in: Swampfox; Swampfox > 2008-08-10;
| # Posted 2008-08-11 08:19:47 | |
| GlenT: | Thanks for all your efforts which let us orienteer in fabulous terrain on excellent maps. |
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| # Posted 2008-08-11 09:09:44 | |
| JanetT: | We love coming to Laramie (and Colorado too, sometimes) and appreciate all your work on the maps -- the terrain is definitely [edit: fun to] run on. Thanks! [edit: brain no work good today] |
| # Posted 2008-08-11 19:42:14 | |
| Swampfox: | Thanks for the kind words! Orienteering in the Rockies in the summer, well, how much better can it get? It was a blast to see folks coming from all around the country to take part in the fun. |
| # Posted 2008-08-11 21:24:36 | |
| Charlie: | A "remarkable" event indeed! Many thanks, Mikell, for the fine maps and courses. |
| # Posted 2008-08-11 21:40:02 | |
| Cristina: | Awesome weekend! My whole family had a blast. Thanks! |
| # Posted 2008-08-11 21:58:54 | |
| Swampfox: | Boojums--sorry for that little mix-up with your family trying to get out at first on Day 1. We only had *just* enough maps printed up, so any "day of" registrants were supposed to have to wait until all the pre-registereds had gone out to make sure we had enough maps. Registration (Brooke) knew that, but the Start crew didn't. And I was trying to explain to your dad at the Start line why he couldn't just get a blank map (because there weren't any!) and go out, while I think he was trying to explain to me that he wasn't racing and therefore it was no problem to have him out in the forest with a blank map. A little comical, in retrospect.
But I gather that it worked out well enough in the end. |
| # Posted 2008-08-11 22:08:53 | |
| Swampfox: | Charlie, if/when you get back out here, you can check out that little clearing on your own, and see what it looks like without the time/race stress. It's there, it's mapped the way I think it ought to be, and the control was hung high. Sorry you had problems there, but glad that you enjoyed everything else, and glad that you were able to make it out. It may well prove to have been a "once in a lifetime" chance to have run the Classic Champs in Wyoming. The ones that missed it, well, too bad.
It was a heck of a lot of work, and to have taken it on so late in the game (last Fall) when no other clubs were lined up to do the US Champs and try to get the mapping done in time, and then to get with the additional whammy of a winter season that literally lasted 5-6 weeks longer than usual really put the time pressure monkey on our shoulders. It was more than worth doing it in the end, given how things turned out (despite my bad, bad mistake with the three mispaired Green maps on Day 1--I still can't figure how that happened, but no mistake that it was solely my fault, and nobody else was to blame for it), and I'm glad the group stepped up to take it on. But I doubt very much we will do anything like that again anytime soon, if ever! |
| # Posted 2008-08-12 03:04:04 | |
| bishop22: | Swampfox - many thanks (to you and your wonderful cohorts) for taking this on. My family had a great time running on your very fine maps (even if my times weren't so great). It was well worth the marathon drive. |
| # Posted 2008-08-12 06:00:56 | |
| Nit-A-Nee: | Thank you for the great event this weekend. I absolutely love this terrain and the maps and courses were perfect. I'm kicking myself for not coming for the whole week.
if/when you get back out here, you can check out that little clearing on your own or you could just check it out on Google Earth. : ) View Larger Map |
| # Posted 2008-08-12 08:28:15 | |
| Swampfox: | Indeed. The Google imagery over both US Champs areas is fantastic! |
| # Posted 2008-08-12 08:35:35 | |
| Swampfox: | The course setter reveals: #71 and #72 on Day 2 were quite close together, and on features that, at least in the terrain, were pretty similar.
It seemed to me that orienteers ought to be able to distinguish the two control sites well enough, but, with those controls so late in the course, and with it being the last day as well, I didn't want to have the event spoiled for anyone by a mispunch there. So I deliberately placed identical punches on those two controls. |
| # Posted 2008-08-12 15:55:34 | |
| Charlie: | No complaints, Mikell. I shouldn't expect all easy controls at the US champs, and I have had this perceptual difficulty before of something not looking quite the way I had expected it to and then repeatedly running by a control without seeing it. Got back yesterday to some real Eastern thunderstorms. Thanks for the invite back - I'll be sure to take another spin around Remarkable Flats. Where was #72? |
| # Posted 2008-08-12 17:56:56 | |
| skdewitt: | Rick and I echo the thanks. The week, particularly the weekend, was loads of fun. We appreciate the tremendous amount of work and care you put into it. |
| # Posted 2008-08-12 18:33:06 | |
| Swampfox: | This shows most of the controls near the Finish, including #71 and #72 (the "7"s are just edging into the appropriate rings):
 |
| # Posted 2008-08-12 18:55:21 | |
| maprunner: | Green Y had control 72. I was with a Green X runner at the end, and he was quite funny, cursing and grumbling while he first found 72 and then looked for 71 :) |
| # Posted 2008-08-12 19:05:14 | |
| Swampfox: | I was on top of the huge bare rock area and looking down on everything for a while, and I was also out on a biggish knoll out in the terrain for a while, with said knoll having two controls on it. I saw a *lot* of people doing a lot of wandering around and only occasionally looking at their maps, when it's supposed to be more the other way around: when you're near the control, look at your map and then "wander" straight on over to the control.
More than a few people were dropping 5, 6, 7 minutes or more, and within 50-100m of the controls the whole time. I've already seen at least one post on an AP log where you would have the idea that the poster had basically done the whole course without any mistakes and it had all been pretty easy, and yet I watched that very person losing *massive* amounts of time in and near the control ring. Go figure. ; ) It was eye opening, and quite a window into how orienteering is *not* supposed to be done! |
| # Posted 2008-08-12 20:15:18 | |
| Ricka: | Thanks! "It was great to be back." even if this was my first trip to WY vs CO. For a compact area, the variety of terrains during the week was amazing - and challenging - Bisbee Hill ate me up. I left St. Louis at 4 am with 80 degrees and high humidity - so the weather was welcome. And it is nice for Zan to be envious of one of her dad's adventures. I only got to the Altitude restauant once, so I guess I need to come back again.
Though I'm not in shape for WY speed (1. lack of running; 2. leg injury), I enjoyed both days - staying in contact, finding safer routes on first 1/2 of Day 1, reducing time in and out of control, moving legs - while gasping for air. Like a much younger CO swampfox once said, "If the O' is too easy, you're not running fast enough." And the spectating hillside revealed the difficulty of turning on the brain at the end of a course. On that hillside, runners with chips, by course, would make a great O' video. Though I survived my 72-71 confusion by punching both, I concur with your clever solution. |
| # Posted 2008-08-12 20:53:48 | |
| Charlie: | I also had only one trip to the Altitude, before I had the good fortune to find Sweet Melissa's. Highly recommended!
I don't know if SF was up on the knoll when I was looking for #71, but my behavior was certainly worth a laugh, as I checked all sorts of rocks before relocating and then going straight into it. Just sloppy. |
| # Posted 2008-08-12 21:09:53 | |
| Swampfox: | Charlie, I didn't see you, but rest assured--you weren't alone. At times when I was looking down it almost seemed as if the objective in this curious little sport we do was to *not* find the control! |
| # Posted 2008-08-12 21:38:10 | |
| 20_of_70: | What a blast! Thanks from a back-of-the-packer. I very much liked the contrast in styles between the two days on blue, and realized after the fact that I didn't take as much advantage of the long legs on day 2 to read the circles as I could/should have. I thought spectating at the crystal relay two years ago was amazing, but the pinball field topped even that.
There are some who may not like the style of day 2 just as there were some who didn't like the style of Prince William last year, but I just say that, for orienteering, its all just so fine. Any biochemistry faculty positions opening up at UW? =-) |
| # Posted 2008-08-12 21:41:56 | |
| Swampfox: | Wyoming is one of the few states that is still seeing surpluses at the state level (taxes/royalties collected versus budgeted expenses), and a fair amount of that money gets funneled into the university. So you never know. But the real opportunities probably are on the energy side, where UW is making a real push these days.
And I agree that having the contrasts and differences in terrains and forests and course setting styles is a strength of the sport and not a weakness. It's one of the things that really sets orienteering apart. It's certainly true that you can't please everyone. And for someone who might not have cared for what was offered in one particular year, then there is always next year! |
| # Posted 2008-08-12 23:07:29 | |
| Cristina: | I was one of those pinballs on the hillside. I'd rather have a course get the best of me and still finish feeling like it was fun over having a clean but not fun course, so certainly a success in my book. |
| # Posted 2008-08-13 23:09:42 | |
| feet: | Hmm. I claim a clean (almost) run, except in the area near Show Me Rock, so if you were hanging out there, you might disagree. (But I guess it was a rock nearer the finish you were hanging out on.) |
| # Posted 2008-08-13 23:29:06 | |
| jjcote: | I think I'm in the clear as well, because although I definitely described it as easy and clean, my only errors were a minor one in a wooded area, and one where I stood still at the correct control on the finish hillside for a while because I knew I was in the right place, but the control code didn't seem to match.
(That's "'Scuse Me Rock", feet, not "Show Me Rock". As in "while I kiss this guy", not as in "misery".) |
| # Posted 2008-08-13 23:33:08 | |
| feet: | Oh yeah, and thanks, Mikell. It's true the area would be trickier if one was running fast enough, but I'm afraid fast enough is partly about sub 4:00/km, something no US runner is close to.
(Memory, schmemory. I'm sure there are musical cowboys in Missouri.) |
| # Posted 2008-08-14 03:04:05 | |
| Ricka: | Among people who ran the same course in VA and WY, it would be interesting to measure the consistency of their placement on the course. Does it reflect skill in VA vs speed in WY, or is it consistent with some random shuffling? (I suspect the latter.)
As I slowed the last couple years, my O' skills seem stronger than my speed. From this perspective, in terms of potential outcome, I preferred Sat course to Sun course, and VA courses to WY courses. (Yet I was 5th each year in M55; if Glen T is included.) But those vistas and blue skies were entrancing! I ran better on Sunday than I've run for months - adrenalin! After a discouraging year physically, I'm motivated to get back to running (I hope). VA and WY offered their distinct challenges and then there were OR and WI a few years ago - quite a variety of US terrains! To amplify Mikell's hints above, even among professed 'clean' runs in WY, did we take full advantage of the easy legs: read clue description and control # to get into controls cleanly; look ahead 1-2 legs to leave control quickly; few pauses to read map; use attack points, check off features, and micro route choices to reduce bobbles - 5 sec here & 15 sec there add up invisibly on a fast course - on most terrains I'm usually more focussed on 'surviving each leg' than worrying about smoothness. On Sunday Green X, swampfox gave us 2 easy long legs to 12 & 13 before cresting the hillside - lots of opportunity to plan the finish - I didn't! - sure wished I'd looked at #14-17 a bit more. Next year, the morraine terrain of SE WI greets us. Thanks for the variety! |
| # Posted 2008-08-14 17:17:06 | |
| jjcote: | I will say that, while I was on the course Saturday, I wondered to myself, "Hmm, what's my favorite map anywhere? Could be this one, I suppose". |
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