First, I must apologize to Mike Teller.
I arranged to have Sergey pick up some controls off the Intermediate
Course before I verified that part of the course to be clear of
participants. I have no excuse, only an apology. To make matters
worse I recall that I had done the same thing to Ole at the 2014
Bogus Basin Meet and vowed to never make that mistake again. For
whatever it's worth (It might not be much if history is any guide.) I
am assuring everyone, especially Mike, that it will never happen
again.
To Mike's credit, he was gracious. I'm
not confident that I would have been so forgiving. He drove up to the
meet in spite of his wife's ailing back only to spend fruitless and
frustrating time searching for three controls that weren't there.
When I caught up to him on the far end of the course, he was right on
course without controls to confirm his location. I believe that's the
mark of a first rate orienteer.
The Pine Creek Map covers some rough
terrain making course design a challenge. Large elevation changes and
long swathes of unrunnable vegetation awkwardly constrain design.
Early on I concluded that I could only squeeze out a good navigator's
course of about four kilometers. Some members of CTOC come for the
workout as well as the navigation. For them I added four controls to
the Intermediate Course to produce an advanced course with 600 meters
of climb. Only Sergey took up the challenge. As he left the start we
heard, “I'll be back in 60 minutes”. A quick consultation with
the results below show how his usually reliable estimation failed
him. Sergey, I really did not intend to hide Control #3. Or was it
#2? Either one probably was a little more obscure than it should have
been.
In the Orange category it took four
adult women to edge out Katrina Wright. My sidekick, Norma Bailey,
teamed up with Carrie Magnuson and her friends Lauren and Mikie. I
saw something entirely new. Mikie carried a 35 pound pack to prepare
of an outdoor class she'll be taking soon. From what I heard she
didn't slow up the group. In my mind that's a terrific demonstration
of strength. Lauren has been with us before. Join up, Lauren, we'd be
pleased to have you as a member.
Bill Leahy signed up for the Advanced
Course. After a little gentle persuasion he opted to compete with
Jeff on the Intermediate Course. Jeff, one of our accomplished
ultra-runners, completed a 40 mile competition the day before. He
needed no encouragement to scale down to the Intermediate Course. On
the “easy” course, Jeff was out for more than two hours to take
first place. I suspect Bill is waiting for Jeff to run a 50-miler the
day before a meet. Bill, let us know when we need to schedule that
meet.
Melanie headed for the 1st control |
their adventure racing Greg and Melanie teamed up to finish togther.
There were others who were prepared to
participate on July 10, but weren't able to adjust to the
postponement. Karin Didisse was on site that morning. She reported a
large herd of sheep at the start. In meteorological terms there was no precipitation, but
apparently it was raining sheep. That could have been an interesting
twist on a meet.
It's not clear where the August meet
will be, nor is it clear when it will be scheduled or even if it will happen. Watch this space
for further information.
John Murray
Meet Director
No comments:
Post a Comment