Has there ever been a study on how orienteers are affected by appendectomies? Sometimes you hear about people who have come out of surgery with incredible improvements in performance. It is a physical improvement... One world class woman marathon runner ran a 2:20-something at Boston about 2 months after having an emergency "appy". She had posted a best of 3:05 six months before. I believe that Mary Lou Retton also went on to Olympic golds not long after an appendectomy. I bet an orienteer could be faster after her old ruminant vestiges were history. I wouldn't want to guess if an orienteer would be smarter. There might be a sense of "lightness". The weight savings of having an appendix removed wouldn't be much, but the psychological effect might be there!

-- Mook (mook@mook.com), November 01, 2003

Answers

I don't know, but a quick google search turned up the fact that appendectomy and orienteering are both 12 letter words. See: http://aaron.doosh.net/lexicon/12LetterWords.html

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), November 02, 2003.