race course by myself and it was really tricky cause you need to make fast decisions. Looks like most competitors had fun but also trouble to follow the course. Maze running is a quite easy way to introduce people into orienteering and my club will use it definitely more often now.
You can find the world wide results here.

World Maze Race

World Maze Race is coming. This year in conjunction with World Orienteering Day. So why not host a World Maze Race at your World Orienteering Day activity. My club will do so this year. You will find a list of registered events on the World Maze Race website.

Gaildorfer Kocherlauf

Saturday I was on a local street race with my companies running team. In the last editions we´ve been quite good in the team ranking that counts the overall finished kilometres. So I chosen the half marathon. Just than figured out that we had small team and did not compete for the team ranking. The course is relative flat so can go faster times. Muscular issues prevent me from training very well the last weeks so I has some trouble to find the right pace. Second half becomes hard for me but also for some fellow runners so that I was able to overtake one on the last kilometre and nearly close the gap to another one. My time of 1:38:06 min was OK. Better were my results as I finished 5^th overall and 3^rd in M40.