A run or walk in the park...

... with a map and a dibber (the little timing thingybob that orienteers wear on their finger).

LuxOC’s first “Family and Friends” morning seems to have been a success. Well, it didn’t rain – at least until Maggie and David had nearly collected all the control units back in afterwards!

It was good to see so many faces, old and new. We had just over 30 people registered – and more “runs” than that. A lot of children decided to have a second “go”, and so tried the other Squirrel course. The idea of having two very short courses seemed to work well. And well done to all the children who managed to find the “difficult” control on the big yellow monument in the middle of the maze!

The concept of “Family and Friends” is to offer real orienteering courses that whole families can take part in. Young children can round either on their own, or with Mum and Dad following behind. And there is also a longer “sprint” type course for grown-ups, but one which is still easy enough so that Club members can bring friends to have a try.

We won’t be publishing results from this Parc Kirchberg morning on this website. But anyone who wants to see how they did should find their way to the Helga WebRes webpages, which is where results from our LuxOC events are usually published. But congratulations all the same to our fastest “Rabbit”, Dimitri, whose minutes per km time was that of a good national standard orienteer. And apologies to a few children whose time on their second “Squirrel” course didn’t get recorded properly – the timing system (or maybe its operator?) perhaps got a bit cold.

“Family and Friends” will now take a break until the early spring. The cold, grey, wet Luxembourg winter isn’t the best time of year for leisurely orienteering, either for participants or organisers. But it will definitely be back next March. We’ll also try to organise a coaching session for beginners, to try and explain things like why control codes matter, why those funny squiggles are used to describe the location of each control point, and what all the map symbols mean – as well as demonstrating some useful tips and techniques.

Thanks to all those who came, we hope to see you again.