March 19, 2016

Columbia Village March 12: The Scouts Came and the Rain Didn't

It was threatening rain all week and predictions for Saturday were about 50-50, yet the novice race directors neglected to bring cover.  To Sergey's query about the canopy, I calmly replied "It's not going to rain."  Since I'm doing the writeup, I get to make the somewhat questionable conclusion that it didn't rain.  I also missed the very obvious "Big Blue Box of Doom" in the storage when picking up controls – which contained all sorts of important things for an event, like the official clock.  I'm certain if I had taken my savvy Co-Director Katrina with me to the storage shed that would not have happened. We managed without it.

One way to make terrain with "too many" features more interesting for advanced orienteers is to speed up the pace, with a short course, short-fast legs, and lots of direction changes. The 2.5 km "Urban Sprint" was designed with this approach in mind. Knowing that this wouldn't satisfy our longer distance runners, we also threw in a short slightly more classic course using the terrain to the west of the soccer fields, with some long legs in and out, navigating the busy soccer fields and fans (our "Stretch" course).  For our beginners, we offered a 1.4K course and for those moving up, we offered a 2.2K advanced beginner/orange course, which shared many of the same controls as the Advanced Urban Sprint.  


We had the pleasure of having not one but two groups of girl scouts, representing several troops, plus the Busacker's bringing along 4 speedy boy scouts.  Troop 573 were lined up to go right at the whistle.  They started together and split into smaller groups on the Beginner Course.  The "Girl Power" scouts included girls from multiple troops, started a little later, but with a similar approach. Jonah Thomson and family also took on the Beginner course. Three teams of two boys took thee white course competitively and ran it like a true sprint.  Aleksi and Nicolai Morgan took it on after a round on the Advanced courses and the two Busacker boys teams warmed up on the Beginner before teaming up to take on the Advanced Beginner course.  The competition was tight with all three pairs finishing within 2 minutes of each other.



Beginner course results
Trevor Orchard & Cole Busacker
12:58
Brennan Busacker & Isaac Shelton
13:21
Aleksi & Nicolai Morgan
14:38
Jonah & Eric Thomson
37:20
GS Troop 573
44:19
Girl Power Scouts
50:44

Worse than forgetting important things, was my misplacement of control #11 on both the Advanced Beginner and Urban Sprint course.  Fortunately, Jeff Black started the Urban Sprint early and got through it quickly to let me know, so that I was able to get to it just in time to catch Emily & Aleksi and Audrey Thomson on what I think was her first solo course.  I gave all 3 compensation for a little bit of wandering and head scratching.  Bringing home the win on the Advanced Beginner course were Alecia Hoobing and David Murray, who decided to challenge themselves a bit more and set out for the Stretch course. First time orienteer Norma Bailey and new club members Mike and Linda Teller also made their way through the Advanced Beginner course, woo hoo!



Advanced Beginner Results
Alecia Hoobing & David Murray
37:05
Brennan, Isaac, Cole, Trevor
40:03
Claire & Brandon Busacker
43:02
Norma Bailey
44:25
Audrey Thomson
47:48
Mike & LInda Teller
50:25

We had our regular slate of Advanced orienteers come out and try the Urban Sprint and Stretch courses.  The Morgan family also split up to try both. Ben Brock sneaked in at the last minute to take the win on both courses and the combined competition. Alecia and David received a time bonus for bringing home the glove I misplaced while scouting the course the weekend prior.



Advanced Urban Sprint
Ben Brock
15:54
Mike Bading
17:02
John Murray
20:56
Jeff Black
22:18
Emily & Aleksi Morgan
35:47
Advanced Stretch
Ben Brock
22:17
Jeff Black
23:20
Mike Bading
24:50
Jay & Nikolai Morgan
34:01
Melanie Schuster
34:10
Alecia Hoobing & David Murray
41:20
Combined Advanced Competition
Ben Brock
38:11
Mike Bading
41:52
Jeff Black
44:38

Thanks to Sergey for help with map planning and course setting.  Thanks to Jeff for help with getting everyone started, including me.  Katrina deserves special acknowledgement for planning and setting the Beginner course, tracking starts and finishes, and covering a lot of ground on control pickup, including controls from all 4 courses!  

March 11, 2016

February O meet Recap

Julia Davis Park, BSU, Ann Morrison Park Meet Report

Course review with Bill and enthusiastic orienteers!
 I apologize for the delay in sending out this meet report.  I’ve been down with Influenza Type B since two days after the meet and I’m only now feeling well enough to write a report (and yes I did get the flu shot).

I was fortunate to get a fill-in co-director at the last minute – the infamous and always willing John Murray.  John pretty much single handedly managed the registration table…..I was comfortable that he could handle this assignment based on his past experience.  Thanks for all your help John!

We had beautiful weather for this park meet which utilized Julia Davis Park, BSU, and Ann Morrison Park depending on the course you selected.  There were 21 controls on the advanced course, 13 on intermediate, and 7 on beginning.  We had seven individuals/teams contest the advanced course, six on the intermediate, and two on the beginning course.

Orienteers showed up early for this meet.  First out was Jeff Black on the advanced course.  The 8th control on the advanced course was along the BSU side of the river, by the Greenbelt, across from Chaffee Hall.  This same control was the first control on the intermediate course. Carrie Magnuson was first out on the Intermediate course leaving two minutes after Jeff.  When Carrie got to where her first control should have been she couldn’t find it (she arrived ahead of Jeff getting to that control since Jeff had seven other controls to find before that one).  The meet director had strategically placed this control on a root stock right next to the river.  Being that it was by the river it was secured solidly.  Invariably when we have park meets it seems they coincide with a Boise River cleanup day.  Again, as it always seems to happen, the river cleanup crew interpreted our control to be trash (despite the tag we have on the control saying that an event is currently in progress that utilizes this banner).  Luckily the cleanup crew was only about 100 yards downstream and Carrie had the insight to chase them down and ask if they had seen our control.  Sure enough they dug it out of the bottom of their trash bag.  Carrie then placed the control up the bank of the river, right along the Greenbelt, to help ensure it didn’t disappear again.  After that, everyone, including next-on-the-scene Jeff, found that control.  Thanks for chasing that control down Carrie.  (Carrie lost 13 minutes hunting down that control. I’ve adjusted her finishing time accordingly.)

It should be noted that this O meet was Jeff’s initial recovery run after his first 100 mile ultra on February 14th down in Texas.  If you’d like to read his post-race write up, here it is https://jeffattheraces.wordpress.com/2016/02/14/100-miles-take-2-rocky-raccoon/

The Morgan family all participated at this meet.  Emily, and her sons Aleksi and Nikolai, went out together on the advanced course while Jay navigated the same course on his own.  Emily didn’t feel the 10k+ distance was going to be long enough for her so she ran a 23 mile warmup that same morning.  Jay only knocked out an additional 16 miles (if I remember correctly) that morning.  Emily was still running hard as she and the boys passed the registration table to their final control.  Nice miles Emily!  You too Jay.

The top spot on the advanced course was closely contested by Ben and Sergey with Ben finishing on top.  Coming in not too far behind was “tired-legs” Jeff.

John Murray blitzed the intermediate course, followed by Carrie, and the team of Zach and Amaya.  It should be noted that this is the second time these two have teamed up with Zach training Amaya in the sport of Orienteering.  Amaya is a quick study and has really done well.  I too may need to take some instruction from Zach.

And it was great to see Alec and Sarah Clayton, and Johan Thomson practice their skills on the beginning course.

Thanks to all for coming out and making this meet a success.  Be sure to catch our next meet this coming Saturday, March 12th.

Nice navigating everyone!


Here are some photos that Jeff Black took from the meet:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/ctoc-boise/photos/albums/409868841







March 5, 2016

CTOC Columbia Village O-Meet Saturday March 12

Please join us Saturday March 12 for an orienteering meet starting at Columbia Village.

When: Saturday, March 12. Start times are between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.  All courses will be closed at 3:00

Start/Finish Location:
Please park at Columbia Village Recreation Center at 3655 E. Lake Forest Drive. Meet center will be right there.

Format: Sprint/Classic.  We will have two intermediate/advanced sprint courses (2.5 - 3.5K), which will be timed separately and a special cheer will be given for the fastest combined time.  Take your pick or do both. We will also have an advanced beginner (orange) course (about 2K) and a beginner (white) course (about 1.5K). Something for everyone! 

RSVP: melaniecwrightATgmail.com by Thursday, March 10.

Cost:
Single meet (day) dues: $10 per person/team, free for members Single Junior (up to 20 years old): $5 per person/team, free for members If more than one map is needed for a team, a small additional fee may be needed depending on printing costs.

CTOC membership:
Regular $45 (pays for all local meets).
Family $65 (pays for all local meets).

Things to bring: 
1. your trusty compass, or you may rent one from the club for a nominal fee.
2. a signed waiver, to save you some time signing up when you get there - but we will have blanks handy. Waivers and membership forms are available right here on the blog, on the right.

Hope to see you all there!

First time Meet Directors, Melanie & Katrina Wright