After last weekend’s Pentlands Skyline Race, our Legend of the Week is Jim who completed the race in an incredible 3 hours and one second!! He’ll be back again to break his target time of 3 hours!
Name: Jim Bailey
Course: 4th year geography
Where are you from: Bristol
When/how did you start orienteering: When I was 10, through the school orienteering club
Pre race hype song: When I was 15 it was The Greatest by Raleigh Ritchie, I don’t listen to one now because I became too dependent and couldn’t listen to it in quarantine
Go to uni meal: Pesto pasta with ham and (cold) tomatoes
Most memorable race: JWOC sprint 2022, it was 40 degrees and after two years of covid and not talking to anyone else going to Portugal and speaking to everyone was amazing, and this was a very cool course where I got overtaken by the winner
Best orienteering achievement: JWOC sprint 2023, spent a year geeking for it and came 8th! If you couldn’t tell how much Jim geeked for JWOC, he can still walk around both sprint areas in his head now
Dream sponsor: Nike, I love shoes and I want an infinite amount of shoes. Soderberg for the cinnamon buns.
Coolest place you’ve run: Blue Mountains National Park in Australia, there is an amazing plateau on the top and rainforests in the ravines
Aims for the year: Finish uni, get a job and be joyful, also to get really quick
Fave thing about EUOC: There is always something going on with EUOC, but if you miss some things or take a break from orienteering you can come back and feel like you never left because everyone is so nice and accepting and happy to see you. I feel like they are always there if you need them.
Thumb/baseplate compass: Thumb, specifically str8
Fave EUOC social: Beerienteering, I become detached from society and do things I would never do otherwise
Sprint or forest: More consistently sprint but a good run in a forest can be really satisfying – like a really good middle
Go to karaoke song: Dancing Queen – ABBA
Biggest rival: Probably in the forest it’s Wozzle and Euan T, and in sprint it would be Pete Molloy
Idol: Megan Carter-Davies, she’s just a legend, really good at orienteering and still really nice and humble
Pre race ritual: A 10 second meditation to calm down