Discussion: Relay Champs live blog

And they're off. First leg runners are all running orange. First leg runners for CSU are Alex Jopse and Brendan Shields. For DVOA,we have Zac Barker.

Go DVOA!

Large train through the first spectator control.

To the prewarning we have Brendan, Alex and someone in red

And to the finish Brendan.

Then Zac, a really fast kid in yellow, Alex, Chicago.

Dan from Kansas just fished leg 1.

Who is running the second leg?

CSU 1: Ian Smith.
DVOA: Vadim
CSU 2: Peter Gagarin

CSU 1 and DVOA just trough the first spectator control together.

Chicago to the spectator control.

Sorry, don't know everyone's names and the spectator and prewarning controls are on the far side of the lake, so it's really hard to recognize people, especially if the runner is not wearing a club top.

Nice job Zac, go Vadim!

Go CSU!

To the prewarning: Ian and someone else

Here comes Ian to the finish, handing off to Ali.

20 Seconds behind Ian was Vadim, handing off to Clem.

Chicago coming in third, 2 minutes back

Go HVOh wait...

Peggy from Kansas just arrived 7 mintues back.

Oh and apparently Kansas is an 8 point team, unlike DVOA and the two CSU teams.

Peter is arriving now, to hand off to third leg runner Bill.

Ali to the first spectator control.

I think she is with Clem.

Go Clem!

Kansas to the spectator control.

In the downtime waiting for leg three runners to emerge, we are admiring the slightly overwhelming pink and white checkered O Kansas tights.

Ali and Clem at the prewarning together.

Oh wow! Full color commentary, along with the step by step action. Thanks Carol!

Ali a few seconds ahead of Clem. Leg 4 for CSU is mikkel and for DVOA is Wyatt.

DVOA and CSU have had the same forking so far so it may come down to a sprint for the finish.

Lets go Wyatt!

Chicago leg 3 now in. They are possibly an 8 point team

Kansas' runner 4 is off

Do you know, what is an estimated winning time for the last leg?

Wyatt and Mikkel together at the spectator control.

Maybe 40 minutes for leg four. Bill is arriving now, handing off to Greg.

SLOC just lost a couple minutes due to a missing fourth leg runner.

What? How could they have the same forking the whole way through? It sounds like an Irish relay.

Oddly enough I was just telling people about Irish relays. We think only the last two legs are forked anyways, which increases the odds of two teams getting the same. I'm not sure how many forked controls there are.

Tanya from Chicago (leg 3) just finished.

Greg just went through the spectator control.

Oh well, seems like it's helping CSU anyway, not needing to navigate.

Anna from SLOC through the spectator control with Nadim from QOC, although Anna seems to have visited the spectator control a couple extra times.

I can't handle the suspense. go CSU!

Wyatt and Mikkel are prewarned.

btw, thanks for these updates Carol!

Mikkel finished just ahead of Wyatt.

And Chicago just ahead of Kansas in the eight point category.

You're welcome :)

However, CSU had a punch that did not register. The organizers have said they will check the box, so we may have to wait for the official results.

Ohhhh, so close Kansas, so close!

Thanks Carol!

And Greg is just finishing now. We think they are the third 4 point team.

Quantico was the winner of the 12 point category.

This is totally awesome, thanks for the great updates Carol!!! Can't wait to hear if CSU actually won!

CSU did win! Go CSU! Exciting to have very close races in both categories.

4 point
CSU 1
DVOA
CSU 2

8 point
Chicago
Kansas
SLOC

12point
QOC
RMOC
Possum Trot (Kansas)

Whew! Congrats to the winners and their worthy nemeses.

Nice job all! Missed the finish in real time due to an extended skiing venture.

Yeah CSU!!!! Wooo! First title since 2004?

First title for CSU since 2004 confirmed

Congratulations to all, and thanks to Carol for the live results. :-)

Go CSU :-)
And nice job to DVOA- a real race.

The map from the relay showing the Green course (click for a bigger version), second leg on the 4 point relay.

Very close between CSU 2 and DVOA. I don;t think their runners were ever out of sight of each other. The third and fourth legs were minimally forked -- controls 3 and 4 above were forked to be taken in the oppsite direction, and there was another control 5 to the east of the one shown above. After that it was all the same.

But of course CSU2 and DVOA had the same forking....

I think CSU 3 (Brendan) was in the lead at the first changeover, then CSU 2 and the next two changeovers, but never by more than a little bit. The only one that mattered was the last one. Their last two controls were 14 and 15 above, Wyatt was ahead at 14 by maybe 10 meters, Mikell closed the gap on the way to 15, punching just ahead of him, and then was maybe 20-30 meters ahead at the finish.

The top two 8-point team finished no more than 30 seconds later, also very close, Marcel Olaru (sp?) ahead of Mark Everett.

Nice job on the relay by SLOC. Strange terrain but it worked. Too bad there weren't more teams there, but the winning teams were all good ones.

Thanks to Mikkel for a great race on the 4th leg, and an incredible fight to the finish. This battle inspired the largest margin I've ever had over Vadim in a finish chute, and still, Mikkel was faster. Well done!

Thanks Wyatt, I knew I could not outnavigate (or outrun) you so I had to bet on a finish sprint. My team did a great job sending me out with a slim lead which I soon blew at #2. After that point we traded back and fourth a bit but I think you were ahead of me at a majority of the controls. I thought it was an excellent relay venue with 5 spectator controls.

A prelude of the drama to be seen at next year's NAOC. But with CJR running who will do the blogging???

relay, sounds so fun!! what happened to CSU1? DQed?

There never was a CSU1: it was just a mythical team that would terrorize all others if, in fact, it were ever to be assembled.

Thanks for the commentary Carol. Just been reading it at St Louis airport - a great record of a great race!

For those who missed the "color" at the relay, here are Fritz's custom tights. (No one else in OK was so lucky to get a pair). The tights are all checks (he's wearing gators in this photo). Photo by Mike Eglinski.

From Drop Box

On the forking issue, I actually started with some pretty elaborate forking that would have separated a larger field. When I saw that turnout was going to be rather light, I simplified it to try to keep folks together. It was a bit unfortunate to have the top two teams on the same fork, but the forks were assigned by random draw and that's the way these things go. At any rate, it sure was fun to watch.

Yay for them intervals!

#1 (4 point)

From 2011-10-30 St Louis

#2 (4 point)

From 2011-10-30 St Louis

#3 (4 point)

From 2011-10-30 St Louis

Wow, Fritz, that is some team spirit. I've created a monster!

Some phone video of the CSU v DVOA finish sprint:

Holly cow! First thing I see after being cut off the grid for 2+ days is this battle! Pretty wicked! Congrats to CSU! We will get back on our feet and ready to battle next year!

CSU 1 was not at all mythical, it just wasn't in St. Louis over the weekend. Members are Izzy Bryant (takes care of the 4-point requirement, and can be awesome on an unforked opening leg), followed by Ken Jr, Boris, and Ross.

Would have been interesting to see if they would have taken the victory had they been there. I mean, could Ross claw back the time that Ali would take out of Boris?

More photos:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.101504367...

I'm looking for photos of bib 1341 finishing the first leg of the relay.

He's "that kid in the yellow shirt", Addison, "Boz". (Unfortunately doesn't log much...)

such cool photos john! i friended you just so i can tag some of them :)

Addison was flying, and right on. He will be someone to keep your eyes on over the next few years.

Here are a few more Photos, including a couple of Addison.

Addison is 3rd man on his HS XC team -- as a 9th grader.

This is addison just made a new profile, forgot the password to the previous account

You can always contact Ken for a new password, or a reminder. I've done that more than once. See 'Contact' at the bottom of the page.

thanks

Welcome back!

@Addison B.: You might want to recover Boz, then ditch this account.

Just had a cross country meet, we are going to state, I was 3rd on the team and my time was 19:37 for a 5k

Nice!

What's also nice is that you were willing to blow off XC to O in MO last week. :-D