Field Notes : Competitively Bitten - Jenn Fields

Field Notes : Competitively Bitten - Jenn Fields

Rating: **

This is an article using a real life example of a middle aged man who experienced all kinds of problems while in his orienteering race.  It presents the real life situations that may occur and different ways of solving them.

It is about a middle aged man named Jeremy Fields, who has entered a ski-o.  A ski-o is an orienteering race in which you skate ski from control-point to control-point as fast as you can.  Jeremy was both inexperienced in skate skiing (it was his first season) and orienteering (he has only gone orienteering once).  Halfway during his short race, he decided to switch to the medium race because he was ‘’competitively bitten’’.  He placed second.

This article was interesting, but there was no affect with the reader which for me, made the article less impacting.  This made me think of the first time I went orienteering and all the problems that arose to us.  We didn`t use any technique and at one point we walked 10 or more minutes in the opposite direction for our last control point.  This relates to the quote his coach said ‘’ you will forget everything I've taught you when you race.”   In this article I learnt how important techniques are for the speed between control-points, but how to control the impact it has on your body.  For example not paying attention to the contour lines could put a lot of pressure on your muscles and slow down later.  This article had no inspiration at all, which was the main problem with it for me.  This article however will make me consider the techniques we learnt in class more and not cluelessly walk around the wood freely.  The main technique that will be an important factor for me when I orienteer is the contour lines.  This article deserved 2 stars due to its lack of motivation and inspiration.

 
Fields, Jenn ‘’Field Notes: Competitively Bitten’’ ColoradoDaily, Organisation name not given, 02/12/2012, 10/04/13

By: Alex Dupuis