Oh, I hope you were there! It was perfect!
The wiregrass forest was in rare form, golden and glowing in the sun. The sun itself was in rare form too, with a high of about 87F. Unseasonably warm for March 6. Lots of orienteers were in the 72F water of Rock Spring at the end of the day.
Arild Orsleie set a fine bunch of courses and a near record crowd of you turned out to enjoy them. White and Yellow were entirely within Kelly Park and I believe the 139 people on those two Beginners courses has only been surpassed twice at past FLO events. The other four courses were entirely within Wekiwa Springs State Park and the nearly 200 people on those courses brought our day's attendance to 331.
All sorts of remarkable things went on. Our Field-Checker, Dick Detweiler, who is re-mapping FLO's existing maps, was in town and took time out to run a red course with us. My younger daughter Anne, after not O-ing for a few years, returned from UF ready to get dirty & sooty, and succeeded mightily. Lots of old controlled-burned oak brush left everyone, it seemed, streaked with soot from head to toe.
Donna Fluegel, publisher of ONA magazine, left us a huge supply of complimentary copies of the latest issue. I encountered a treasure trove of ruined turpentine pots (they have a name, which I've forgotten). Ray Bruneau and a few others encountered some heavy wasp stings. Walenty Prytulo was bested fair & square by a group of 4 Boone HS JROTC cadets who had a terrific run on Orange. New members joined, some with unusual occupations, we learned.
And finally, regarding the limitation of group sizes on advanced courses, the only violation was me. I took a group around on a training run (see Toby Henson's report, elsewhere), but if we don't count that, everyone is doing very well on this score. Thanks.
Later on in the day, Ron Eaglin also took a group with him on his timed control retrieval run (brown, green and red all had common controls), including late arriver Jerry Sirmans, who was about half way through red when Ron's group caught him. Jerry then ran with them but reported that it was a bit faster than his usual pace, so even though it was great fun, he was really working by the time he finished. I know how he felt - some of the younger guys in my group out-sprinted me to the finish. Take a look at the red course results. I love to see that cluster of finishers at the top like that. The top 6 finishers are within 8 minutes, with an even distribution of times all the way down the list.
Thanks go to helpers, John Ide and Russ Steinke on registration. And to the whole Titusville JROTC contingent, including parents Mari Horn and Mike McAdams, who ran the advanced start/finish table from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm.
The map is starting to show its age, so we'll be re-fieldchecking before the next usage. The once-prominent distinct pine trees (standing dead and almost white) are about half gone and many new ones have formed. What used to be low growing thickets of oak are now taller and not at all green any more. A few new un-mapped sinkholes have formed, one of which Arild used on the advanced courses, prompting some polite discussions. My fun was trying to talk and run and navigate at the same time, while teaching the group of 'shadows' I invited along. Everyone on the Yahoo email list was invited and I was surprised that 5 actually took me up on it. They tagged along and listened and were really good about not helping me out with all the extra eyes, so I had no unfair advantage in finding controls. The only time I remember almost getting help was when Toby Henson said "there's a pretty good depression to the right". I ignored him because I "knew" we were 200 meters from any such depression, much less the one the control was in. After about a minute's confusion I figured out where we were and went into that same depression, and control, as I should have done at first. I learned a little myself out there.
In summary: smiles all around; no heat strokes; everyone accounted for. And have I mentioned that averaging 270 people per event, as we are so far this year, means we need more and more (and more) helpers? Contact someone listed on the web page the week prior to any event, whenever you'll have an hour or more to help out. You'll never be refused and you'll learn a lot.
| Name | Time |
| BS Troop 246 | 20:45 |
| M. Zehr | 20:50 |
| BS Troop 246 #1 | 22:00 |
| David Warren | 27:19 |
| BS Troop 246 #2 | 28:50 |
| G. Fray | 37:15 |
| Panthers Troop 225 | 39:15 |
| Scorpions Troop 225 | 43:00 |
| Joey Ehinger | 50:48 |
| Tyler Chapman | 55:20 |
| Besuden | 62:25 |
| WOHS #4 | 62:44 |
| Peggy Fuller | 65:00 |
| Winter Park Hafford | NTR |
| Denny | NTR |
| Tiger Den One | NTR |
| Name | Time |
| Centennial #2 | 25:55 |
| Zehr | 30:00 |
| J. Nowotny | 35:09 |
| Winter Park Thurn | 35:49 |
| Centennial #9 | 35:55 |
| Winter Park Laporta | 37:38 |
| Winter Park Carlberg | 42:00 |
| Centennial #8 | 58:13 |
| Charles Storey | 58:15 |
| Winter Park Irey | 60:36 |
| Mark Pearcy | 62:45 |
| B. Snoap | 67:41 |
| Mandil | NTR |
| George Fingers | NTR |
| GS Troop 635 #1 | NTR |
| GS Troop 635 #2 | NTR |
| GS Troop 635 #3 | NTR |
| Name | Time |
| BHS #4 | 38:54 |
| Walenty Prytulo | 44:05 |
| Pardy Party | 45:54 |
| Elaine & Bob Bates | 49:40 |
| Delinda Hood | 62:35 |
| BHS #8 | 67:20 |
| Akers Family | 68:14 |
| WOHS #3 | 73:03 |
| Paula Pradella | 73:10 |
| WOHS #2 | 75:05 |
| Schwand | 77:25 |
| Merwin | 78:20 |
| Steinke & Berlin | 79:57 |
| Centennial #3 | 83:10 |
| Steve Nemeth | 85:05 |
| Beth DeLauro | 85:18 |
| BHS #7 | 89:01 |
| Centennial #7 | 92:03 |
| J. Wilfong | 94:13 |
| Centennial #2 | 94:25 |
| Vaughn, Christianson,Young | 99:22 |
| Richard Cale | 99:25 |
| Scioli | 102:05 |
| R, K, Hill | 105:30 |
| Centennial #9 | 105:57 |
| BHS #3 | 107:14 |
| Centennial #5 | 109:05 |
| D, Kern | 110:20 |
| Matthews & Turner | 113:00 |
| Jim Fox | 148:30 |
| BHS #1 | DNF |
| S. Eckes | DNF |
| BHS #5 | DNF |
| BHS #2 | DNF |
| Wilfong&Pierce | DNF |
| Stearns | DNF |
| BHS #6 | DNF |
| W. Eckes | DNF |
| Name | Time |
| Bret Barker | 91:25 |
| Centennial #1 | 98:48 |
| Centennial #4 | 123:30 |
| Melinda Skinner | 126:00 |
| Recondo 2 | DNF |
| Carl Wilhelm | DNF |
| Centennial #6 | DNF |
| A. Schultz | DNF |
| Recondo 1 | DNF |
| Darin Jalenti | DNF |
| Name | Time |
| Mitch Jarvis | 82:49 |
| Brandon McAdams | 118:56 |
| Jenkins | 119:30 |
| Schmid | 120:30 |
| Carter Secosh | 122:21 |
| Jason Reid | 123:41 |
| John Ide | 123:18 |
| Anne Putnam | 132:57 |
| Mark & Abby Rosenberg | 144:32 |
| Matthew Keys | 150:20 |
| Shantel Voorwinden | 152:30 |
| Steven Odematt | 160:15 |
| D. Wilsey | DNF |
| Quintero | DNF |
| Joe Maliszewski | DNF |
| Dave Cutler | DNF |
| WOHS #1 | DNF |
| Name | Time |
| Toby Henson* | 60:32 |
| Rich Patillo* | 60:49 |
| Bob Putnam* | 63:20 |
| Adam Johnson* | 63:34 |
| Ron Eaglin | 66:41 |
| Derek Bohn | 68:53 |
| Ray Bruneau* | 73:30 |
| Dick Detweiler | 78:55 |
| Andy Holman | 87:45 |
| Donna Fluegel | 100:49 |
| Kyle Tallent | 103:38 |
| D. Diroto | 103:53 |
| Andrew Horn | 108:12 |
| Alicia Padrick | 108:20 |
| Paul Schonker | 116:00 |
| Jeff Misa | 117:07 |
| Steve Fluegel | 118:28 |
| Shane Keys* | 141:40 |
| Thompson & Richmond | 156:25 |
| Barolet | 169:38 |
| Norman Wilson | 173:50 |
| Jerry Sirmans | NTR |
| Greg Lunding | DNF |
| James Pridemore | DNF |
| DNR-1 | OT |
| Patricia & Pamela | OT |
| Brandon Wilson | DQ |
| * | Training group led by B. Putnam |
| DNF | Did Not Finish |
| DQ | Disqualified (Missed Controls) |
| OT | Over 3 Hour Time Limit |