Advise for a newcomer interested in orienteering

The Bar
1

An adult trail runner ask me tonight how they could go about having a go at orienteering. Normally I would suggest a JOG event but I am not sure where and when the next one is! He normally runs long distance trail events so a local forest event would be ideal. The ramscombe event would be on his door step.
JOG events are ideal for newcomers as they are relaxed and it is easy for them to try several courses and find their preferred level of difficulty
Any other ideas?

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In the days before JOG it was a case of showing up at a Local or Regional event and being put on a course to suit. Sometimes there were CATI (Come and Try It) events but I think these are pretty rare now. I recall my first event being a Gallopen in the Forest of Dean on the Blue course- 2.5 hours later I came back after finding all the controls and was hooked. Probably a bit rash and prompted a comment in the results about letting newcomers loose on the longer courses. Depends on their outlook, I also remember a running workmate who came equipped with brand new gaiters, we put him on Orange and he complained afterwards about the mud on the trails thus ending his orienteering career…

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First off, point them to our newcomers section New to Orienteering? - Quantock Orienteers for lots of info.
One thing that is always a good shout is a POC. They can have a go any time that suits them.
Once we get back to more frequent events (all depends on permissions) then JOG is good. Also the Beat the Trail course on QOFLs is aimed at trail runners thinking about doing orienteering too (its a 7.5km marked trail run with the option of shortcuts at TD3).

1 Like
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Got me thinking of my 1st event - 14k long o on exmoor 2016, 4.5 hrs later I managed to find all the controls and was hooked! Maybe jumping in at the deep end suits some of us.

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Just checked out the newcomers page! Great page and all the answers are there! I’ll definitely point him in that direction :+1:

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I was hoping the Beat the Trail was going to continue - I intend to try and convince a few of my running club to give it a try.