If social distancing is the imperative
of this time, Doug LaMott set an example few of us will emulate.
After receiving notice on Friday evening that the controls had been
placed, Doug ran the Intermediate Course mostly in the dark. And, I
presume, very much distanced from anyone else. I suppose there are
several ingenious strategies for maximum social distance while
orienteering. Perhaps in a subsequent meet an enterprising orienteer
will find a better way, but, for now, Doug is the king.
Saturday saw 40 people take on the two
courses, some in groups and some as individuals. That was 24
orienteers on the Intermediate Course and 18 on the Advanced Course.
If you are wondering why 24 and 18 don't add up to 40 people, it's
because Chris Slavin and Segey each ran the Intermediate Course after
finishing the Advanced.
There would be something unseemly about
Babe Ruth facing a Little League pitcher. Still everyone would like
to witness the Babe's legendary power and see just how far he could
hit the ball in our neighborhood. No one in our club can compete with
our version of the Babe. Nonetheless, Sergey does us a service by
showing us what is possible in this sport of endurance and judgment.
For those of you who are new to the sport, you might ponder these
fast times and wonder as I do whether some young Maris or Hank Aaron
of orienteering will rise up to challenge the old master. Knowing
Sergey as I do, I suspect nothing would make him happier. If you want
to see what top notch orienteering competition looks like, check out
this 26 minute video of the 2019 World Orienteering Championship
middle course in Norway. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahR8ZbANco4
And speaking of our younger orienteers,
watching Jackson progress from following his father's navigation to
being trailed under Angela's watchful eye to leading the family on
the Advanced Course. And, ignoring Sergey for a moment, we had four
of our youngest orienteers finish in the top four intermediate slots.
Twelve-year-old Sam Murray trailed by his dad finished first. Dad did
rescue Sam from a major error, but said that Sam did 95% of the
navigating. Dad also said that Sam was annoyed from time to time by
the failure of the old man to keep up. The team of Belen and Eloise
broke orienteering into navigation and looking for controls with
Belen doing most of the navigation while Eloise scanned the terrain.
Mom was along for the ride. Once again ignoring Sergey, Eli and his
dad finished fourth. Eli and Jackson are becoming regulars and a joy
to watch grow into this sport.
 |
| Merrill and Her Map |
Michael Bading has been a stalwart in
the club directing the logistically difficult Rabbit Creek Meet in
the Owyhees. It's a long way to drive to verify control locations one
week and set controls the next week just before the meet. And then
there's control pickup over a large area. Mike's wife Merrill ran the
Advanced Course with Mike trailing. Mike sent this happy photo.
That brings us to the bad news: Because
Rabbit Creek is as much a social event and pot luck, we have decided
to postpone it until autumn and probably until much later than that.
As it often does, good news follows the bad. We are planning for more
social distance meets. As we firm up details, new meet announcements
will appear on Meetup.com in the next few days.
John Murray
208 342-2165
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