Orienteering

Orienteering November,28, 2010

We were driving to the park on a dreary cold November morning, I was barely awake on the trip there. I tried to keep my eyes open long enough so I would not have to sleep in the small car. We drove through roads that seemed to go into the middle of nowhere In time, trees began to emerge from the barren land. First, small trees appeared, then pine and then spruce trees. We chugged along the road looking for a good place to drop off Mommy and Grandma when we spotted a village of stores on the way to the race. We dropped them off and continued along our way.

The rest of us continued driving on yet another road that had a few houses sprinkled along the way. We made our way to a sign that said “Museum and Park”. As we drove in my brother and I had sour faces. Once we got in I sat up suddenly, becoming fully awake when we headed for a parking lot beside a frozen lake and a rickety boardwalk. We scoped around for any people, but there were no people yet.

We waited inside the car until people started arriving in small cars. We got out of the car and stepped into the frigid wind and snow. We walked to a bench to sign in and to drop off our car keys in exchange for SportIdent cards. The cold air brushed against my face and I shivered. I walked back to the car and waited for Daddy to finish signing us in. He came back with a sheet of paper containing the race’s rules which he read aloud while I sat in my seat with disappointment. I was not happy about doing another race. We finished reading the rules and went outside again to get all of our equipment ready. I went and prepared my backpack while Thorin got his ready

Once all of the racers were warmed up from their short jogs, the race started ..The only person I was in competition with was a girl, who was about my age. She was probably a pro at orienteering because she looked like she had been in many races already. We got our maps from boxes and oriented ourselves. The whistle was blown and we all scattered in different directions. As for me, I went in a direction alone. I walked over to the first flag, with my freezing finger tips clutching the map. I had run up a hill to get to the very first flag, I tried to beep the button but it was not working so I scrambled to get the map out and punch it. By the time I punched it, the other girl was already running ahead of me so I walked over to the next flag. My toes began to go numb from the snow which began to get my feet wet.

I looked at the map and looked up the monstrous ski hill that lay before me. On the top of the hill stood the flag I needed to get, I began to run but by shoes started to slip on the wet rocks. I walked and finally made it to the flag, but by the time I got there, everyone had passed me by. I looked at the map and looked at the vague trails ahead of me. I thought for a minute and started the hardest part of the long race.

If you aren't familiar with this sport click this link to dictionary.com:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/orienteering