30 Years of Orienteering

My orienteering career started 30 years ago today, June 9th 1990, when I first went to an orienteering event of my own free will.

I had been sent to a few races by my army unit, but I didn’t know that civilian or sport orienteering existed. Then I saw an ad in the newspaper, several months in advance, for a race at Birya Forest, not far from home, and I noted the details.

On the appointed day I turned up with my girlfriend Galit, registered for the “medium” course, and set off. I finished third in H21B, asked if there were any prizes (no), and went home. But, as we were leaving, Galit picked up a registration form for the Israel Sport Orienteering Association, and the rest is history.

I could write a book about what I’ve done in orienteering since then. Oops! Done that already. Now I remember that when I wrote about it in the blog I promised to publish some of the charts, but I haven’t done that yet. Meanwhile, I’ve published my training log for the last 23 years (since it became digital), including GPS tracks – here’s the link, and I’ll keep it updated every month or so:

https://public.tableau.com/profile/dan.chissick#!/vizhome/MyTraining_15916483965590/Introduction