 Jamie
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Posted: 5 September 2007, 11:47 PM
No
Did that truck stop after it ran over your head Aiden?
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Ellmo1769
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Posted: 6 September 2007, 8:34 AM
What do you mean I was born this stupid and ugly
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dennis
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Posted: 6 September 2007, 2:19 PM
I followed Chris for 7 hours last year at the Silver Peaks Rogaine after losing my map on a bush bash leg 5 hours in!
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Jamie
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Posted: 6 September 2007, 3:02 PM
haha thats a different type of following theres plenty of good stories of that variation....ie top multisporters who have followed orienteers to gain rogaine titles. Chris and Bruce Mcleod spring to mind as they sort of people who are often followed.
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Bryan
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Posted: 7 September 2007, 12:40 AM
Here's something I wrote for O-net a few years ago:
O Article #49 - Tall Stories
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Orienteering is an sport which can have some great true (tall) stories. At nearly any event there will be some competitor telling in great length and detail to anyone who will listen what happened on the course - mostly explanations of how they came to make an error and usually not their fault.
Here are some of the more unusual stories I have heard (most of them in night events and relays):
- There once was a world-renowned follower who at one night event was
shadowing another competitor very closely for several controls. However for some reason he lost contact and waited around for others so that he could carry on. He thought he was lucky as he quickly latched onto a group of runners and they ran very fast on the rest of the course to finish in what he thought was a good time. He looked around the finish area and couldn't recognise anything. He soon realised his mistake - he had followed runners that were competing on the same map but for a different club and he was actually 7 kilometres from his own finish.
- At one night relay a pack of 20 runners came to a high fence that was almost impossible to climb. The lead runner spotted what looked like an old abandoned car next to the fence. In a flash he jumped on the bonnet, onto the roof and hopped over the fence. Every single one of the pack did the same leaving the car with its roof caved in and bonnet dented. To this day the irate landowner and owner of the car whenever he sees Orienteers runs and gets his shotgun and tries to shoot at them.
- Again, the herd instincts of a pack of Orienteers came into play in this story. A group of runners were running very fast trying to keep up with the leading runner. The leading runner was running very fast and trying to keep ahead of the pack. He was not reading his map and went on the wrong side of a lake. By the time the group realised something was wrong they were 500m off course and facing a 2km extra run around a long narrow lake. One of the runners hit on a good idea and the rest followed. They 'borrowed' the
canoes from a small village to get accross the lake.
- Still another lake story. A small pack again were led astray by the
herd instinct and ended up on the wrong side of a long narrow lake. They decided to all swim the 10m or so accross the lake. This relay must have been a grudge match between competing clubs because the runners had to win at all costs. Everyone threw their maps accross the lake so as to not get them wet. There was a ferocious battle to swim accross the lake. The first one out of the lake picked up all his competitor's maps and threw them back accross the lake.
- Another Night Relay. It was the start of the first leg of a huge night relay. All the runners had to run a small distance to collect their maps. On GO, everyone rushed to get their maps but ran in the WRONG direction. Only a few had the prescience of mind to realize their error and turned around to go the right way. The spectators started yelling hysterically at them to 'go back, go back - you have to follow everyone else!'.
The pack ran for 1 kilometre before they realized they hadn't picked up their maps yet. The radicals who realized early what had happened and who had to overcome almost insurmountable opposition from the crowd and fellow runners ended up 5 minutes in front.
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onemanfanclub
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Posted: 7 September 2007, 2:56 AM
The last story reminds me of the mass start loops race at Waitangi this year. Brilliant viewing watching 90% or so of the elite field all starting in the same direction, then one by one those who were on other loops coming back through the event centre once they'd looked at their maps. From memory it was a young maptalker who won the prize for most dogged persistence following on the wrong loop before deciding he couldn't make anyhting around him fit to his map. Will he 'fess up, or is somebody going to have to out him?
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Michael
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Posted: 7 September 2007, 3:44 AM
Some of these stories could have come from the pen of Wilf Holloway. And I regret that I didn't retain a single copy of "Murder at the 13th Control, and other short stories". If anyone can locate a copy I would be interested in negotiating a purchase.
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stu barr
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Posted: 7 September 2007, 4:58 AM
what about day3 at a woodhill 3 day when toby carter and rolf boswell started the chasing start with one doing the first half of the course and the other doing the second half backwards. then meeting in the middle they used a pin to fake their punch cards and came through appearing to have passed everyone and win by a few minutes.
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rob.g
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Posted: 7 September 2007, 7:42 AM
And Rob C was not a happy controller, especially when the buggers wouln't confess.
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Dave Barr
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Posted: 7 September 2007, 8:40 AM
I can remember Backler tailing me through the last four controls at at a NZSS relay one year, to the point were when I ballsed up the last control and came out at the start triangle he came out just behind me, and we had one of the longest spectator sprint finishes in history.
Personally though I have no problem with following. if you can keep up with someone, do it. I would even encourage dropping your map and compass to shed some weight.
This message was edited by Dave Barr on 7 September 2007, 4:42 PM
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Bryan
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Posted: 7 September 2007, 10:44 PM
In regards to where the tall stories came from, when I wrote them a few years ago, I was only recollecting what was in my mind and what I had heard from others. I have a copy of the Modern Orienteering Training by Wilf Hollway which has no stories in it, and I'm pretty sure that I haven't read the 'Murder at the 13th control' book although I have heard about it - I did write a little amusing article ('Love at the 15th control') which was a take-off of it.
Suggesting things without backing it up is not nice.
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Michael
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Posted: 8 September 2007, 2:36 AM
Didn't mean to suggest you lifted them Bryan. When I said "could have come" I meant "were in the style of..."
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onemanfanclub
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Posted: 8 September 2007, 2:53 AM
...whereas Toby and Rolf's little "experiment" comes straight out of a Holloway story, but full marks to them for trying it out (I was tempted, but never dared), so I suspect one of them might have a copy of "Murder..."
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mick finn
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Posted: 9 September 2007, 8:26 AM
A similar "experiment" was successfully undertaken in WA many many years ago and had an follow up story published detailing how runners X, Y and Z managed to win the Oz(state?) champs by 30 minutes using a collision to swap control cards post-checking and so on. Was an obvious cheat but nonone could work it out. Priceless. From the unique mind of Anthony Scott who is probably the mastermind behind the recent Chaser Bush cavalcade impersonation.
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Rolf
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Posted: 10 September 2007, 1:22 PM
It was Toby’s idea. It looks like I will pay for that crime for ever. I was sentenced to 10 years at the end of the world (ie Gisborne), I moved to a different part of the country, changed O clubs and still it goes on. I know Rob C was peeved off but surely he can let that one go now? Haven’t I done my time?
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