Discussion: Stage 1 2015 New England Challenge

Please sign up (link below) for a preprinted map

Sunday, 26 April, 2015
New England Challenge Stage 1
Bear Brook State Park, Allenstown, NH

The 2015 New England Challenge is a series of high quality O events offered by
WCOC, NEOC, CSU, UNO. There will be a ranking by course determining the
New England champions. More details to follow.

Registration 10 - noon, Courses close at 3 pm
Walk to start: 800 m (except W/Y courses)

Water will be provided minimally on courses. If you need
more, you will need to supplement with your own
(hint: bring a water belt)

Sign up online by Friday morning 4/24 8 am at

http://goo.gl/forms/c4y8bzOTXN

if you want a pre-printed map

Map: 1:10000 5m contours (produced for 2011 UNO Boulder Dash)
White/Yellow/Tan courses: 1:7500

Event Organizing Team: Bob Lux, Ernst Linder, Jim Arsenault

Course Summary for NE Challenge Nr1
Course Controls Length Climb (moderate)
Blue 22 8.2 km
Red 16 6.1 km
Green 16 4.9 km
Brown 12 3.4 km
Orange 14 3.1 km
Tan 9 1.9 km
White 7 1.7 km
Yellow 9 1.9 km

Directions: From I-93 take exit 9N to Rt. 3 Hooksett for 12 miles to Rt. 28, take a right and go north

2.5 miles, turn right on Deerfield Road 2.5 miles to Bear Brook entrance on the right. After 400 meters

turn right into parking lot.

Which are the other Challenge events? This sounds great!

And don't forget, this meet will begin with some Junior Training!

NEOC challenge meet is Mt Tom on May 17.

Which will also probably be the final Junior Training for the spring season - though I still need to contact the meet director to confirm.

Credit to Ian Smith for the Challenge series:

-----Original Message-----
From: Ian Smith
To: Tim Parson ; Rick DeWitt ; Becky Carlyle ; unofam ; Alex Jospe ; Katia Bertoldi
Sent: Tue, Nov 25, 2014 4:04 pm
Subject: New England Orienteering Series

Hello, New England orienteering club organizers;

People often remark that there isn't much cross attendance among our clubs at local events in New England. I suspect that a majority of our respective memberships both don't attend and don't know much about the other clubs' activities. I think that one of the great highlights about orienteering is experiencing different terrain, and there's considerable variety even in our region.

To mitigate this, I propose we each host an event as part of the "New England Cup Series" (or some similar name). As a Boston resident, I'd be much likelier to attend an event in another state if it were advertised and if I knew the field would be deep. The objective is to bring regional competitors together without creating a ton of extra work.

The idea:
- In 2015, each of our four clubs hosts one race - two each in the spring and fall.

- We choose good terrain and maps; for instance, NEOC might choose Mt. Tom or Baldwin Hill. The terrain should ideally be near the other clubs to encourage attendance.

- The event scale is like a local meet plus: seven (white - blue) well designed courses, but otherwise relatively few amenities beyond the usual local meet. We would have e-punching, results, maybe a happy fun finish banner. I haven't decided if pre-registration would be offered. Maybe we charge a little extra - not A-meet scale, but $10 or $15 or something.

- We advertise the event liberally starting in January. I think prizes generally don't motivate people to come, so instead we could offer a "ranking" - much like OUSA's ranking; we compile the three best scores and publish it at the end of the year. People can run whatever course they want to keep it simple for results compiler people.

Best case scenario: we get more people from out of the club coming to our local meets and build camaraderie and joie de vivre in the region. Worst case scenario: we put on a big local meet and get typical local attendance.

What do you all think of the idea? If we proceed, UNO should get priority for their date choice, as they are putting on the Boulderdash in the Fall. Perhaps one day of Pawtuckaway could be the New England Cup race. We should plan around the A-meet calendar. Relatedly, we should pick seasons when we are going to host A-meets to avoid conflicts, but that's a separate discussion.

Cheers,
Ian

Good meet attendance hopefully will make these rewarding for those who put them on!

Ian, great initiative. Sort of a New England Championships; the name that was used for many years last millennium for the first, annual and only A-meet in our region. Go, go!

Becky, I'm directing the NEOC challenge meet at Mt Tom. Shoot me an e-mail about how the junior training can be coordinated with the meet: brickeratphilosdotumassdotedu

Awesome, thanks Phil. I'll be in touch this week - I've been living weekend to busy weekend for the last two months but things are finally calming down this week.

Ernst - will maps be available for people who don't pre-register?

We try our best to guesstimate the number of maps to print. We'll have a printer (lower quality) to print additional maps at the event. Please encourage people to sign up via the link given. (quick and easy)

Thanks Ernst and Bob for a great event - nice courses and good weather. The prune juice at the water stops made me pause.

I actually poured some water out of the prune juice container, just to see if it were indeed prune juice. I don't know if I was disappointed or relieved when water came out!

Very fun courses, and I really enjoyed running in the forest before all the leaves were out. Thanks!

Prune Juice: the secret of the worlds fastest runners...

I went straight for the prune juice, was a bit disappointed it was only water ;)

Results anywhere?

On the UNO site now.

Thanks Ernst and Bob!

It was just water? Were those empties from your recycling bin, Ernst? Is that your secret?

Ernst's prune juice 'secret' could be along the lines of "thou shall waste not", much to his credit.

Last I knew (recently), he's working on AP split results. A brown container with clear contents could be as perplexing as computers with their unclear contents.

Contrary to what the meet writeup says, I don't think Ruth Johnson is the oldest active orienteer in this country. Betty Bramhall out in Colorado is older and still going strong.

Empties: Yup. I start saving them during the winter - washing included - leading up to the spring O events. Bill Gray I believe popularized the idea. Half gallon and more straightly shaped - easier to handle - saves a trip to the store. Our home water is filtered and tasty.

Results: -Splits: I am still in the process of learning to save the download box's results and then processing these for uploading splits to AP. First step: Need to go to Radio-Shack to purchase the correct cable: (9 pt serial to standard USB). Hope for some progress in the near future.

Ernst, if you have the master station (USB station used for downloading or for programming controls), you should be able to read out the station used at the event in the "remote" manner.