A Bush-O we will go

The main reason that "real" orienteers do Street-O is to keep themselves fit for the bush season. My goal over last summer was to "get fit enough to do bush orienteering."

My introduction to bush orienteering was a 6-hour rogaine in March. Nice... I thought... a gentle stroll through some pretty Australian bush. I might get to see a snake, or a koala, or something. Hah! No snakes, no lunch break, no stopping, waist-high bush, prickles... 12km later we stagger back to the Hash House for a well-deserved rest and feed. Strewth! Not sure I'm into this kind of torture.

Soon after that, the real bush season started. I entered the "B" grade for my age group - moderate navigation. My times went from 1:45 down to 44 minutes. At that point, I went up a grade to "AS" - hard navigation/short course, where my times have hovered around the 1 hour mark.

In amongst that, I dared another 6-hour rogaine - covering 19kms in much nicer terrain; and a Blodslitet - a bizarre form of Norwegian torture in which you attempt to visit an obscene number of controls over the better part of an afternoon. After 14kms in 2:48, I admitted defeat with about 4 controls still to go. Next year perhaps...

The 2004 bush season pretty much ended with the Australian Champs in NSW. Seven days of orienteering... I started well (NSW champs, I placed 8/20 in my age group), and progressively got worse as the week progressed. By the final day I was absolutely shattered. Man, I am NOT fit enough for this.