Training Log Archive: BigWillyStyle

It's recently been brought to my attention that it is, in fact, SARTember. How exciting! Since I've been grossly negligent to date in covering the 2016 Days of SARTember, the universe will have to be content with a shamefully truncated preview.

The Venues
TT: Gas Works Park. Wide open grassy fields with some weird mechanical junk lying around. Protip: Don't be distracted by excellent views of downtown Seattle.

Round 1: Woodland Park. White forest, relatively hilly; excellent runnability. Old-timers will remember this venue from the inaugural edition of SART. Protip: Go straight.

Round 2: Carkeek Park. Thickly wooded, quite hilly park with lots of green and lots of trails. Protip: Route choice is the key here.

Round 3: Seattle Pacific University. A compact little campus largely unknown to this author other than the presence of some buildings and some grassy quad-type areas. Protip: Watch for buildings and grassy quad-type areas!!

Rounds 4 & 5: University of Washington. A sprawling campus with plenty of irregularly shaped buildings and cozy out-of-the-way nooks, but not much canopy or trap action. Protip: Beware the bridges; the dark, damp places underneath them are ideal habitat for controls.

Bonus protip: Maps of Woodland, Carkeek, and UW can be found on the SART website.

The Weather
I dunno google it lazyass
*EDIT* or I guess look at the weather thingy right there literally on your screen right now ------>>>

The Contenders
The Kid (alias Adam Woods) - 2015 third place
The Bonesaw (alias Eric Bone) - 2015 seventh place
Graembo (alias Graeme Rennie) - 2015 fourth place
The J / The Man in Black (alias Jourdan Harvey) - 2015 runner-up
The Hard Man (alias Ian Saari) - 2015 champion
Me (alias Will Enger) - 2015 eighth place

The Predictions
Top Woman: Tori Borish
Top Man/Overall Winner: Jourdan Harvey. 2016 is the J's time to complete the unprecedented Sprint Camp/SART double and become the Unified Sprint Champion of the World of the Pacific Northwest - as long as he doesn't stop somewhere for a trail selfie with iffy hashtag game.

C • SART vs NAOC 4

The last Wednesday Evening event of the year was tonight at North Seattle College; we had a pretty low turnout due to rainy-ish weather and start of school. I had to throw the courses together somewhat hastily and in hindsight should have made a couple adjustments, but people seemed to like them well enough. Shout-out to the Jonesaw for his possibly first ever victory. THE JONESAW IS COMING YALL

C • Yo. 3

Fairly strenuous BT run. Was meaning to go farther but developed a weird pain in the outside of my right knee :/

I support the coalition candidates for the OUSA BoD - as individuals and as a group. No doubt the other candidates are all knowledgeable, dedicated, hard-working people too, but for me it's a referendum on the substantial problems OUSA is facing. Perhaps some of the non-coalition candidates may also be open to change, but I have seen nothing in their candidate statements or elsewhere which gives me confidence they will work for the kind of change I feel is necessary. I care little for the "institutional knowledge" or "continuity" of an organization in decline.

In any case, even if none of the coalition (or just one, I guess) gets elected, they have already done a service for American orienteering by getting people to think and talk about the issues, by making service on the BoD seem like a coveted thing instead of something no one really cares about, and by challenging and hopefully shaking some of the complacency out of the current leadership. History tells us that those who lose elections often have a profound impact on the subsequent policies of the winners (just one recent example - Bernie Sanders' unexpected successes pulled Hillary Clinton significantly left on a number of issues).
Predictably, the coalition's efforts thus far have been met with a healthy dose of reactionary "get off my lawn" pushback - this is good, as it means they and their positions are being considered a threat. Politically speaking, to attack someone is also to acknowledge and legitimize them.

As a separate aside, our voting system seems hopelessly antiquated. Is it so hard to put a ballot in the mail for each OUSA member (or even an email)? God knows there are few enough members.

I have arisen like a phoenix from the ashes of my post-WOC existential and immunological malaise, and am ready to brave the maw once again. Onward and upward!

C • Good timing! 1

Event: Forest Run: Jungle Creek