Great Falls, MD - Nov 18, 2012

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The weather was perfect for orienteering at Great Falls. The temperature was in the low 50s and there was a light breeze blowing.

Many of the controls on the advanced courses were close together. There were only a few that I had trouble finding.

2/128 was placed higher on the hill than I thought it would be. I made a couple sweeps along the bottom of the hill, close to the road before it occurred to me to look higher on the hill. Once I looked at where the control was supposed to be in relation to the bend in the road I realized that the logical place for me to look was at the top of the hill.

I "followed" other orienteers more frequently than I usually do. I wasn't always within sight of the orienteers that I was following. Sometimes they got a ways ahead of me but then I would see them after I rounded a turn or came to the top of a hill. Having them in front of me helped to confirm that I was headed in the right direction.

I found the beginning (11) of the second of the second butterfly loop unassisted. I was quickly passed by one orienteer and ended up following him through the first half (12-14) of the loop. About the time I lost him I was passed by another orienteer who I ended up following for the second half (15-19) of the loop and on to the next control (20) following the loop. About the time I lost him I was passed by another orienteer who I ended up following for the next few controls (21-26). I lost her after that and was on my own for the last couple controls.

Course: Advanced [Controls: 27; 7.6 km; 310 m]
Time: 2:16:10 - Winsplits - RouteGadget - AttackPoint
Actual Distance Traveled: 9.56 km / 5.94 miles

Pine Grove Furnace - Nov 11, 2012

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For the third consecutive year I participated in the Susquehanna Stumble. As usual I opted to "run" the short version of the stumble. I wanted to try the long version but the short is long enough, almost 10k, and I don't move fast enough to finish the long within the 5 hour time limit. At most I probably could have finished a third to a half of the second loop before I would have had to give up.

For the most part I didn't have any trouble finding the controls. In the first "window" I got a lot of help with the first control I was looking for, C. After I circled around once, lower on the hill than I should have been, I ran into Kathleen and Heidi and they pointed me in the right direction.

In a couple cases (7,14) I drifted off course and wound up 100 meters or more to the left or right of the control. In both cases I was able to figure out what I did wrong and find the control in the second attempt. I found the controls in the second window in alphabetical order but most people did not. Finding them in alphabetical order meant I had a very long walk from H to 14. It took me over 40 minutes.

It was a beautiful day. It was cool but not too cool. The sun helped to keep it warm even when the breeze was blowing.

After the stumble most of the QOC contingent met in Gettysburg, PA at the Allegheny Brewing Company for dinner.

I obtained my unofficial splits from my Garmin Forerunner 110 because e-punching was not used for this event.

Course: Short [Controls 15; 9.6 km; 385 m]

Time: 3:27:50 - Results
Actual Distance: 12.9 km / 8.01 miles

SPLITS
# Time Time (C) 1 13:08 13:08 2 10:38 33:46 C 14:21 48:07 A 5:07 53:14 B 3:52 57:06 6 11:34 1:08:40 7 19:39 1:28:19 8 16:03 1:44:22	# Time Time (C) D 13:08 1:57:30 E 5:09 2:02:39 F 7:32 2:10:11 G 7:30 2:17:41 H 10:03 2:27:44 14 41:28 3:09:12 15 11:35 3:20:47 Fin 7:03 3:27:50

Patuxent - Nov 4, 2012

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The weather was very nice for the 2012 Mid-Atlantic Orienteering Championship. It was a little too breezy to just stand around without a jacket or hat but it wasn't bitterly cold either.

I ended up volunteering after orienteering even though I had not planned to do so. I teamed up with Dan to pick up controls. I picked up 3, she picked up 7. Mine were a little more spread out than hers were. I also had to lug a couple unopened gallons of water back from the first control I picked up.

Instead of blue I "ran" the red course because it was my age appropriate course. I don't think I was fast enough to have an impact in the scoring. I finished 17th out of the 17 that finished the course.

For the most part I didn't have any trouble with the course. There was lots of up and down, especially in the southern section of the map. For a while, after crossing the road while on my way to 2/115 and until I crossed the road after finding 5/125 I didn't see anyone. It was kind of nice. That wasn't the case in the southern portion of the map. I ran into considerably more people there and often they were looking for the same controls as me, even though most of them were not running the same course as me.

There weren't many SVO participants but SVO is a fairly small club. The DVOA contingent seemed a little on the small side. That probably had something to do with the effects of Hurricane Sandy.


Course: Red [Controls 12; 7.2 km; 270 m]
Time: 2:11:13 - WinSplits - RouteGadget - AttackPoint
Actual Distance: 8.8 km