{"id":1908,"date":"2010-09-08T16:08:02","date_gmt":"2010-09-08T15:08:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/?p=1908"},"modified":"2010-09-08T20:00:37","modified_gmt":"2010-09-08T19:00:37","slug":"oldacre-middle-distance-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/?p=1908","title":{"rendered":"Oldacre middle distance race"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/2010pics\/2010\/09\/Oldacreevent.Brown_.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1909\" title=\"Oldacreevent-Brown\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/2010pics\/2010\/09\/Oldacreevent.Brown_-175x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"175\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/2010pics\/2010\/09\/Oldacreevent.Brown_-175x300.jpg 175w, http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/2010pics\/2010\/09\/Oldacreevent.Brown_-600x1024.jpg 600w, http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/2010pics\/2010\/09\/Oldacreevent.Brown_-87x150.jpg 87w, http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/2010pics\/2010\/09\/Oldacreevent.Brown_.jpg 1022w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 175px) 100vw, 175px\" \/><\/a>Partly caused by permissions problems, this year\u2019s Walton Chasers September event was a middle distance race on Oldacre , a small semi open area to the west of the cross chase road forming a small valley.<\/p>\n<p>Numbers attending the event were lowish \u2013 160, partly due to other events and partly due to the fact it was branded as a middle race.<\/p>\n<p>Many orienteer\u2019s still seem to be avoiding these shorter distance events (saying they are not value to money or too far to travel for a short run) or \u2018run up\u2019 to longer courses not getting the idea of what a middle race is all about.<\/p>\n<p>Middle distance racing is not just about the length of the course and the winning time, it is also to do with the characteristics of the course planning. A middle race is defined as having lots of short legs with less route choice but more intense navigation, particularly in the circle and lots of changes of direction. The whole experience is more intense and to my mind more exhilarating if you get it right and more frustrating if you get it wrong.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m sure Usain Bolt does not think, &#8220;Ooooh, I think I\u2019ll do the 1500 metres for value for money&#8221;\u00a0as he is travelling half way round the world to race, as it\u2019s not worth the travel for just 10 seconds, and the different variations of orienteering should not, in my opinion,\u00a0be treated any differently.<\/p>\n<p>Sundays event was well planned, though on a map that still needs some updating, particularly with the vegetation screens and new detail exposed by the recent clearing, and I enjoyed it immensely. I deliberately did not run flat out, wanting to keep my legs in some semblance of order for the coming weeks bike\u00a0training but had a good run with only a couple of small errors, managing to keep the control flow nice and quick, the secret to middle and short distance orienteering.<\/p>\n<p>Those who have not tried the \u2018newer\u2019 forms of orienteering : urban, sprint, middle etc really should try them with an open mind and do them as they are intended to be run, those who do normally come away with a smile on their faces, surprised at how much they enjoyed them and ask when the next one is !<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.walton-chasers.co.uk\/results\/2010\/Oldacremiddle\/oldarcre2010.htm\" target=\"_blank\">results available here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Partly caused by permissions problems, this year\u2019s Walton Chasers September event was a middle distance race on Oldacre , a small semi open area to the west of the cross chase road forming a small valley. Numbers attending the event were lowish \u2013 160, partly due to other events and partly due to the fact &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/?p=1908\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Oldacre middle distance race&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cannockchase","category-orienteering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1908"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1911,"href":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908\/revisions\/1911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stodgell.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}