Brentano-Murphy's Adventures

Sunday, 10 March 2019 De Vos Farm, Midrand Relays are something that I have mixed feelings about. It's hard to be in a team, with the pressure that you might let the team down or if you have a 'weak' member that could have done better. It's great if you win though, the sense of sharing a victory. Once a year the Gauteng club and school relays are held. They are sprint type relays, allowing for more competition. This year ROC hosted it at De Vos Farm in Midrand. I felt a bit disadvantaged having not orienteered here before but luckily my dad had a map from before which I could use to try visualize the area. I got to run the first leg, which I was happy about. I had just come from a 5km Time Trial, so I needed the motivation of the other orienteers to keep me running hard. I also enjoy the mass start. 1. In the mass start I battled to get into the map and find #1. Once I found it I followed the path, but got side tracked by a control before mine (it wasn't ...

Saturday, 2 March 2019 Eagle Canyon Golf Estate The first night orienteering event of 2019 kicked off this past Saturday at Eagle Canyon Golf Estate. The night series is a firm favorite of mine as I find the navigation a bit easier and I find I am able to make up time for any errors with my running.  On Saturday I attended a baby shower before the event, and with all the nice food around I did pig out more than I should have. This left me feeling a bit more nervous as I wasn't sure how it would affect my energy levels. Working at registration at the event was also hectic with a lot of pre-entries to assist as well as a few on the day entries. This left my feet feeling sore from standing. I was determined though to still go out and do my best and not use these things are excuses. I chose my start time quite late, when there was a gap in registration, so I found myself amongst less competitive women and groups, which was nice. Going to the start was about 700m, or so I was...

17 February 2019 Orienteering Urban Event #3 at St David's Marist Inanda, Sandton I started my morning off with a 10km Club Run at Randburg Harriers, so my legs weren't 100%. It was also a pretty cold morning - the first blue skies and sun we have seen in a week, but there was a cold breeze in the air. We arrived pretty early to the event as we drove straight from the club run, and noticed that the organizers were only just starting to put controls out - this was now at about 7:45. Knowing that controls were still going out, I decided to put my start time as 9:30, just incase of anything. I went to the start at about 9:15 and saw that there was a 9 minute gap between me and the person ahead of me, so I changed the time to 9:21. Starts were then delayed as it was found that not all controls has been placed, despite people already out and running on the course.  Starting off I knew which direction to go as I saw all the women heading across the field, through ...

3 January 2019 Orienteering Urban Event #2 at The Campus, Bryanston. The morning started a bit later than normal due to the MyRun that happens at the Campus every Sunday at 8am. Luckily the weather was cooler than normal, which made for some pleasant running. Mentally I was more ready for this event than St Johns, simply because I prefer the layout of the buildings and the detail is not as intricate - I battle with buildings simply because my mind can't seem to read ahead or plan quickly enough through technical legs. I started at 10am - I had the option of 9:56 but preferred to start a few minutes behind Heather and not just ahead of. I was 1 minute ahead of Michaela. Starting off, it was easy to see the direction to go to the first control, with some of the women like Jenny and Heather ahead of me. Also I saw Sarah Everett, Heather and Jenny coming back almost past the start shortly after they started, so I knew it was pretty much an out and back for the first control. I ...