The APOC (Asian Pacific Orienteering Championships) is a biannual orienteering event held in countries on the Pacific rim. The idea being to allow runners from the smaller orienteering nations who call this home, a competitive run in a high standard international event without having to travel to Europe and compete against far bigger countries (in orienteering terms at least). Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to be able to extend my stay in Canada to include this event - although it was a tough choice, as it clashed with both the second round of World Cups and the Mtb O world champs - to cheer myself up I opted to spend a further two weeks orienteering in the NW States at the Rocky Mountain 1000 day (yes it's an odd name, as it has nothing to do with the number of days, altitude or even speed it's possible to run, but rather something to do with 8 - as there are actually 8 orienteering days - in binary code, the computer geeks among us may understand, but I sure don't!).

I was in Canada already, doing some mapping work for the New Brunswick federation, so a short flight across the country was needed to get to Calgary, Alberta - which was actually as far as coming home would have been! Calgary, was home for the first part of the event, and I joined up with the Smith family (long known friends of the Irish at international events) for transport and accommodation for the 10 days of races. APOC itself is just one classic and a relay event which were held in the middle of the week, the rest of the events being added to make it worth while making the trip. And worth while it was, with the Canadian classic the first weekend (times combined over the two days) followed by the Canadian short champs and the North Americans on the second weekend (also a two day) - a short drive away in Edmonton.

I'd heard that the terrain 'out west' was fast and open, not really to my liking, so I was most delighted to discover the first day to be rough, thick slow and technical. I was running elite, which had quite a healthy entry with some 11 nations having competitors. What I wasn't expecting was to be in contention at the end of the race, though I liked the terrain, I never got into running, feeling slow and my orienteering skills rusty, so I was very surprised to find myself second by three seconds (splits showing that I'd been beaten on the run in - the disadvantages of electronic punching!). The first day was a fluke then, the terrain suited me and absolutely everyone else made a pigs dinner of it. Day 2 - there was also an overall competition, based on the points of your best 5 days - also sounded quite interesting, being forested glacial moraine, and interesting it proved, fast running and tricky contours required careful navigation, which day 1's victor comprehensively failed to do. Leaving me as quite an easy (and very surprising) - if un-competitive winner of the Canadian champs - if I can't win at home, I may as well try somewhere else...

Pressure now.... The others seem to think that I'm good! Relays up next, back to Day 2's terrain and a very enjoyable and fast run in a non-competitive New Brunswick team. No pressure there then, the only problem being upon receiving my map, the course appeared to start at number 8. Back to the start then to find the part 1 map. D'oooh it was on the reverse - would have been nice to have been told though. An unusual (but very logical) format was used for this event, with classes being decided by points, and different level of runners being worth different points, e.g.. an M21 was worth 0, M35/40 2, M45/50 3 and so on, with all females being worth an extra point. There were 0, 4, 8 and 12 point classes, with the emphasis being on fun, clubs were encouraged to mix'n'match to get a 4 or 8 point team. It certainly works as a format, and meant that any club with four runners could put together a team - especially a family.

Day 3 was the big day for the competitive runners, being the APOC classic. A mere 2 and a half hour drive (they do things big out here) got us to a hot undulating prairie with scattered copses. Boy I'm not going to like this... And so it proved, the navigation (as least at the speed that I can run) was very straight forward (although it would have been a nightmare to relocate), the running fast and the sun unrelentingly hot. 18th position, that's more like I was expecting, with the runners eventually being able to stretch their legs - I think that I'll be dropping today's point for my overall score! Up front there was a titanic battle between the favourites, with Eric Morris (Australia) taking the lead 400m from the finish after a small mistake from James Scarborough (USA) - those telling splits again! Pam James (Canada) had it all her own way in the women's class, easily taking the title.

A rest day and a four hour drive up to Edmonton followed, where the city was enjoying (?) record temperatures. This was the base for the final three races, with the races only being and hour and a half drive away! A quick run on the model revealed flat forested sand dunes, here, hundreds of miles from the nearest water! Day 4, Canadian short champs, and as a short race fan I was looking forward to this. No real difficulty, there were one or two sections which involved crossing thick flat marshes (no visibility) and these caught more than one person out. Steady run, finishing somewhere around 8th, little disappointed after last weekend, but still better than I was expecting before the week. Back here again for the last two days, should learn lessons from today then. You'd think so at least, but a huge 5 minute blunder (while crossing one of those marshes) on day 5 left me left me less than satisfied with my run. Guess the others didn't learn anything either, and I somehow ended up in the top five. If only... Lying third overall now, but it's very close - in both directions - reckon that I'll need a good run tomorrow to keep my place as most of the others were itching to get rid of their first day disaster.

Day 5. Caught Wil Smith early on, but couldn't lose him (nor him me), running and orienteering well though, penultimate control, he went right of a bush and I went left. Down into a depression, up the other side, across the flat area and up onto the spur. No control, what's a track doing there. Bother! Find control after 3 minutes of "bothering". Onto the last, there's Wil, also 'bothering! What a disappointing way to finish the week. If only, if only... Never mind, more important things to worry about - I needed a lift the 1800 miles to Wyoming for the event there. With a generous offer of a lift, I found myself with an extra night in Edmonton, may as well crash the banquet and prize giving. Results at last, with some luck I should have held onto a decent position (as plenty of competitors were still learning about how not to cross those marshes!) and maybe got third in the North Americans. Wow, something wrong here, I appear to have won overall... Nothing in it though, the top three were separated by only a dozen points or so, which equates to maybe 30 seconds!

A very enjoyable weeks orienteering - what made it so challenging was the huge range of terrain used, which was the primary factor in my unexpected result. Nice size (800 people) and very friendly, the scenery in Calgary was awesome (the Rocky's being the backdrop), being competitive was a bonus, as was the excellent company. An excellent package and well worth missing the European events for.