Finally, the time came for some “serious” orienteering.  The European Champs are being held in Belgium, and there is a series of 6 races for age groupers (ie us).  We have 3 sprints, 2 city races, and 1 indoor race.  These events are all in Belgian towns east of Antwerp.  Luckily, Ted is driving us each day, so we haven’t needed to catch trains.

Day 1 was the first of two in Hasselt, which google informs me is the capital of Limburg.  Our arena is a sport school on the eastern side of the city, outside the historic centre.  We collected our race numbers, admiring how well they matched our DROC running tops.

This first race was a pretty standard campus sprint, around several adjacent schools.  There was nothing really complex about the buildings or grounds, and there was lots of open space surrounded by fences.  You just needed to read ahead to be on the right side of them.  The only part that had us scratching our heads were the “holes” which dotted a grassy embankment.  Underneath was a car park, so you had to figure out how to get up onto the top, as there were several controls next to these large concrete cylinders.  Once I got the hang of it, it was easy enough. 

We had a couple of annoying in-and-out legs which did nothing more than add distance, but it was a good warm up.  Ian was very happy to finish 7^th out of 36 official starters, and only 3 minutes behind the winner.  I was also happy with 17^th of 23, with sufficient names under mine not to feel like I was mopping up the tail.

It was late afternoon by now and very warm, so we headed straight home in the Belgian traffic – I have never seen so many trucks on one motorway!

Today was the first of two longer races, with the same arena, but starting in the historic town centre.  It was a true city race and my distance was 4.8 km, longer than anything I have been doing lately.  Our first leg was the longest, taking us straight to the Cathedral.  From there we weaved our way down cobbled streets lined with outdoor eating places full of bemused onlookers.  We ran through a lovely park which I later found out was part of the garden of the beguinage of Hasselt.  At one stage we ran up a tiny alley, along a covered boardwalk, round a corner and into the entrance of a restaurant, which was laid out with vivid pink carpet, and adorned with pink and white cherry blossom (artificial).  The map said it was ok, so … OK!

By the time we’d completed two thirds of the course, I was feeling fatigued.  We crossed the ring road and were back in the outer streets and parks, as we gradually made our way to the finish.  There were plenty of route choice legs this time, and they kept us navigating right to the end; a much better course than day 1.  I had jelly legs as I came up the finish chute at my “run” pace.  This time I was 20^th, having walked most of the second half; Margi was just behind me in 21^st.  Unlike yesterday, Ted had the better of Ian, placing 2^nd to Ian’s 7^th.  They had 33 controls – I thought our 22 was a lot!!  We are all happy – no mispunches, and the boys are placed 4^th and 6^th overall so are having a good competition.

Again, we came straight home for a rest, as we have two races tomorrow – a morning Sprint, and an evening Indoor.

I didn’t have a chance to take photos of Hasselt, so have borrowed a couple from the tourism website.