But there will be plenty of other Canberrans embarking on an orienteering race of their own at 12:01am on Wednesday morning.

Canberra will be the first place on the globe to celebrate World Orienteering Day with an event at Haig Park starting a tick after midnight on May 24.

Dent took up orienteering after stepping away from marathon running and expects plenty of "hardcore orienteers" to be out and about in the early hours of the morning.

Six other private events will be held throughout Canberra on the day while Orienteering ACT initiated an event to take place at Casey Station in Antarctica.

Dent says "he'd love to" have a crack at the Antarctic event is someone was willing to send him down there to add to a resume boasting Olympic and Commonwealth Games appearances.

The 2012 Olympian says running is "the easy part" of orienteering, but sometimes it gets him into trouble when he tries to go too fast.

"It gets out of control and I lose contact with where I'm going and I get a bit disorientated," Dent said.

"I might make up 30 seconds running really fast for a few minutes and then end up losing a few minutes because I've gone too fast and I'm just not quite sure where I am."

Public events:

7:30am to 8:30am: Parliamentary Triangle, Queen Elizabeth Terrace.9:00am to 5:00pm: Brindabella Family Practice, 80 Morisset St, Queanbeyan.11:00am to 1:00pm: Fellows Oval, Australian National University.12:00pm to 1:00pm: Mt Ainslie North, Kelloway St, Hackett.6:00pm to 7:00pm: Mt Ainslie North, Kelloway St, Hackett.