#5. International Women’s Day: 'This Girl Can'... Night Orienteering

Report by Phil Conway, England Development Officer

International Women’s Day – 8 March 2020.

British Orienteering is supporting International Women’s Day. 

'This Girl Can'... Stepping up to Night Orienteering.

It’s a major challenge for any orienteer to make the transition from day to night.  It requires both solid technical skills and a considerable courage to orienteer in the dark.  For many juniors it can be more than they want to take on, but for the brave ones, it can be a fantastic adventure.

Tina Mills-Hicks from Guildford Orienteers was 12 years old when she tackled her first Night-O - one of the famous night 5km Legs at the Peter Palmer Relays!  Tina agreed with the club coaches several months beforehand this is what she wanted to do, so night training started in earnest the previous winter, to prepare and be ready for the Relay the following September.  

Tina takes up the story …...

“GO junior club decided to try and enter a team for the Peter Palmer Relay event in 2016. We needed a team of 6 juniors, with 2 people running night RED Legs, each approximately 5km in length. We only had one junior with night experience, so I volunteered to be the second night runner. Having only recently stepped up to running this technical level in day light races in January, it was going to be a challenge to take it on at night, plus the longer distance.

During spring whilst it still got dark early the club kindly planned and set up some local night training exercises. We started by running 2-3km courses with shadowing, so I could get used to the feeling of running in the dark. I found a torch I liked and used the training to get used to this as well.

In the summer it got too light to practice Night-O. The only suitable dark hours were after my bedtime! So during the summer holidays I focused on improving my fitness to ensure I would be comfortable running longer distances, since the Peter Palmer 5km Leg was longer than my usual distance.

Finally, coming back from holidays, I ran a couple of short night training exercises routes to refresh my skills and confidence at Night-O.

Then it was up the M1 to the event centre in the sports hall for a nervous night pre-race. I woke up with all other first Leg runners - all much older than me! at 4 am to prepare. With Adam Conway from Guildford Orienteers aged 14 on first Leg and myself aged 12 on second Leg, we were the youngest team competing with all runners under the age of 14.

I waited in the handover area for Adam to come in, before heading out into the dark. The actual race was a blur. I knew I could do it.  I took it slowly and a few controls were rather messy. As the sky started to lighten, I ran through the spectator control, dimly aware of the encouragement of the spectators. Annoyingly, my focus slipped, making the last km of my race slower than I wanted. Nevertheless, coming over the line into handover I felt so proud of finishing. It was probably my slowest event, but one of my biggest achievements.

In subsequent years, I have run several more night Legs for Guildford Orienteers (GO). The following year in 2017, GO put out two teams, so both my sister and I ran night Legs, and since then I have halved my time for that distance.

My advice for any junior thinking about doing Night-O is “Give it a Go!” Prepare well and do some shadowed courses beforehand. Ask your Club Coach for advice and get the right equipment. Once you are well prepared, you can be confident you can do it!”

Are you interested in orienteering, but don’t know enough about the sport?
This set of Frequently Asked Questions will help you find out more.

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International Women's Day (IWD) provides an important moment to showcase commitment to women's equality, launch new initiatives and action, celebrate women's achievements, raise awareness, highlight gender parity gains and more.

The day is celebrated and supported globally by industry, governments, educational institutions, community groups, professional associations, women's networks, charities and non-profit bodies, the media and more.

Collectively every person and all groups can make a difference within their sphere of influence by taking concrete action to help build a more gender equal world. From small powerful grassroots gatherings to large-scale conference and events - International Women's Day is celebrated everywhere. It's a big day for inspiration and change.

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#ThisGirlCan #IWD #ParkRun #Orienteering

#IWD2020 #EachforEqual