Discussion: It's Corn Maze time again

For the fourth year there will be corn maze orienteering at Mike's Maze in Sunderland, MA. Once again, various national championships, this time classic, relay, and night, plus the mandatory party.

More info is here.

Note that pre-registration is required. No time deadline, but entries may be closed at any time if it seems like there are more entries than can be handled comfortably. And there is the chance, hopefully very small, that storms, or drought, or locusts, or an unexpected conversion to condos will cancel the whole thing. But hopefully it will all work, and there will be both fine orienteering and a lot of laughs. And, for the first time, some of it in the dark.

From the event page:

By the way, almost forgot, the event this year will be a joint production of CMOUSA and the Western Connecticut OC. WCOC, sensing that NEOC is consolidating its operations within I-495 and abandoning Western MA, eastern CT, and RI, seems to be making a move to become the dominant O' club in New England. Will the next step be a leveraged buyout of NEOC?

I want to see 200 posts and a new logo by the weekend. Go. :)

Wait

We've already been there, people.

That was a logo for CMOUSAOFGGWTF. I want one for the post-buyout amalgamated super-club that I shall christen NEWCOC. (hur hur </internet humour>)

Past courses at Mike's Maze --

2010: Classic (had a map change) -- map 1, map 2, and Sprint.

2011: Classic (had a map change) -- map 1, map 2, and Sprint.

2012: Classic (note that route from last control, #12, to finish is not streamered), Sprint, and Relay (leg 1 of the relay went from #5 directly to the finish).

As for 2013, still got over 4 weeks to dream something up....

Bring the event to Australia, specifically Perth.

...and bring some corn with you.

I will so miss being there!!!

On a serious note, IMO, CMO is probably the most relevant training available in the US for the urban sprints of Europe...

+1 Guy. I ran around Lucca yesterday, on a mostly-correct tourist map, and that was some pretty fun Euro-Urban sprint training - which made me think of the corn mazes back home. (DVOA's A-meet is 1 week after the local corn maze closes for the season. I wonder if we can convince them to stay open another Saturday afternoon for us.

No goat race, mass start with a skip, lots of climb?

Goats don't mix well with corn. They'd probably eat it all...

Drove past this "world record" corn maze the other day--BAOC could organize a fantastic corn maze O there, the ultra-long, perhaps.

http://www.coolpatchpumpkins.com/corn_maze.html

Update 8/4 -- The corn is growing nicely, the maze has been cut, we have a map. So barring natural disasters we're good to go for Saturday, August 24. As far as courses -- the classic will have a winning time of something in the vicinity of 15 minutes, but it's really tricky orienteering so it's easy to be 2 or 3 times that long. The relay will be two-person teams, with the first leg rather short and the second leg rather long. Teams will be made up accordingly. The reason for the relay is part social, part give you a second chance to figure out the maze.

And then the night-O. Still pondering, but I think the format will be mass-start modified score-O with 3 levels, something like the following -- 15 controls out, level 1 has to get controls 11 to 15 in any order; level 2 has to get 6 to 10 in any order and then 11 to 15 in any order; and level 3 has to get 1 to 5 in any oder, then 6 to 10 in any order, then 11 to 15 in any order. Or something like that. Or something completely different. Stay tuned. And bring a headlamp or flashlight. Controls will be the normal daytime ones, no reflectors.

An updated entry list is here.

Took a test run in the maze. It's first-class. Here's my route (though it's superimposed on the maze of two years ago, and it's not of a course I'm planning on offering, so it may not be much help).

Night-O' is going to be something. Bring your cell phones?

Looks like an interesting design whatever it is.

Looks like maybe a windmill or a flower?

I know that the one we'll be at in October will have a bee theme.

View Menu > Historical Imagery in Google Earth has 2011, 2010, and 2008 (and sorta 2006?), and 2004 when it was in the field to the north ... cool cool stuff. AMAZING the image quality jump in 2011.

I see a bird. Maybe a plane. No wait its...

We've had orienteering at Mike's Maze since 2010. Too bad we didn't start a year earlier, as Charles Darwin would have been excellent.

I am unsure if this is a recent addition to the website, but I stumbled across this picture of this year's maze. In the interest of fairness (in case anyone somehow overlooks this), the (very easy to find) link is here. It looks devastatingly homogeneous.

Update: apparently the image was posted today.

I was wondering how long it would take.... :-)

They need to start revving up the PR for their regular opening on Labor Day weekend.

So you know almost exactly what the map will be like. Ought to make it pretty easy?

{shudders}

I'm going to resist the temptation to look up this years design. In actuality, I'm not sure it would help too much without knowing where the controls are. I'll look forward to the surprise on the day.

Just add some temporary uncrossable fences. Problem solved.

Here's the Boulder-area corn maze RMOC will be visiting on October 12th:



kissy was the first-place female runner last year. :-)

Bub's BBQ Menu

Anyone up for Gator Tail?

Looks as if Mike's Maze has been dumbed down this year. Was that a result of the 9-1-1 call last year?
Boulder looks awesome! Could do a middle distance there.

Gator tail? Taste like chi'kn!

It looks like the one we'll be doing is 80% bigger this year than last! I'm still hoping to map to ISSOM again. Alert to Ed and Eddie that I might need to use your unskewing skillz again this year. I'm hoping to get a graph paper copy from the farmer, which will be easier.

This is dumbed down??

Staying in contact with the map inside Dalirama will be a serious challenge with all those corny mini-copses! Good luck relocating without lengthy bail-outs!

An updated entry list is here.

If you want to enter, still plenty of time (well, a couple of days).

By the way, no spikes allowed. Won't hurt the ground (all dirt), won't really hurt the corn (you shouldn't be stepping on it anyway), but not good for the wood steps up to the viewing tower, nor the floor of the bathroom. Haven't checked with Bub's, probably anything goes there.

Unofficial Classic Results, by request:
1. Ian Smith, 15:07
2. William Hawkins, 16:29
3. JJ Cote, 19:34
4. Clint Morse, 22:46
5. Isabel Bryant, 22:54

Relay is about to start. The atmosphere is electric, like an Iowa thunderstorm. There is a touch of flannel.

Splits are posted.

Note that at the request of several participants needing to qualify for the 2014 World Rogaine Champs, and after an emergency meeting of the Board of Directors of CMOUSA, the Night-O was changed to a 24-hour rogaine. The standard of rogaining was extremely high as 18 of the 23 teams got the maximum 2,400 points, and did it all in the dark too, with the Ian Smith team getting back the fastest, just 23:45:14 before the deadline.

Earlier in the afternoon Smith also claimed the title in the Classic Champs, plus won the relay together with Charlie DeWeese. Quite a rewarding day for the often injured but always game and obviously very talented Mr. Smith.

Splits in another form, which shows for the Night-O/Rogaine Champs in what order controls were visited, although the order of finish is not always correct.

Maps and courses from Mike's Maze --

Classic --



Relay (leg 1 was controls 1 to 9, leg 2 was controls 1 to 13) --



Night (score O) --

The consensus was that it was not dumbed down. (It was awesome, once again!)

The inspiration:

(And I think Dali would have loved this!)

I've uploaded a couple of group shots here.

https://plus.google.com/116452898079776818782/post...

Thanks Peter for organizing such a great event.

Looks awesome!! So so wish I could have been there!

Yes, thanks PG for an awesome event. For me, easily the highlight of the year.

Some more pics:
https://plus.google.com/photos/1091461223782274980...

Thanks, PG. More pictures here

Are there team results for the relay?

There are, sort of.

One can add up the times of the team members, if one knew who the team members were. And that might not be entirely accurate in the case of close finishes, thanks to our rolling mass start.

One could also look at the piece of paper on which I was writing down the finish order (for a while, until I got distracted), though I can't right now because it is in Sunderland and I'm not.

These were the teams (mostly accurate, I can't remember if there were any last-minute changes) --

Relay teams (leg 1, leg 2)

Claire Bowern, TinyFeet)
Beth Lux, Clint Morse
Gail Gagarin, William Hawkins
Lyn Walker, Ben Gallup
Noelle Brunelle, Rick DeWitt
Anna Morse, Stephen Koehler
Ken Walker Sr, Adam Caplan-Bricker
Earl LaVallee, Alex Jospe
Michelle Faucher, Bob Lux
Charlie DeWeese, Ian Smith
David Bryant, Phil Bricker
Guy Olsen, Steve Richardson
Jim Henderson, Barb Bryant
Garrett Faucher, Isabel Bryant
George Walker, Anna Shafer-Skelton
Dan Bond, J-J Cote
Susie DeWitt, Dean Sturtevant
Dave Yee, Michael Southam
Nick and Kitty Jospe, Ed Despard
Chris Jospe and Sophie, Ed Despard

Note that Ed anchored two different teams!

Charlie and Ian won.
I think Lyn and Ben were second.
Maybe Dan and J-J were third?
At some point there was a fierce sprint to the last control and then the finish, and I think the order of those three was Alex, Will, Stephen.

I suppose you want more? :-)

As I recall, Ed + the Jospe clan were third in the relay.

Dan and J-J were definitely not 3rd. Maybe 7th at best, more likely 8th. Anna/Stephen were ahead of us, and Gail/William and Earl/Alex in some order ahead of them. Stephen actually got to the final control first, but after a couple of unsuccessful attempts to get his epunch in the hole, he let the others play through.

Were there many (any?) teams in the leg 2 mass start? Looks like maybe just Clint?

Clint and Rick, I think.

Clint & Bob in the mass start...

A bit of a recap....

This was the fourth year in Mike's Maze. The first year we did it in October, late afternoon midweek between the Classic Champs at Moreau and a CSU/NEOC A meet in Boston, so lots of out-of-state participants. The second year also in October, midweek. Both times it was nip and tuck getting done before dark.

Last year I moved it to late August, but still midweek, because it seemed the weekends were already spoken for, at least for a couple of the most important protagonists (Ali and Alex). Late August was much better -- the corn was green, the maze hadn't yet opened officially so no conflicts, and a lot more daylight. This year the same late August, just moved to a Saturday afternoon/evening instead of midweek.

The first two years we used the place for free. I've known Mike and Will for years, and they were happy to let us do our thing. But by the third year I felt a bit guilty, so I asked for donations of 5 or 10 bucks a head, and gave that all to Mike. That seemed like the absolutely right thing to do, so this year I made it more official.

I asked Mike what his normal charge was. He said $10 for adults and $8 for kids. So I set the entry fee at $15 for adults and $10 for kids. That's for the whole event, three races, not per race.

And the finances worked out perfectly.

I collected a bunch of cash, which went in my back pocket. When Mike showed up, we did the math and $380 of the cash got handed over to him. I put $80 in my wallet to pay for what it cost me to print the maps, plus $7 in my wallet to cover the cost of some cups and water. That left $108 in my back pocket.

But there was still the OUSA head tax to account for. We had a total of exactly 100 starts, so $100 will go to OUSA at the end of the year. And that left a fine profit of $8 for the host club, WCOC. Excellent.

Incidentally, regarding various OUSA rules, this was the first year I actually got a club involved, WCOC, just to put it officially on their schedule. Mike didn't care about insurance certificates, so I could dispense with that. There was a waiver form, a sheet of paper with the waiver printed so small that I don't think you could read it, not that anyone tried. Got folks to sign that. I guess it gets filed away someplace. And then very easy to count the number of starters in each event, just look at the results, and that gave the head tax. It all seemed pretty simple, though maybe I was just doing it wrong....

I know some would strongly disapprove of such a meager "profit," ought to be charging $50 at least, get all the cheap orienteers used to pay proper entry fees -- since when did insulting your customer base become part of a business marketing plan? -- otherwise we just get closer and closer to the day when all the volunteer organizers are burnt out and orienteering fades away.

As if I do this to make money?

The point is to have fun. And if having fun is hard for some people, well, that's their problem.

And this was certainly fun. The night O' especially, first hanging out with Mike and his girl friend up on the tower, then as more and more came in, and they migrated up to the tower, until it seemed everyone was up on the tower, cheering on the last few arrivals. You had to be there. The only part that was not fun was when I was talking to Mike in the parking lot, I didn't notice that his dog had moved in right behind me, so when I turned to walk back to the maze, well, down I went. My wheelchair days are getting closer and closer.

If there is a maze next year, and I gather there probably will be, there most likely will be orienteering there the weekend before Labor Day.

And, found the "official" relay results --

1. Charlie DeWeese and Ian Smith
2. Lyn Walker and Ben Gallup, +0:40
3. Chris Jospe and Sophie, and Ed Despard, +4:02
4. Ken Walker and Adam Caplan-Bricker, +5:25
5. Earl LaVallee and Alex Jospe, +6:04
6. Gail Gagarin and Will Hawkins, +6:05
7. Anna Morse and Stephen Koehler, +6:06
8. Dan Bond and J-J Cote, ??
9. Guy Olsen and Steve Richardson, +6:46
10. Jim Henderson and Barb Bryant, no more times....
11. Garrett Faucher and Isabel Bryant
12. David Bryant and Phil Bricker
and then a few more....

Thanks again for all your hard work and planning such a great event. Already looking forward to next year.

I think you missed Dan Bond and me, I finished very shortly after Stephen.

Things were a bit hectic and I was enjoying watching and forgot about the writing down part. I've added you above....

From the sound of it, basically everyone had trouble with the navigation. The maze design with so much left-right and right-left seems incredibly difficult. I'm really envious.

The last (for most people) control on the Night-O/Rogaine, #50, included an off-the-map element that I doubt was accidental... ;-)

It might be interesting to see how spread-out the, um, "mass" starts were... :-)

Fun indeed. I have to do this, someday. Hopefully before it becomes all commercial with thousands of participants paying 80$ apiece.

The last (for most people) control on the Night-O/Rogaine, #50, included an off-the-map element

GuyO, #50 was most definitely 'on the map', it just didn't happen to be 'in the maze'....

Yes, the control was on the map, but the feature just west of it was not...

ok, I didn't go there so I don't know what else was over there...

A very nice cemetery, perfect for a night O'. Though the cemetery was on the other side of the little road, and you didn't have to go in there.

ok, I didn't go there so I don't know what else was over there...

GoogleMaps, dude... (I saw it, but Stephen didn't, and his reaction when I told hum about it was pretty entertaining.)