Respect the streak "...because they don't happen very often" - Crash Davis

Rabbit Creek Terrain by Kirsten Severud

I had experienced an orienteering meet at Julia Davis Park sometime around 2005 and wasn't interested in trying another one. Then in 2010 I got a message about Rabbit Creek and decided to give it another

John Siebold on Rugged Terrain--Leslie Perez

try. That was it. I was hooked on orienteering. The Seventh Annual Rabbit Creek did it and has had a special place in my heart ever since. 

 Baseball players are notorious for resorting to the extremes of superstitions to maintain a hitting or pitching streak, sometimes refusing to change socks or underwear as they are caution not to change a thing, lest ending the underwear streak will also end a hitting streak. For 19 years in a row there's been an orienteering meet at Bill Pilcher's Rabbit Creek Ranch. No other CTOC venue comes close to that streak. 

As I thought about how this streak should be preserved and driven forward I was reminded of an R-rated conversation from one of my favorite movies. In the movie Bull Durham, Tim Robbins' character, Nuke LaLoosh (loosely based on Steve Dalkowski), finds himself in a relationship with Susan Sarandon's character, Annie. However, when he goes on a long road trip, he begins pitching better and the team begins winning, and Nuke attributes this to his period of abstinence. 

The setup: Annie storms into Crash’s apartment, furious about his interference with her relationship with Nuke. Crash feels he did nothing wrong. 

Crash: “Nuke’s chastity was your idea.” 

Annie: “I know!. I’m telling you to keep your hands out of this.”

 Crash: “I never told him to stay out of your bed.” 

Annie: “You most certainly did.” 

Crash: “I never told him to stay out of your bed.” 

Annie: “Yes, you did!” 

Crash: “I told him a player on a streak has to respect the streak.” 

Annie: “Fine.” 

Crash: “You know why? Because they don’t happen very often.” 

Annie: “Right.” Crash: “If you believe you’re playing well because you’re getting laid or because you’re not getting laid or because you wear women’s underwear, then you are. And you should know that!” 

The dialog on YouTube

 As Crash (Kevin Costner) said, “...a player has to respect the streak”. So, we did. And we should as long as we have access to Bill's ranch. Start thinking about making it two decades of Rabbit Creek.

Unknown Specie

 After a week of windy conditions the wind abated and a lot of people came out on Sunday to enjoy the weather and the terrain. By my count, which might have overlooked one or two people on teams, we had 44 participants on four different courses. 

Long-leaf Phlox

 The high desert goes unappreciated by folks who only find beauty in lakes, rivers, and tall trees. “Desolate” is the word I hear from them. The high desert is a place for people who can appreciate the small things. Thank you, Leslie, for your photos of a couple of the many species of flowers in blossom. You had a couple of good orienteering photos including both the orienteering and Rabbit Creek's excellent rock features. 

 Becky Ruths sent a photo of herself and some of her team at the first control on their first orienteering map. She reported that they all had a great time. We hope to see them at future meets. 

 Kirsten continued her streak of Intermediate Course victories. I hope she changed her underwear since her last meet, but I know that in this competition you have to do what it takes. And speaking of doing what it takes, Jerry reserved a Sport Map instead of his usual Intermediate version after a momentous week of running Robie and having cataract surgery. Then at the last moment opted for the Intermediate Course. Although he didn't finish, just getting out there a doing it at 80 years-old is some kind of admirable triumph. Jerry, you are a hero. 

Sergey's Route

 After she finished the Intermediate Course Jennifer discussed her route choices with me. If I recall her routes correctly, she will be pleased to see how closely her routes correspond to Sergey's on the Advanced Course. For those of you who are not familiar with Sergey, his orienteering skills are such that I like to use him for a standard. That's not to say Sergey is perfect. By his own admission he is not. He reported that his 1:01:15 time included 2-3 minutes of hesitations. 

It would have been a very long day arriving back in Eagle long after dinner time without the kindness of the three people who helped with control pick up. Thank you David Bergset, Erik Bergset, and Kirsten Severud.

Kirsten Severud plans to host the next meet May 22 on the Gold Rush national championship terrain a couple of miles northwest of Idaho City.

Some orienteers requested digital copies of the maps. For proper scale print these maps on legal size paper. Advanced and Intermediate maps and  results follow:

John Murray

Meet Director

208 342-2165

Unknow-O Report

The meet center was in unknown before location, as well as all controls were in unknown before places. Unknown-O started with excellent weather, albeit strong wind blowing away papers and even SI sticks. Many thanks to Cristy and Melanie for gracefully hadnling the registartion table and improvised beginner clinic. And to John for always much appreciated feedback.

Weather was sunny and smiles were wide. Here are some photos of happy starters and even happier finishers.

Many moved to higher levels of course difficulty. And this is great! Do not hesitate to learn from the best and tackle more challenging courses! Discussing and listening for after race stories is certainly a way to improve. Just remember that orienteering is a skill that is improved through the practicing. These are results of all courses, Randy and Darla Rhude and Roy and Kim Tsuda on intermediate course selected honor system thus don't have official times

Advanced (9) 6.6 km 0 m 22 C
1 Zach Clayton 51:46
2 Doug Lamott 59:42
3 Jason Russel 1:02:56
4 Merrill-Mike Bading 1:09:18
5 Melanie Wright 1:13:09
6 Torn Ford 1:19:37
7 Carrie Magnuson 1:37:15
8 Team Boyd 2:03:08
9 Jerry Stewart 2:32:14

Beginner (8) 1.9 km 0 m 8 C
1 Girls Russel 35:38
2 Peter Paradis 36:51
3 Lorelai-Aiden-Fa Wise 39:21
4 Susan-Rebekah Rhoads 40:13
5 Addison-Michael Ishmael 47:16
6 Fred-Madyson-Mac Mccarn 47:50
7 Marie-Kids Schwarzenberger 54:51
8 April-Kids DeCarlo 1:21:21

Intermediate (9) 4.2 km 0 m 16 C
1 Dusten-Heidi Thomas 46:44
2 John Murray 52:51
3 Chisty Morris 59:25
4 Michail Fragkias 1:06:04
5 Katrina-Sara Wright-Morgan 1:22:52
6 Heather-Matt Steel 1:27:49
7 Family Swan 1:32:30
8 Shravik-Annalisa Sethi-Miller 1:41:59
9 Jim Hull 1:48:26

Sport (5) 3.6 km 0 m 14 C
1 John-Eli Arambarri 46:02
2 Brett-Leslie Smith 1:25:37
3 Jacquelin-Jeremy Gaddy 1:25:51
4 Brandon Blowers 1:38:35
Patti Knutson mp

You may access splits and compare to best at Winplits link for the event.

We are finilizing details for the April meet. Tentatively it will be April 24 at Owyhees for famous Rabbit-O event. We have meets defined for the rest of the year. Meetup events are being populated with information. Access these from this page. We also posted a list of nearby large events (like PNWOF) and USA/World championships. Some of our club members are planning to travel to these and everone is encouraged to join. Nothing could substitute for new terrain, challenge, friendship and cameraderie.

Hope to see you all enjoying outdoors at our meets!

Cheers,
Sergey

Ribbon of Jewels 2/19/22 - Meet write up - The Road Not Taken

Photo credit: Cat Yates

I approached the prospect of serving as "lead" meet director for my first time with that of a soul needing to find their way home through the thick undergrowth that has crept into many of our lives while surviving a pandemic.  Over the past two months, I spent countless of our inversion-January yellow "sun break" afternoons delighting in the quiet spaces, where often among the snow and mud I trod steps of my own, while many ran the other way (but a few did stop to ask me, "Do you work for the City?  Tell them they need to replace this part of the Greenbelt").  

The process of scouting the map, mixed with learning the OCAD software, and coordinating with our experienced club leaders, has been an incredible opportunity to challenge myself to extend my skills as an orienteer.  I would highly recommend the experience - as it will surely help you choose to take the road less traveled - and it will make all the difference.  My enduring gratitude to Sergey, John, Melanie, and my wife Lauren, for their guidance and encouragement in this new endeavor. 

Additional shoutout goes to my doggo Sue for her constant "hype gal" mentality to join me on all of my map scouting adventures. 

Sue enjoying the sunshine

Write up inspirational credit goes to Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken: https://poets.org/poem/road-not-taken

Now for some fun photos and numerical highlights of our February Meet:

• 67 - total participants
• 16 - first-time orienteers
• 2,100+ - orienteer minutes on courses
• 445+ - controls punched
• 10 - new/renewed CTOC memberships
• 47:35 - Sergey's unofficial time to run/step-up course controls while carrying a golf bag and a duffel bag (see photographic proof later on)
• 8 - seconds separating the Intermediate course's 7th-9th place finishers
• 3 - first-time orienteers who placed in the top 3 in their course
• 1 - times Kirsten looked at her map and then ran her course (incredible!)
• 0 - times Veteran's Memorial Parkway was illegally crossed (henceforth known on this map as The Road Not Taken)

Lukas F. at the stick fort

     

Elise O. and Johnny B. on their first course

Mike B. starting off strong

Photo credit: James Hull

Heron patiently waiting for a snack

Lauren H. smiling per usual

Cat and Trenton Yates enjoying the sunshine

A blurry 8am Sergey because he is running so fast or because it is 10x zoom across the park on my IPhone?

Results by course are listed below and timing splits can be found at this link: http://obasen.orientering.se/winsplits/online/en/show_event.asp?id=79940

Advanced (9) 4.0 km 0 m 17 C

1 Mike Bading 52:13

2 Bill Leahy 57:35

3 Doug Lamott 1:00:07

4 Melanie Wright 1:05:02

5 Family Ford 1:11:54

6 Lauren Hennrich 1:19:55

7 Jerry Stewart 2:14:43

        Cat Yates dnf

        Trenton Yates dnf

Intermediate (13) 3.2 km 0 m 13 C

1 Innes Wright 59:12

2 Katrina Wright 1:00:04

3 Karin Didisse 1:07:13

4 John-Eli Arambarri 1:15:45

5 Leslie Parez & John Siebold 1:20:41

6 Laura-Greg Hayes 1:27:22

7 Pete Honeysett 1:43:49

8 Christy-Scott Morris 1:43:54

9 Carol Kaczmarski & Janet Sammis 1:43:57

10 Team The Adventures 1:56:22

Darla and Randy Rhude manual punch, 2:00:00

Kim Tsuda manual punch, 2:00:00

        Andrew and Jocelyn Olnes finished course, but un-timed due to e-punch error 

        James Hull manual punch, no time reported

        Steve-Erika-Anni Fransen dnf

Sport (9) 2.3 km 0 m 10 C

1 Kirsten Severud 39:30

2 Johnny Boyd & Elise Overgaard 50:08

3 Terra Kolb 56:04

4 Grove Hummert 56:27

5 Michail-Lukas Fragkias 1:17:51

6 Jacquelin-Jeremy Gaddy 1:22:05

7 Donna Pitzer 1:23:42

8 Family Swann 1:33:32

        John Murray manual punch

Beginner (9) 0.8 km 0 m 6 C

1 Terra Kolb 17:55

2 Grove Hummert 22:48

3 Windy-James Irwin 27:57

4 Shravik Sethi & Analisa Miller 28:27

5 Ian Mckenzie 31:13

6 Lynette-Team Mcdougal 32:35

7 Jeremy-Jacquelin Gaddy 41:41

8 Patti Knutson 48:18

        Lilly-Miles Gastil manual punch

Photo credit: Cat Yates

For next month's meet, we travel a little up river to the Kathryn Alberton's Park area for the "Greenbelt Unknown O-Meet" on a new map developed by Sergey.  If you have not joined CTOC for the year, you can easily join between now and the next meet.  See the Membership section at: http://ctoc-boise.blogspot.com/ for details.

 

Thank you to everyone who joined us at the 2022 Ribbon of Jewels O-Meet!  I hope to see you all out on the road less traveled soon.

Frozen Fort Boise, January Meet Results

There is sometimes a morally grey area when it comes to setting an orienteering course. It’s usually waded through when you have to ask yourself “should I put a control in this hospital parking lot?” (Which, to be clear, I did not.) 

I know that this meet write up comes later than it probably should have, and to all those who may be silently griping about this– thank you for staying silent. (Also CTOC is looking for meet directors so if you’d like the experience of writing your own meet results, we can make that happen.)

I do fully take the blame for these late results, though. 

Let’s reflect back on that Sunday Meet. We all braved the weather to conquer that muddy and brutal… urban sprint course, maybe it was more delightful and easily runnable? We had one of the biggest turnout of competitors for this year. (Though it was the first meet of the year.) Annual memberships were renewed, waiver forms were signed, and controls were misplaced– I’d say we had a brilliant meet. With some brilliant weather as well. 

(I am writing this in class so let me just get straight to the point):

Thanks to all who made the trip out and made that Sunday (oh so long ago) a really fantastic meet! If any of the names above are misspelled please let me know. 

I also forgot to take photos so here is a post-post meet photo (after all the controls have been picked up but before they’ve been brought back to the storage unit) with my Mom, Melanie Wright. And a photo taken by Carrie Magnison with Carrie's pupper, Sue!