Well it’s really happening now – we’ve entered the Venice Street Orienteering!  The website opened a couple of weeks ago and it was a big relief to see that we’d guessed the correct date, and that the event we’d planned our entire trip around was actually going ahead.  We navigated our way through the slightly Italianised English version of the registration form and entered as a team.  Wonder if any other Aussies have entered yet? So far there are about 60 entries, but that will swell to over 4000 by the time entries close at the end of October.

There were a wide range of categories to choose from, but in the end we each opted for our normal age group, so we are all running for about 5-7 kms “red line” – but we hear that the actual distance could be double that, with all the to-ing and fro-ing looking for bridges to cross the canals (not to mention hunting for the controls).  One thing we really liked – there was a box that said “start time request”, with two options – Presto (early) or Tardi (late).  We of course went with the local custom and chose Tardi.  Our translator, Chiara, said that no self respecting Italian would choose Presto!

As a bonus, there is also a warmup sprint of about 4 km the day before, and a model event, so we’ll have plenty of opportunities to wander round Venice with a map.

Debbie