September 1. Labor Day.
The end of Summer.
The first fresh nip of autumn in the air. Did you feel it too?
Never higher than 88°F all day long. Humidity: tolerably lower than 80% all day long, except before 11 AM and during afternoon showers. A Beautiful blue sky, out of which occasionally a few raindrops appeared. No kidding: you could look up into a perfectly blue sky with sun-lit raindrops falling right on you. Then later, real rain and real clouds.
And other highlights: National Orienteering Day - With a big new Banner and Door Prizes and, not incidentally, a bang-up USOF Class B event on a brand new Billies Bay map. Then there was the Port-a-John making life so much more bearable in the otherwise facility-challenged Ocala Forest. Then there was the forest itself - great running over open ground, some freshly burned, and an opportunity to set some especially nice courses.
Thanks to all who turned out to savor the new forest and Jonathan Linforth's pre-marked maps.
We hope you had fun.
For all those first time orienteers - thanks so much for giving the Sport For A Lifetime a try and we hope you enjoyed yourselves enough to come back again and again.
For those of you not among the 130 lucky orienteers who did make it: our condolences. You missed a fine day.
Arild Orsleie told me to quote him saying you missed the best Red course he's seen in Florida. All those folks who tried the Yellow course came back smiling, seeming to validate my assurances to them that they were on a "classic" Yellow course. I cannot recall ever having such an ideal arrangement of trails allowing leg after leg after leg on Yellow being just the right mix of long round-about trail alternative with a shorter cross-country option, and with several legs involving a choice of aim-off right, or aim-off left tactic. Great learning experience for all.
I knew I'd set up a challenging variety of alternate techniques to be used on the red/green course, but even I was surprised by the creative ways in which folks were able to blow 15 or 20 minutes at a time on a single control. Your poor course-setters can't think of everything, hard as we try. For instance Artur "The-Baltic-Flash" Intson wasted 15 minutes on the very first red control but still took first place in 72 minutes, a scant 65 seconds ahead of Arild "Shameless-Flatterer-of-Coursesetters" Orsleie who himself wasted ten minutes on one control. Likewise, Ron Eaglin and his team of adventure racers felt as though they'd virtually re-mapped one whole area searching for Red #6. And we learned Dave Ousley's time ballooned because he wrestled with Red #3 and #5. Expect a FLO newsletter article on that matter sometime soon.
Bev Ousley's encounter with ground dwelling wasps (many many bites) apparently slowed her down and Andy Holman took first place Red for women with a pretty good time.
The Brown course was distinctly different from Red & Green - not simply truncating them to get less distance. Only the final control was common. I was anxious to see how the times came in. I must admit to being disappointed that Brown course times were so long. I think I made both Green and Brown too tough. I'm not yet sure what I learned from that, but I hope all the competitors learned a lot. Let us know what you think.
I recall seeing good winning times on Orange and Yellow and today, at least, I have the feeling Orange was a good course. Recall that it's the toughest course to design well, since it usually turns out too hard or too easy for that imaginary Intermediate Level Orienteer for whom it's intended. Let us know what you think about this, too, orange-coursers.
Lots of adventure racers turned out and it was terrific to have them, but only Titusville and Oviedo JROTC. Apparently the JROTC Training Camp September 5-6-7 siphoned most of them away. Not to worry. FLO still benefits from the enthusiasm that such a camp is going to generate, not to mention the map revenues we still get.
The area we used for this Billies Bay map was originally scouted five years ago when we were planning what then became Woodpecker Hill. It looked pretty crappy then, so we saved it 'til last. When Malcolm Adams mapped this area in February 2003, it had grown up some, but he was dismayed by the low-vine briars and we all still thought it wasn't such a hot area. Now, after having set some satisfying courses there, I think Billies Bay could be one of our best venues. We'll just try to route people around the junkier stuff.
Setting the red/green controls that morning, I had a great run, with minimal clingy-vine problems, (falling only once) but then I knew, more or less, where I was going. I loved having terrain to read. Did you all notice and appreciate the Billies Bay terrain - real relief - with, like, contours and saddles and re-entrants and...and...and: Hills! Cool!
We haven't yet finalized the distribution of the Door Prizes donated by Brunton Compass, Map-Tech software and FLO (T-Shirts), but you winners will be notified promptly.
USOF will be happy to learn of the number of new members we signed up on National Orienteering Day: Jim Septer, The Jason Reid Family (Jason, Jennifer, Jessica, & Kristina), Joseph Battle, The Mike Hetzenroth Family (Mike, Becky, Jake, & Andy), The William Thompson Group (Bill, David Shuman, Ken Richmond, & Sue Hewlings), and Dave Hatten (recruited by the Gottshalks). FLO is certainly happy, too. Seventeen new members. Welcome to all!
Thanks go to Ray Bruneau for EC-ing the event, arranging for the port-a-john, passing out beef jerky treats, stealing his wife's rain-proof shelter for the day, hauling stuff to & fro and still doing start/finish. More thanks to Janet Putnam and Bev Ousley for registration, Russ Steinke for Start-Finish, Jonathan Linforth for maps, Ron Eaglin and Company (I'll get all their names someday - honest) for setting controls and Joe Maliszewski & Ray for retrieval.
Bob
| Name | Time |
| Swiercingky (M) | 29:35 |
| Burton (M) | 36:15 |
| Gross (M) | 37:15 |
| Himmler (G6) | 83:15 |
| Jessica & Kris (G2) | DNF |
| Name | Time |
| Odermatt (M) | 49:24 |
| Voorwinden (F) | 53:50 |
| Reid (G4) | 60:22 |
| Titusville NJROTC (G5) | 66:59 |
| Abee & Nye (G2) | 68:10 |
| Jackson (1) | 71:00 |
| Nemeth (G6) | 72:04 |
| Borah (G5) | 77:10 |
| Battle (G2) | 78:33 |
| Metzenroth Family (G4) | 143:00 |
| Name | Time |
| Prytulo (M) | 58:04 |
| Pardy (G2) | 65:45 |
| Sampoux (G4) | 68:23 |
| Godber (G3) | 71:30 |
| Steinke (M) | 75:09 |
| Misa (M) | 92:00 |
| Holley (M) | 94:59 |
| Nemeth (G6) | 99:40 |
| Milliken (M) | 101:00 |
| Joiner (G2) | 102:00 |
| Troop 524 #1 (G4) | 113:00 |
| Bates (G3) | 114:00 |
| Bell (G2) | 119:00 |
| Oviedo #3 (M) | 122:25 |
| Spencer (G2) | 125:00 |
| Troop 524 #2 (G5) | 127:30 |
| Durjan (F) | 134:30 |
| Bahamon (M) | 140:00 |
| Hawkins (G2) | 155:30 |
| Oviedo HS #2 (G4) | 157:00 |
| Cale (M) | 195:00 (OT) |
| Battle (G2) | DNF |
| Espey-Francis (F) | DNF |
| Name | Time |
| Godber (G3) | 84:00 |
| Reid (G4) | 102:00 |
| Padrick (G2) | 115:00 |
| Spencer (G2) | 119:00 |
| Nestlebush (M) | 123:06 |
| Hugoboom (M) | 168:00 |
| Jimenez (M) | 190:58 (OT) |
| Barker (M) | DNF |
| Taylor (F) | DNF |
| Matthews (G2) | DNF |
| Name | Time |
| Royer (G2) | 97:40 |
| Bohn (M) | 98:00 |
| Tischer (G2) | 108:06 |
| Rosenburg (G2) | 117:24 |
| Clayburn (G2) | 152:50 |
| Name | Time |
| Intson (M) | 73:30 |
| Orsleie (M) | 74:50 |
| Shuman (G3) | 84:45 |
| Hollingsworth (G3) | 87:45 |
| Holman (F) | 103:10 |
| Gottschalk (G2) | 103:20 |
| Sheppard (G3) | 104:45 |
| Alex & Allyson (G1) | 109:50 |
| Cfar (G3) | 117:45 |
| Hession (G2) | 122:40 |
| Ousley, Bev (F) | 157:00 |
| Hatten (G4) | 164:00 |
| Joe Maliszewski (M) | DNF |
| Eaglin Team (G4) | NTR |
| DNF | Did Not Finish |
| NTR | No Time Recorded |
| OT | Over 3 Hour Time Limit |