About

About Orienteering:

Orienteering is a sport to challenge people of all abilities and lets you visit some of the most scenic and remote locations in the country (and possibly abroad!) as well as the opportunity to run in some of the best known towns and cities. Each competitor receives a map which you use, alongside a compass and your brain, to find your way around a course. You can do this at whatever pace suits you but each event should prove a challenge to navigation, fitness and concentration.

Orienteering can take place anywhere from remote forest and countryside to urban parks and school playgrounds. It’s a great sport for runners, joggers and walkers who want to improve their navigation skills or for anyone who loves the outdoors.

An orienteering course is marked on the map, but no route is shown. The ultimate quest for an orienteer is to find the balance between mental and physical exertion, to know how fast you can go and still be able to interpret the terrain around you and decide how to get from each point successfully. It is a true endurance sport which involves a huge mental element and requires extremely high levels of fitness at the elite level. To find out more see the newcomers guide and orienteering jargon pages on the British orienteering website.

So if you’ve tried to read a map whilst running over rough terrain as fast as you can, at the same time making route choice decisions and checking the landscape for features, without getting lost or falling over, then you’ve experience the thrill of orienteering!

Have a look at these clips to find out more!

About DUOC:

DUOC is the orienteering club for Durham University. DUOC runs weekly training sessions around Durham as well as regularly attending local events throughout the year. We’ll also take part in several more high profile events – often in the Lakes or one of the National Championships as well as the Edinburgh Big Weekend in January and BUCS lter in the spring term. Part of Team Durham, we compete at BUCS every year, and in 2016 secured 4th place at the event held by Bristol University. We are a small group of approximately 25 members from all years and levels of experience at the university.

We’re a really friendly club (there will be regular socials throughout the year too!) and so don’t hesitate to come and give orienteering a try at one of our training sessions whether youve loads of prior experience or none – all you need is stuff your happy to run in, a spare warm layer and some enthusiasm!

See our calendar to find out what we’re up to.