Euro Day 33 - O-Ringen - Race Day 1

Friday, 26 July 2019

It's 11:24pm. I don't know where the day goes! 

O-Ringen is still mind blowingly huge. We got into the bus queue to go out to the forest at 8.30am, and even though 5 busses were arriving every 5 minutes, we still had a half an hour wait to get on.  The journey was 15 minutes from the O-ringen square, where we are camping.

Walking into the arena for the first time in 30 years was amazing.

 

So many people, so many club tents, so much action.  Huge shops for food, clothing and other gear. 

 

By the time we had settled, got our shoes on and were ready to start, the sea of people had thickened so it was hard to get to the start of the 2k walk to the start!   Arriving half way through the 5-day event was a little tricky, as most people knew the drill, and we were all a bit rusty. First I realised I'd taken my running shoes to the event instead of my orienteering shoes. Chunky Hokas are NOT a good choice for mossy swedish terrain!

Then we got stopped on the way to the start as Zali and Jett were wearing shorts (it was 30 degrees). Turns out full leg covering is compulsory!  Jett got around it by pulling up his long socks to half way up his thighs, but Zali's long legs were never going to be acceptably covered by her socks, so we had to turn around and walk back (through the sea of people) to get my credit card and buy our way out of this situation.  One brand new pair of o-pants later and we were off to the start again. Luckily we have 'free' starts. I knew this meant that we could just go to the start whenever we wanted to, I didn't realise that we could also get our map, study it as long as we liked, then punch start!  I didn't want to ruin my orienteering experience so I just had a quick look at the first leg before I started, heaps of other people were spending a long time looking. We're just doing a 3 days 'challenge' category, so it's not serious anyway. I'm doing the 5k hard course, Jon the 7.5, and Zali and Jett are both doing the 3.5.   There's about 70 competitors in each of our classes so it's very little by O-ringen standards!

Jett didn't have a great run but the rest of use did ok-ish with some mistakes. I think I was 27th or something (our classes are mixed too) .

The bus queue home was a lot quicker, but still huge:

 

Back at the campervan we relaxed for a few hours. Jett and I went to play games in the O-ringen square while Jon napped and Zali read. Then it was time for our next event - the indoor orienteering we'd signed up for. Indoor orienteering has been Zali's dream for years, so it was great she finally got a chance to do it!  It was really hard working out where to go up and down the stairs to get to each control.  The organisers had put a lot of effort into it -with artificial barriers and crazy soundscapes  - one control was in the school's sauna (of course they have a sauna), and they'd put in disco lights. Another section was in a gym, so they'd build a labyrinth and the music was tetris game style. It was crazy!  Lots of fun. 

Zali thrashed us all - she took 13 minutes, Jon took 20, I took a bit over 20 but I mispunched by taking some controls accidentally out of order! Jett was slightly longer than me.  Zali is clearly the family champion! Tomorrow we get another chance though as we've signed up for it again.

 

 

2017List
Euro Day 54 - Not a rest day Friday, 16 August 2019
Euro Day 52 & 53 Thursday, 15 August 2019
Euro Day 51 - Drammen & WOC Tuesday, 13 August 2019
Euro Day 50 - Hello Norway! Monday, 12 August 2019
Euro Day 49 - SOW Day 6 Sunday, 11 August 2019
Euro Day 48 - SOW Day 5 Saturday, 10 August 2019
Guest Blog: Today's tip for aspiring young uncles Friday, 9 August 2019
Euro Day 47 - SOW Day 4 Friday, 9 August 2019
Euro Day 46 - SOW Rest(ish) Day Thursday, 8 August 2019
Guest blog by Paul the favourite uncle Thursday, 8 August 2019
Euro Day 45 - SOW Day 3 Wednesday, 7 August 2019
Euro Day 44 - SOW Day 2 Tuesday, 6 August 2019
Euro Day 43 - SOW Day 1 Monday, 5 August 2019
Euro Day 42 - Switzerland to France to Switzerland to France.. Sunday, 4 August 2019
Euro Day 41 - Sweden to Switzerland Sunday, 4 August 2019
Euro Day 40 - Island Idle - Part 2 Friday, 2 August 2019
Euro Day 39 - Island Idle - Part 1 Thursday, 1 August 2019
Euro Day 38 - If it's easy, it's not worth doing Wednesday, 31 July 2019
Euro Day 37 - What Next? Wednesday, 31 July 2019
Euro Day 36 - Back into the forest Monday, 29 July 2019
Euro Day 35 - O-Ringen - Race Day 3 Sunday, 28 July 2019
Euro Day 34 - O-Ringen, Race Day 2 Saturday, 27 July 2019
Euro Day 33 - O-Ringen - Race Day 1 Friday, 26 July 2019
Euro Day 32 - O-Ringen Thursday, 25 July 2019
Euro Day 31 - Hello Stockholm! Wednesday, 24 July 2019
End of Part 1 Wednesday, 24 July 2019
Euro Day 30 - Salzburg! Tuesday, 23 July 2019
Euro Day 29 - Hello Austria! Tuesday, 23 July 2019
Euro Day 28 - Even more Bohinj Sunday, 21 July 2019
Euro Day 27 - More Bohinj! Saturday, 20 July 2019
Euro Day 26 - Bohinj Friday, 19 July 2019
Euro Day 25 - Bled Thursday, 18 July 2019
Euro Day 24 - Hello Slovenia! Wednesday, 17 July 2019
Euro Day 23 - Plitvice Lakes National Park Tuesday, 16 July 2019
Euro Day 22 - Hello Croatia! Monday, 15 July 2019
Euro Day 21 - Dolomites to Trieste Monday, 15 July 2019
Euro Day 20 - Dolomites 3 Day - Day 2 Saturday, 13 July 2019
Euro Day 19 - Dolomites 3 Day - Day 1 Thursday, 11 July 2019
Euro Day 18 - Venice to Predazza, Sea to Mountains Thursday, 11 July 2019
Euro Day 16 & 17 - Part 2 - Venice Wednesday, 10 July 2019
Euro Day 16 - Part 1 - O-Nerding in Venice Tuesday, 9 July 2019
Euro Day 16 - Thunder and Lightning in Venice Tuesday, 9 July 2019
Euro Day 15 - Thunder and Lightning in Florence Monday, 8 July 2019
Euro Day 14 - Pisa and San Gimignano Sunday, 7 July 2019
Euro Day 13 - Cinque Terre Saturday, 6 July 2019
Euro Day 12 - Transition Day Friday, 5 July 2019
Tour Du Mont Blanc - Day 4 Friday, 5 July 2019
Tour Du Mont Blanc - Day 3 Friday, 5 July 2019
Tour Du Mont Blanc - Day 2 Friday, 5 July 2019
Tour Du Mont Blanc - Day 1 Thursday, 4 July 2019
Euro Day 7 - Annecy to Les Houches Sunday, 30 June 2019
Euro Day 6 - From St Etienne to Annecy Saturday, 29 June 2019
Euro Day 5 - Heading towards Lyon Friday, 28 June 2019
Euro Day 4 - Castles Castles Castles Thursday, 27 June 2019
Euro Day 3 - Goodbye Paris hello Loire Valley Wednesday, 26 June 2019
Euro Day 2 - Sore Feet! Tuesday, 25 June 2019
Euro Day 1 - Paris - so French!! Monday, 24 June 2019