Start the Year with a Score

Greetings in the new 2009: come on out and warm up your legs with a Score course park meet on our Willow Lane and Veteran's Park combo map. Time is Saturday, January 17th. Starts are in the Willow Lane parking lot near the river, from 11-1. You'll have the opportunity to grab as many controls as you like in a given time limit. Things will be simple in this meet - all will have the same map, and we'll simply have a recreational class (for those out for a nice walk and a little map reading) and a racing class (for those looking for a workout, or enjoy the competition). Control points vary by difficulty and distance.

A few notes worth remembering this month: per park rules, no dogs at Willow Lane; the course will close at 2pm; bathrooms in Willow are closed for the season (but should be open in Veteran's); and of course, dress warmly...especially if you'd like a little training in advance (come between 10:30 and 11), or plan to talk through the route choices after you finish.

Over the hill and through the woods, to control points we go! Hope to see you soon!

Meet Director, Jeff Black

Meet Results: Julia Davis/BSU - 12/06/08

With clear skies and temperatures near 50 at the end of the meet it turned out to be a perfect day for orienteering. There were several new faces and everybody was eager for an adventure. Maybe it was the weather, but because everybody was so eager we threw them all into the competitive classes.

Everyone was very promt and got out on the courses before noon. One highlight of the day was having a handful racers show up with their pre-printed and completed registration forms. It almost made things more hectic in a way. With all racers arriving to the meet fairly close in time and with their registration forms and money ready to go it created a small backlog of racers wanting to start. With a little bit of juggling they were on their way.

A big congratulations to John Murray who showed up at 10:30am to take advantage of the free training for beginners. John had never been orienteering before and with a few quick lessons in reading the maps and taking a bearing with a compass he was soon chasing down other competitors on the course. Infact, John took to it so quickly that he burned through all three courses giving Jeff Black a run for his money.

The Gasaway Family was also new to orienteering and decided the Beginner course just wasn't enough. They came back for seconds and headed out on the Intermediate course. And of course Sergey Velichko and Jeff Black took on the challenge of multiple course. Sergey ran the Intermediate course from memory and Jeff ran the trifecta again.

We did have one casualty on the Advanced course, the #10 control on the Northwest side of Bronco Stadium was picked up by BSU maintenance most likely, which caused several racers to lose time (no time adjustments were made).

Overall it was a great day and everybody seemed to be having a lot of fun, I know I did. We even got some glances from the new giraffes at the zoo.

NEXT MEET
Our next meet is on Saturday, January 17 at Willow Lane/Veterans Park (start Willow) with starts from 11AM - 1PM.

RESULTS

Advanced Course: Competitive
Jeff Black	26:45
Sergey Velichko	28:26
Melanie & Greg Schuster	37:00
Jeff Decker	39:25
Bill Leahy	39:50
Ken Beckner	42:40
Tony Pori	45:00
Karin Didisse	48:50
John Murray	50:05*

Intermediate Course: Competitive
Jeff Black	12:30*
Sergey Velichko	15:35* (from memory)
John Murray	23:00*
Vavricka family	23:10
Donna Goodwin	24:40
Gasaway family	41:00*

Beginner Course: Competitive
Jeff Black	05:12*
John Murray	12:55
Gasaway family	18:40
* Run previous map with crossover controls

Coming Up: Julia Davis / BSU meet

Come out and join us for the last meet of 2008. This will be a great opportunity to burn off all those Turkey Day leftovers! There will be plenty of twists and turns and new control placements to keep you on your toes. You won't even have to get your feet wet this time, unless it snows.

So gather up your friends and family that are in town for the holidays and bring them down to Julia Davis for an hour or so to hunt down those little hidden presents under a few of the trees in the park.

Date: December 6th
Start time: 11:00am - 1:00pm
Location: Julia Davis / Boise State

You can register on-site, or print out the Registration Form at home, fill it in and bring it with you to the meet. That way you won't have to worry about frozen pens or cold fingers. Just show up, grab a map, and you're on your way.

UPDATE: Continuing on from the last meet, there will be an overall "trifecta" winner for those willing to accept the challenge of running all three maps.

Meet Results: Night-O - 11/15/08

City of Trees Orienteering Club held their monthly meet at Simplots Sports Complex. The meet was held in the form of a night time orienteering commonly called Night-O. The event had 3 courses: advance (18 controls), intermediate (8 controls), and beginning (4 controls).

In spite of all the rain earlier in the week the course was reasonably dry with only a few locations still muddy along the hillside in the southwest section of the course. The evening and night temperatures were brisk but otherwise a beautiful clear night. The night had a near-full moon but moonrise was well after the event was over.

The start was at 5:30PM however most participants waited another 20-30 minutes until darkness before starting the course. Donna Goodwin took advantage of the few remaining minutes of light and started on the intermediate course followed by Sergey and then Masha both on the advance course.

The largest number of participants was the advance course. All 7 individuals and one group completed the competitive course and punched all 18 control points. Lee Scott clocked the fastest time with an impressive 26min 58sec time followed by Jeff Black 56 sec behind. Sergey landed in third place while sporting a new pair of trail running shoe (available only at selected retailers) which he quickly christen with a nice layer of mud while running the course. Michael Bading finished in fourth place but won the unofficial category of the brightest headlamp. Given the close proximity of the airport, I wondered if a few confused pilots may have mistaken it for runway lighting.

The intermediate & beginner courses had unusually high number of participants thanks in part to the impromptu actions of four participants who created an unofficial tri-category by running all 3 courses. Once again Lee Scott lead the way with fastest times and Jay Morgan following close behind by just seconds.

We had two parties who completed course in the hikers category. Gregory Corlett & family (Samantha & Tyler) who successfully punched all 4 control points of the beginner course. Andy Hill & family (Elijah, Rosie, ?) who successfully punched all 8 control points of the intermediate course.

THANKS
A big thanks to our co director Doug LaMott for help in course setting, registration and take down. Donna Goodwin who help during the event and afterwards with control pickup.

Thanks to Jeff Black who worked endlessly to help make my first o-meet as director a success. Andy Hill for printing & delivering all the maps.

NEXT MEET
Our next meet is on Saturday, December 6th at 11AM. This will be a classic-O in Julia Davis Park/BSU.

RESULTS

Advanced Course: Competitive
Lee Scott	26:58
Jeff Black	27:54
Sergey Velichko	29:43
Michael Bading	31:01
Bill Leahy	37:22
Jay Morgan	37:50
Masha Velichko	43:45
David Bergest/Neva Suarez	51:38

Intermediate Course: Competitive
Lee Scott	15:03
Jay Morgan	15:13
Jeff Black	15:39
Michael Bading	16:37
Donna Goodwin	36:24

Beginner Course: Competitive
Lee Scott	05:57
Jay Morgan	06:13
Jeff Black	06:17
Michael Bading	06:44

Intermediate Course: Hikers
Andy Hill & Family	all 8 controls

Beginner Course: Hikers
Gregory Corlett & Family	all 4 controls

November's Meet has moved

The November's O meet has been changed

from
Stewart Gulch Classic O
to
Simplot Sport Complex (East Entrance) Night O

Given the possibility of poor winter weather during the November orienteering meet in the foothill, it has been decided to change the venue to the very popular night O at Simplot Sport Complex. The night O with be have beginners, intermediate and advance course. Be sure to mark your calendar for this fun-filled event.

Date: Saturday, November 15, 2008
Start Times: 5:30pm -7:30pm

Courses: Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced
Meet Director: Jeff Decker
Meet Co-director: Doug LaMott

Start: Simplot Sport Complex (East), in the parking lot off S. Quamash Way

The Score at the Metrogaine

Meet Happenings
Despite the ominous bit of snow and wet we received late on Friday, leading to a rather cold and overcast Saturday, meet day on Sunday really turned out a bit of fall perfection. Temperatures were ideal for biking and running all over town. Many large branches were down in Ann Morrison park around the meet start, perhaps even providing a few more obstacles to navigate out of the gate as the meet began.

Given various recent running scenarios this fall, most participants ended up in the bike class in one form or another - but that didn't stop the runners from doing their best to compete with them! There were also some participants that simply went out to enjoy the day in a shorter time to get a flavor of the event and weather without committing themselves to a grueling endurance challenge. It's worth noting that the controls were in four groups - the closest being worth 10 points, then moving up to 20, 30, and 40 points for the most distant or difficult controls. To keep things interesting, there were many 30 pointers directly on the hills south of Ann Morrison, for those who might strategically snag more points with relatively modest distances.

Several anecdotes are worth relating. I was quite impressed that more than one person actually wrangled a direct route in some form between the distant 45 and 46 in the northeast corner of the map, successfully connecting the control on Ft. Boise road to that on a hill in the north end on the other side of a fence. Doug LaMott snuck through a few fences on foot, while Jeff Decker and Donna Goodwin remembered a mountain bike trail that led them close to both controls. Very clever route choice on their part. The excellence bell (control 19) on BSU (north of the union) was one of the more subtle controls. Jay Morgan had a bit of extra luck finding it - as he was approaching, someone actually rang the bell!

As we learn more directing this kind of meet each year, I'm afraid it wouldn't be complete without a few "learning experiences" to show for it. The big error by myself was marking control 29 on the map (Rhodes park under the connector), but in the fog of a cold last weekend I actually forgot to include the question! This was responded to in multiple ways - some were planning ahead a control, and noted the question was missing, and skipped it, saving some time. Others got there only to realize there was nothing to answer. Michael Bading gets a notable highlight: when I told him the question (how many basketball hoops were there), he actually remembered there were four. Given various arguments, I decided to not assign points to this one way or another and chalked it up as a situation to avoid next year.

Aside from that, several participants did have wrong answers, even when they were there, for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the question wording could be read multiple ways, or in the oxygen deprived speed of the moment a single bit of information was missed. I suspected I might be risking some confusion on control 25, asking how many stems make up a door handle on the Banner Bank building...and at the Ft. Boise control (45), some read it as "how many stripes?", rather than "how many stripe signs?" Control 40, the southwest locale of the beer distributor, apparently had an extra awning I didn't notice when setting up the question! (Luckily the other answers were less than the real number.) And the closest control, #11, had an extra door on a different side not everyone noticed - and the question did not specify a side (intentionally). Mistakes cost a negative 10 points, which was really intended to discourage guessing without being there. I hope nobody took too much offense in any such confusions - I think we will improve in time with these questions, especially if we vet them in advance with another observer besides the director.

In a side note about this guessing penalty, which Karin suggested...my wife Dondi came briefly in the long interim while everyone was out, so I could get some more reading material and a bathroom break...and she took the opportunity just to try literally guessing every answer in about 5 minutes, since the 10 point penalty didn't sting so much on those controls worth more than 10! She actually ended up with a score of 560, with 10 right answers and 24 incorrect. Some actually predicted this was viable before starting, and she proved it is a fairly workable strategy. Next year I think we will manage this differently - especially since it made the scoring more complex at the end. I think Karin's original intention was no points at all - and the negative 10 points too.

Two bikers did visit all the controls - Jay Morgan and Michael Bading - and came up with similar distances in the ballpark of 26 miles. All others made choices to drop some in the available 3 hour time limit.

It was great to see returning visitors Joann Leone and Joe Novak after their first club visit at NOD last month. They hiked to many of the controls in the immediate vicinity in a couple of hours, although they missed #17 at the red control in the library - its circle was not as clear as the others on the map.

There were no takers for the longish but straightforward beginners course.

Overall, everyone had a great time in the crisp weather, exploring the city in a new scale.

Results
We used the new registration forms for this meet; a box is provided for competitive or recreational. Given that we didn't exactly have a large turnout, I tended to lean into the "competitive" category for the bikes, if nothing else because there is a bit more information. Feel free to email me with tweaks to this if you like.

Legend:
PV = Points Visited (800 points possible)
X = Incorrect Answer Penalty (10 points each)
T = Time Penalty (5 points per full minute)

Foot Class, competitive:

Name	PV	X	T	Final	Time
Doug LaMott	650	0	10	640	3:02:17
Bill Leahy	630	20	5	605	3:01:48

Foot Class, recreational (in order of finishing):

Name	PV
Ken Beckner	180 (only had 1 hour, visited #29)
Joann Leone & Joe Novak	240

Bike Class, competitive

Name	PV	X	T	Final	Time
Jay Morgan	800	0	0	800	2:41:00
Michael Bading	800	30	0	770	2:46:26
Jeff Decker & Donna Goodwin	610	10	0	600	2:53:00
Karin Didesse	440	0	0	440	2:00:00
Andy & Elijah Hill	420	0	0	420	2:56:16

Next Meet
Stay tuned for a few changes in next month's meet, although the date is solid. Our scheduled meet director had to cancel, so Jeff Decker and Doug LaMott are taking up the reins. We may change the venue depending on initiative or the weather, given that the foothills in November are very much hit or miss.

Thanks much go to my codirector Karin, who helped with setup and brought more than enough food. She also arranged a special sponsorship from The Cookie Queen, who supplied our meet with a large stash of Backcountry Bars for fuel. They were very well received by all participants! Thanks also to our regular sponsor, Shu's Running Company, who provided the goody bags for the winners. My apologies for forgetting to bring the club hats that Doug LaMott provided courtesy of TML - they are $5 for club members, $10 for nonmembers, all money going to support the club. They are nice hats with some visible reflectors, and will be there at the next meet.

I appreciate everyone who stayed to help take down - especially Jay Morgan, who picked up the beginner course controls.

See you next month!

Jeff Black

Coming up: Boise Metrogaine

For the glorious fall month of October, we are holding what has become a traditional event for our club: the Boise Metrogaine. What makes this event different from our normal club meet? It now covers all of downtown Boise and some of the surrounding neighborhoods and parks, using questions as "controls" that can only be answered by actually being there. You may be surprised at what small details you never noticed before in our fair city! For those of you who remember the Score-O style of orienteering, this is similar in that you can choose your own route and find controls in any order. You are only limited by time, in this case 3 hours maximum. Some controls - typically the most distant - are usually worth more points, and there is a stiff penalty for overtime.

If you try to get them all, keep in mind this is BIG: last year it was estimated the total distance for the quickest course was around 20 miles, completing all controls. Besides the usual running and hiking options, a bike class is available too.

Given the sheer scale of this map and the time involved, a beginner orienteering course in the park will also be offered for those looking for a more relaxed event. You can show up anytime after the mass start of the metrogaine (where everyone leaves at the same time), although the beginner course will be closed by 1pm.

Date: Sunday, October 12th
Start time: Mass start at 10:30! Plan to be at the start no later than 10:15 for instructions.
Time limit: 3 hours. (Meet directors will pack up not long after 1:30pm.)
Location: Starts at Ann Morrison park, by the bridge over the river.
Course design: Jeff Black
Map: USGS 1:20000 with minor additions

Hope to see you on the 12th!

Jeff Black

Membership and Fees

Membership dues allow the club to pay expenses for conducting meets (maps, equipment, etc.), keeping you updated on the club activities (web, mail, fliers, etc.), and pay OUSA for meet insurance and support. We try to make this sport affordable to all people. Joining the CTOC and OUSA gives you a chance to be part of the orienteering community.

Fees for the meets:
Local meet fees (excluding A and B meets):

• 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 per the discretion of the meet director depending on printing costs.

A, B meets:

• $5/day per person, club member discount

CTOC membership:

• Regular $45 (pays for all local meets).
• Family $65 (pays for all local meets).
• Associated $15 (no discounts at local meets) - voting power only.

Membership renewal on January 31 of each year. Monthly Pro-Rata for membership fees:

	Month	Regular	Family
	JAN	$45	$65
	FEB	$42	$60
	MAR	$38	$54
	APR	$34	$49
	MAY	$30	$44
	JUN	$26	$38
	JUL	$23	$32
	AUG	$19	$27
	SEPT	$15	$22
	OCT	$11	$16
	NOV	$8	$11
	DEC	Full	Full

CTOC membership gives you the opportunity to support your club in addition to discounts at any local meet in Boise and nearby clubs in Washington (and some other clubs around the USA). Taking under consideration that CTOC conducts more than 10 meets per year that can save you money.

CTOC membership online form or download the PDF here, print it, then submit it to us together with membership fee at the next meet.

OUSA membership:
Being a member of OUSA gives you opportunity to support orienteering in the USA.  This includes programs for new maps, A meet equipment and loans, and Junior programs (such as having a national coach visit our Riverstone students for specific training, which happened in 2014).  You also get a discount at all A meets around the country and a subscription to the Orienteering North America magazine, which includes many maps and events from all over the world as well as training advice and strategies.

NOD photos

Photos from the National Orienteering Day meet Sept 13, 08.

Meet Results: NOD Results - 09/13/08

NOD
Saturday, September 13th was National Orienteering Day. The City of Trees Orienteering Club held their monthly meet at Veterans and Willow Lane Parks. Three courses were set up: advance (39 controls), intermediate (20 controls), and beginning (9 controls).

It was a beautiful Idaho day that enabled us to enjoy the company of many familiar faces and to also meet new people. Overall we had 36 individuals participate on the courses. It was a nice turnout that made for a successful NOD. Thanks everyone!

On the beginning course we had three parties that wanted to race the course and five teams that wanted to learn to navigate and enjoy the park (recreation division). I believe everyone in this recreation division was new to orienteering and each of them found all 9 controls. On the racing side for the beginner’s course, Linda and Lexy tore thru the course in 10:48. Coming in second was the Tobin clan with Jenny pushing her two young ones in a jogger in 13:40. And amazingly, not very far behind, 7 year old Nicholas Byrne ran the course by himself and completed it in 13:59. Way to go Nicholas! (With a performance like this we may need to bump Nicholas up to the advance course.)

On the intermediate course we had three parties that contested the racing division and three groups that participated in the recreational division. On the recreation side, Kelly and Austin wetted their appetite on the beginning course and decided to tackle part of the intermediate course. The Leibowitz’ (dad, son, daughter) went out and nabbed 9 controls. Joann and Joe got all 20 controls (this team seems ready for some foothills and forest meets). In the racing division, ever dominant Masha finished first in 55:15. She was followed by Jim and Nicholas (he ran this course first and wasn’t tired so that’s why he did the beginning course too). Next in were Donna and Jeff.

The advance course seemed to be the popular course of the day – though maybe that wasn’t what the participants were thinking when they were out on the course. There was lots of mud, scratches, blood, and wet running shoes for folks on this course. A couple of the seasoned orienteering vets thought that control #5 (control #10 on the int course), on the east end of Veterans park, may have been slightly misplaced. Perhaps this is the way to slip up Sergey – he thought the river cleanup crew took the control and thus missed the control. Even though he missed the control (remember he was actually at the location), Sergey ran a blistering 48 minutes flat.

Jeff Black finished first in a strong 58:55. Michael Bading came home with a 1:02:22 and Lee Scott took third. Exciting orienteering also occurred from 4th place thru the end of the field - finishing times were a little closer together and participants were passing each other back and forth at times while on the course.

Congrats to Brad Lowe, the only entrant in the recreation division on the advance course. He found all 39 controls.

It was great to have two new experienced orienteerers on this course, Attila and Carl. Both finished with great times in parks they’d never been in before.

THANKS
Many thanks to our sponsors: Mike Shuman of Shu’s Idaho Running Co. for the goodie bags and the hydration packs we raffled off; and Doug LaMott and TML Heating and Cooling for the flashlights we raffled off and the refreshments he provided. Both Mike and Doug also helped get out the publicity on NOD.

Thanks to Doug LaMott and TML Heating and Cooling for sponsoring CTOC baseball-style caps which were available for sale at the NOD. The caps are $5 for members, $10 for non-members. These will be available at our next meet, or contact me if you’d like one before then.

Thanks to Brad and Doug for help in setting up the registration area. Thanks to everyone who helped give instruction to beginning orienteerers. I’m also grateful for the control pickup by Ole, David Bergset, Jeff Black, Jeff Decker, and Donna. This task was even more difficult since wire cutters were needed to snip off the zip ties I used to keep our controls from disappearing during the river cleanup. Then there was the help with registration area tear down that many people helped out with – thanks.

Thanks to Andy Hill for aligning control numbers on the map and printing all the maps.

So again, the CTOC and myself thank all of you for making NOD a success.

NEXT MEET
Our next meet is on Sunday, October 12th. This will be a Metrogaine – an urban orienteering meet. For a meet like this controls are placed throughout downtown and the surrounding area. There is a circle on your map where the control is located but there isn’t actually a control at that location. Instead there is a question on your map for that control and the answer can only be found when you get to the control’s location (for example: what is above the garage at the NW corner of 8th and Fort St. When you get there you find out the answer is a set of elk antlers.) Your answer is how we know you went to that control. Each control is worth a certain point value. There is a three hour time limit. You get as many controls as you can in that time frame. You can enter either a run/walk division or a bike division. There will also be a beginning course set up near the race start. (While this is a general description of a Metrogaine, the meet director may have a subtle variation of it. But it will be close to this format.) Come out and enjoy – this will be fun.

For additional information see our web site at:
http://www.ctoc-boise.org/ctoc/index.htm

MISCELLANEOUS
For all the new faces we saw at the NOD, and even for folks we always see, please provide me with any feedback you might have on our meet. Did you learn how to navigate? Did we give you enough instruction? Was the meet what you expected? Was the cost appropriate? What could we improve on? Negative or positive, I’d like to hear any feedback you might have for us.

*Note - A couple of participants asked me about the orienteering clue symbols that were on the back of your map. I find that this web site gives a very good explanation of them.

RESULTS

Beginning Course, Race Division (9 controls)	time
Lexy & Linda Leahy	10:38
Jenny, Mikella & Jack Tobin	13:40
Nicholas Byrne	13:59

Beginning Course, Recreation Division (in random order)
John Conners and Jan Salisburg	9 controls
Kelly & Austin Carlen	9 controls
James Rosenberg (& his dog)	9 controls
Megan Doherty & Ted Benner	9 controls
Tom Walton & Bill Bell	9 controls

Intermediate Course, Race Division (20 controls)	time
Masha Velichko	0:55:15
Jim & Nicholas Byrne	1:03:42
Donn Goodwin & Jeff Decker	1:27:00

Intermediate Course, Recreation Division
Joann Leon & Joe Novak	20 controls
Bob, Monica & Mitchell Liebowitz	9 controls
Kelly & Austin Carlen	4 controls

Advance Course, Race Division (39 controls)	time
Jeff Black	0:58:55
Michael Badding	1:02:22
Lee Scott	1:08:00
Ole Bergset	1:11:34
Michael Tobin	1:13:07
Doug LaMott	1:13:57
David Bergset	1:16:32
Attila Nagy	1:23:15
Carl Laniak	1:32:00
Jay Morgan	1:35:25

Advance Course, Recreation Division
Brad Lowe	39 controls
Sergey Velichko	0:48:00 (missed #5)