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

Governor Dick Hill - Nov 20, 2011

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I didn't have the easiest time at GD Hill but I finished. The first part of the red course was the most difficult, for me at least. The 6 controls in that section of the course were in an area that was relatively flat and had a number of thorny spots.

1/62 This wasn't a difficult control to find but I took a round-about route to get to it.

4/65 & 5/61 These two controls were fairly close to another. I managed to walk right between them and not see either of them. I eventually realized that I must have passed them and turned around. On my second pass through I found 5/61 And then 4/65

6/79 I wasn't careful enough when looking for this control. I veered off in the wrong direction. Eventually I realized my mistake and headed back towards where I assumed the control must be. I found a control but it wasn't the one I was looking for. I circled around some more, got a better idea of where I was, and eventually found 6/79 It was visible from the other control I found. I dunno why I didn't see it when I found the control that wasn't on the red course.

I had some help finding controls 8-12. They were all fairly close together but I still appreciated the help. After finding 8/69 there was a fair amount of climbing to do to find the rest, first up and then down.

The remaining controls were not difficult to find although I managed to make a number of silly mistakes when looking for the last control and then heading to the finish.

The ride up and back was okay. Nothing too eventful happened. There was a birthday party on the bus, which began while we were still at the park. I missed most of the fun because I was changing clothes. I didn't want to endure a 2.5 - 3 hour bus ride in wet clothes.

The weather was nice and unseasonably mild for mid November in Central PA. There wasn't as much climbing on the red course as I thought there would be. The course was definitely challenging enough.

Time: 3:34:12 - winsplits - routegadget