Guide to courses
It's often difficult to decide exactly what course you're going to do at any given event, especially if you're a beginner and you've never done this sort of thing before. However, a quick glance at this list should help to reduce the problem. Of course, once you're a seasoned orienteer like the rest of us (and if you believe that you'll believe anything), you'll know exactly what sort of course is right for you. The problem is knowing when to progress. Of course, not all events will fall into the categories below. If there's anything which may be complicated, we'll let you know and try to explain it for you. If there's anything you don't understand, feel free to contact us at any time and we'll let you know what it means.
Age Classes
Your age class is the first thing you need to know. When registering at almost all events, you'll need to give your name, club and age class - and sometimes your BOF and SI-card numbers. At the larger, more complicated events you'll be competing against people in your age class anyway. Orienteering isn't a sport where you can keep your age secret!
Type the year in which you were born in the box below to see your age class (M if you're male, W if you're not).
Local events
These will be quite small events with a limited number of courses - usually something like "short", "medium" and "long". Difficulty will usually, but not always, increase as the length of the course increases. It's that simple!
Some local events may include a few of the colour coded courses (see below).
Colour Coded courses
Most if not all of the following courses will be available at any colour coded event. They increase in difficulty as you go down the list.
| White | Short (1.5km/0.75 miles-ish), easy course mainly for young children and their families. The controls are beside paths. You're already too experienced to take part in this colour, so this is only here for reference. |
|---|---|
| Yellow | Short (2km/1 mile-ish), easy course for beginners and young children. |
| Orange | Still short (2.5km-ish/just over 1 mile), but slightly harder course for beginners, or confident children. |
| Red | Longer (5km/2.5 miles-ish), but still easy; course for fit beginners! This colour doesn't turn up very often and is sometimes called the "runners' course". |
| Light Green | Fairly short (4km/2 miles-ish), but harder course, offering some challenging navigation, for people with some experience wishing to progress. |
| Green | Short (4.5km-ish/ just over 2 miles), but difficult course for experienced (if you're not experienced you're bound to get lost), but older and / or less fit people. |
| Blue | Longer (5-6km/2.5-3 miles) and difficult. It's designed for fit, experienced and slightly maladjusted orienteers. |
| Brown | Longer still (7-8km+/4 miles+), and as difficult as the area will allow. It's only run by those with serious personality disorders. |
| Purple | Very long (6-7km+/3-4 miles+), but technically easy course for very fit beginners. Not usually available. |
| Black | Very long (10km+/5 miles+) and very hard. For serious nutters only. Not usually available. |
Or in other words, there are five (increasing) levels of difficulty: White, Yellow, Orange, Light Green and Green. Red and Purple are longer courses at Orange standard. Blue, Brown and Black are longer courses at Green standard.
At a colour coded event, you simply choose which course you want to do, depending on experience, fitness and how much you can be bothered to run up (and down) big hills. It's really that simple! Remember to check out the terrain before you start off: a course in the Lakes will involve a lot more ascent than one in Somerset. Still - length and ascent (in metres) are given for all courses.
However, before you look at this list and think, "I'll do that one", watch out. White, Purple and Black courses are very rare - and even Red doesn't turn up too often. Smaller events will only have a few of these colours. And anyway - if you're 20 and doing a Yellow course you're likely to get several sarcastic comments!
Larger events
In increased order of difficulty and/or prestige, these are Badge Events, National Events and Championship Events. Unfortunately, at these events you don't get much choice (unless you lie about your age!) as you'll have to choose a course based on your age class. Blame your parents! The choice you do have depends on which sort of event it is.
At national and championship events there's normally two courses available to each orienteer. If you're M18 or W18 (or older), you get to choose between the long or short course (L or S). These are both of about the same difficulty, just different lengths. A fairly new initiative to introduce newcomers to the sport is the two extra courses V (very short) and N (novice, or pretty easy). Unfortunately these only attach to M21 and W21 and only appear at the very largest events.
For M16 or W16 (or younger) you choose between the A and B course. The A course is longer and more technical than the B course.
At badge events, the above system is also used - but only if you're M21 or W21 (or older). If you're younger, it's a bit more complicated. BOF have introduced an "ageless" scheme for juniors (that's M20/W20 and younger), to bring more children into the sport (and since no-one runs the B course in practice anyway). Basically, several "junior" courses exist and you're eligible to attempt any of them, provided that you progress once you've won a gold badge for that course. Courses range from JM1/JW1 to JM5/JW5. JM1/JW1 to JM4/JW4 only have the one subdivision; JM5 has short (S), medium (M) and long (L) variants; JW5 has short (S) and long (L) variants. Again - if you're 20 and run the JM2 course you'll be competing against people half your age (and who'll probably beat you - so watch out!).
The table below shows how the badge courses compare with the age-class system.
| Badge Class | Age Class |
|---|---|
| JM5S | M18B |
| JM5M | M20S |
| JM5L | M18A or M20L |
| JW5S | W18B or W20S |
| JW5L | W18A or W20L |
Luckily for you if you don't feel up to a full badge course, almost all events do offer the easier colour coded courses (up to orange or light green) for you to try your hand at, before you feel confident enough to progress.