Training Log Archive: sherpesIn the 7 days ending Jun 30, 2019:
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Sunday Jun 30, 2019 #
Event: Pittsburgh Open Streets
Orienteering (coach-surfing) 4:00:00 [0] * 1.0 km (4:00:00 / km) +20m 3:38:11 / km
10c
Set 10 controls in Arsenal Park in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh. One of the controls was set next to a pre-Civil War cannon, and a custom graphical icon was made to show up on Purple Pen when creating symbolic clues.
Set up a folding table and chair on the corner of 39th St at Butler St, and waited for the hordes of people that wanted desperately to try out orienteering. Sadly, I only had 20 color maps printed.
About 5000 cyclists/pedestrians/rollerbladers passed in front of me. Sadly, I did not have free food or drinks or pastries to hand out. Nor I had ghetto-blasters billowing out gargantuan sound waves in the tune of James Brown. Then, all of a sudden, someone came straight to my table, saying they wanted to do this thing called "orienteering". Apparently they knew in advance what it was all about, as they read it on the online event webpage "Meetup", where a series of events were created in "Pittsburgh Hiking", "Pittsburgh Adventure Group", "Amazing Pittsburgh" "Free and Almost Free Pittsburgh".
Now, I must confess, the hand-written signage did not spell out the word "O-R-I-E-N-T-E-E-R-I-N-G", but rather the more average-folk-friendly "Scavenger Hunt". And it seemed to have worked in some way, as one young cyclist saw it while zipping by, hit the brakes, and after a brief dialogue, he dismounted and locked his bike and went for the navigational challenge. I have a feeling we will see him again in regular meets.
After 3 hours of quasi-lonely table-manning presence while thousands were enjoying the event, got some relief when Naomi Jarvis stopped by, still with her Alpina rollerskis on her feet, and offered to be present at the table, so I could jump on my bicycle and get some breeze riding the event. And so I did.
It was a hot day. Somehow my legs were really tired and quasi-crampy. I don't think I drank enough water before running the NEOOC event yesterday. Still recovering from yesterday, it feels like it.
Set up a folding table and chair on the corner of 39th St at Butler St, and waited for the hordes of people that wanted desperately to try out orienteering. Sadly, I only had 20 color maps printed.
About 5000 cyclists/pedestrians/rollerbladers passed in front of me. Sadly, I did not have free food or drinks or pastries to hand out. Nor I had ghetto-blasters billowing out gargantuan sound waves in the tune of James Brown. Then, all of a sudden, someone came straight to my table, saying they wanted to do this thing called "orienteering". Apparently they knew in advance what it was all about, as they read it on the online event webpage "Meetup", where a series of events were created in "Pittsburgh Hiking", "Pittsburgh Adventure Group", "Amazing Pittsburgh" "Free and Almost Free Pittsburgh".
Now, I must confess, the hand-written signage did not spell out the word "O-R-I-E-N-T-E-E-R-I-N-G", but rather the more average-folk-friendly "Scavenger Hunt". And it seemed to have worked in some way, as one young cyclist saw it while zipping by, hit the brakes, and after a brief dialogue, he dismounted and locked his bike and went for the navigational challenge. I have a feeling we will see him again in regular meets.
After 3 hours of quasi-lonely table-manning presence while thousands were enjoying the event, got some relief when Naomi Jarvis stopped by, still with her Alpina rollerskis on her feet, and offered to be present at the table, so I could jump on my bicycle and get some breeze riding the event. And so I did.
It was a hot day. Somehow my legs were really tired and quasi-crampy. I don't think I drank enough water before running the NEOOC event yesterday. Still recovering from yesterday, it feels like it.
Saturday Jun 29, 2019 #
Orienteering (rogaining) 2:17:23 [3]
36c shoes: Salomon Speedcross
Northeast Ohio Orienteering Club hosted a great event in a boy scout reservation just a few miles north of New Philadelphia, Ohio. It was a hot day to be running, but the course had numerous water stops. It was great to see the usual folks, and then, final treat, ice cream with Hershey's chocolate syrup. On the drive back, had a problem with my ligament holding up the big toe on the right foot and it was painful to hold the toe lifted a bit while in position on the accelerator pedal of the motorized vehicle I was driving, so I stopped and designated the spouse to be the driver. Never had that happen before. It seems fine now, hours later.
Got to the event start at 10:57, and had no time to plan a route, so I winged it. In the rush to pack stuff for the trip, forgot my GPS watch and had no way to tell time elapsed, and with this being a Score-O course, that was going to be a problem. Or maybe not, since I don't care about results, in my mind I already decided i was going to clear the course with late penalties incurred. But then got loaned a small wrist watch from the Columbus orienteers (Shinichi Shimizu... ) so now I was 100% operational. It ended up that the course was clearable for me with much time remaining, so the watch was not necessary after all.
Looks like i went to 49 twice. Well, my eyes just can't see that well anymore. Something I need to do is highlight in highlighter yellow the circles. That will help in visualization. There were a total of 36 controls. With the zero planning time, I was trying to remember which control I already had been at, and specially trying to detect any control circle location that I had not been at yet.
On the way to the farthest controls, got passed by Sydney at 71 and followed her to 75, 76, 73. After that, messed up and lost map contact. The powerline sight revealed my true position and regained map contact. The rest was fine. Some folks could not find 62. I had no problem but I understand that the vegetation there obscured sight a bit.
At around 42 and 41, was perplexed at the yellowish area in the woods, when there were mature trees and green. I initially thought that it was because 10 years ago the area was logged of its mature trees, leaving behind only the short trees and shrubs. But then, at the finish, talking to Fred Mailey, he showed me the map legend, and that breed of yellowish color was intentional to denote areas with pine trees. Not sure that I like it.
Wanted 40 to be my last control before finish, so that I had almost no climb to the finish. But that was not to be. Because I was at 33 and then 32, decided that it was foolish to go 36-37-38-39-40 and then 31-Finish, so i decided to go from 32 to 31, and do 40-39-38-37-36-F. Better planning before start would have avoided that. But that's what you get for being a late arrival.
Finished and found a well rested Syd and Kevin Fisher, both cleared the course with ample time left.
Overall a nice event. On the way back, spotted a lake along Ohio Route 250 and beach area, but they wanted $10 per vehicle entrance, and we just wanted to dip our overheated bodies in the water for 5 minutes. Nah, U-turn and back East. Fun trip overall.
Got to the event start at 10:57, and had no time to plan a route, so I winged it. In the rush to pack stuff for the trip, forgot my GPS watch and had no way to tell time elapsed, and with this being a Score-O course, that was going to be a problem. Or maybe not, since I don't care about results, in my mind I already decided i was going to clear the course with late penalties incurred. But then got loaned a small wrist watch from the Columbus orienteers (Shinichi Shimizu... ) so now I was 100% operational. It ended up that the course was clearable for me with much time remaining, so the watch was not necessary after all.
Looks like i went to 49 twice. Well, my eyes just can't see that well anymore. Something I need to do is highlight in highlighter yellow the circles. That will help in visualization. There were a total of 36 controls. With the zero planning time, I was trying to remember which control I already had been at, and specially trying to detect any control circle location that I had not been at yet.
On the way to the farthest controls, got passed by Sydney at 71 and followed her to 75, 76, 73. After that, messed up and lost map contact. The powerline sight revealed my true position and regained map contact. The rest was fine. Some folks could not find 62. I had no problem but I understand that the vegetation there obscured sight a bit.
At around 42 and 41, was perplexed at the yellowish area in the woods, when there were mature trees and green. I initially thought that it was because 10 years ago the area was logged of its mature trees, leaving behind only the short trees and shrubs. But then, at the finish, talking to Fred Mailey, he showed me the map legend, and that breed of yellowish color was intentional to denote areas with pine trees. Not sure that I like it.
Wanted 40 to be my last control before finish, so that I had almost no climb to the finish. But that was not to be. Because I was at 33 and then 32, decided that it was foolish to go 36-37-38-39-40 and then 31-Finish, so i decided to go from 32 to 31, and do 40-39-38-37-36-F. Better planning before start would have avoided that. But that's what you get for being a late arrival.
Finished and found a well rested Syd and Kevin Fisher, both cleared the course with ample time left.
Overall a nice event. On the way back, spotted a lake along Ohio Route 250 and beach area, but they wanted $10 per vehicle entrance, and we just wanted to dip our overheated bodies in the water for 5 minutes. Nah, U-turn and back East. Fun trip overall.
Raccongainer's route at @NEOOrienteering event at Camp Tuscazoar (BSA) located just north of New Philadelphia, Ohio.
— Raccoongaine (@Raccoongaine) June 29, 2019
1h17m23s, 36 controls found, one control found twice (any extra credit?)
Great idea to offer ice cream at the end !!! pic.twitter.com/fys8m6CSIv