Over fifty orienteers came to Umstead park on Sunday for our first open event of the 2022/2023 season. The weather conditions were rather unpleasant, with a dew point of 74, and occasional light rain. Because we were expecting even more participants, I designed a fairly large, sprawling event, including a rare “blue” course that covered nearly 12 km and went to parts of the park that we rarely visit. Brian Thompson turned in an impressive performance on this course, winning with a pace of just over 11 minutes per kilometer. Interestingly, Brian’s was the fastest pace of any competitor of the day.

I have a few regrets and mea culpas. 1: Having put the GPS coordinates of the park shelter into the event announcement, I figured erroneously that I wouldn’t need to put out directional signs to the event. This decision cost some folks way too much time and frustration finding us. 2: The leg from 3 to 4 on white went through a confusing section that had some unmapped trails. I could have either warned people about this, or fixed the map. 3: (A minor concern) The mapped symbol for control #71 on the red and blue courses (cairn) didn’t match the control description (ruin). There was some discussion among the vetters about what this should be called and the final version of these courses weren’t properly updated. Finally, I’m sorry that some very good orienteers had some pretty bad days. I trust that they’ll all shake it off and come back stronger at our next event.

One thing that I’m struggling to regret is control #56 (small depression), which cost many people on the brown, green and red courses some time. I recognize that point features that have control bags below the ground surface, like this one, risk being labeled as “bingo” controls. But when I picked it up after the event, I’m still very convinced that even though it’s hard, it’s also fair.

Many thanks to everyone who helped put this event together. Imre Polik did yeoman’s work vetting controls, setting some of the most distant controls, and helping with control pickup. Lina Lindberg vetted many of the control sites, and helped with re-mapping the area of the park around control #71 on the red and blue course. Susan Carl came early on Sunday and helped with registration. She was joined later by William Allen, who also helped with control pickup. Ian Shields taught the “yellow-to-orange” class, and helped with clearing the event. Finally, Adalia Schafrath-Craig stepped-up to teach the beginner’s class, and her pupils returned happy and satisfied. Thanks so much to all of these volunteers — you made a hard job a whole lot easier. Results follow

Umstead North, Sept 2022, Split times

2022-09-11

Created 2022-09-11 16:14:12 with SI-Droid Event 1.15.4