Orienteering

Not sure where this one is going to go, but in poking around the net and thinking about running, I realized a few things. I love to run on the beach, like I said. I love to run fast. And I love to have to negotiate minor obstacles. Or, to put it differently, I thought of the three places I run when I can: the beach, the airport, and the woods.

Yeah, the airport. When I'm late, (or even sometimes when I'm not, but not carrying heavy bags), I'll run for the gate. Everybody understands (as long as you're running, not jogging), most folks readily give you room, and you can't daydream. Lose focus, and you plow over some old lady. Good fun.

And the woods. Of the three, I'm probably least tempted to run there, but I love hiking, and love scrambling up the side of a hill. Nothing that requires gear, but just plow up to the top of a rise. And some friends and I turned some dense woods into an obstacle course one summer, and had loads of fun plotting courses and such. Good fun, part 2.

So in thinking about all this, I remembered seeing mention of the sport of orienteering, which combines running through the woods with map reading (another love of mine). So now I'm perusing some O' websites, and thinking about trying it out come springtime. The only problem that I can see with it is that it doesn't happen often enough to be my sole fitness "thing", making running that much more appealing.

We'll have to see about this, too, what with my proud history of not staying with things for more than 2 weeks...