Saturday dawned rather windy, sunny at times, and converted to a steady sprinkling drizzle of rain by the time the meet began at Ann Morrison park. While initially it was a slow start, eager orienteers began trickling in to copy map courses in the wet before stuffing their zip-loc bags and heading off. We even had a visitor, Terry Churchill, who flew all the way up from the LA club to attend our now famous meets (actually she was in town on business and decided to grab the opportunity to practice.) The course setter managed to misplace a control on the intermediate course, unfortunately, perhaps in a moment of grogginess left over from a bad cold. Grace was granted for that one, and for the one that lost a punch sometime during the meet.
No takers for the beginner course on this wet and windy day. Andy Hill gets extra credit for picking these controls up after the meet and admiring how easy it was.
For a case of classic-O, there was the intermediate course. The family of Jeremy, Megan, and Karen Doherty made a valiant return after their experience on Stewart last October and found them all except the misplaced control. Bob Didesse took Piper out and managed to find even that one, which he cheerfully informed the meet director of. Said director is perhaps given one mistake a year...
The advanced course saw the most competition and discussion given that it was a "line-O". In this case, the course map is laid out in the same format as classic, but the control can be placed anywhere along that line rather than always at the endpoint. The intent is to sharpen the eyes of the orienteer to their surroundings, keep a bearing in the face of obstacles, and just make things interesting in the open flats of Ann Morrison. David Bergset took up the gauntlet and blitzed the course with the fastest time. Sergey, looking for even more challenge, memorized the course and went without a map to return only a couple minutes behind (on which his foot injury was surely to blame.) Terry Churchill made a solid run to find them all and came back to discuss the various merits of A meets and how nice LA country can be in early June. Kristin Ritzenthaler arrived with new baby, husband, and dog, but took to the course solo to make a grand run seconds behind Sergey. Karin tur!
ned came in notably above her predicted finish time within reaching distance of the leaders.
Results:
Beginner: 0.875k, 0m climb, 6 controls (classic-O)
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none
Intermediate: 3.375k, 5m climb, 10 controls (classic-O)
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Bob Didesse 45:30
Jeremy, Megan, Karen Doherty 83:15
Advanced: 3.91k, 0m climb, 10 controls (line-O)
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David Bergset 18:20
Sergey Velichko 21:00
Kristin Ritzenthaler 21:35
Karin Didesse 31:00
Terry Churchill 50:12
A solid turnout with enjoyable runs despite the wet weather. Many thanks to all those who helped pick up the 20+ controls: Andy, David, Terry, Bob, and Karin. Next month we go to the newly improved Veteran's Park map, with potential for further expansion after the meet. Sergey is meet director.
For those who would like to run an A meet in early June, Terry provided several fliers for LA. Feel free to grab one at the next meet.
See you next time,
Jeff Black