I don’t know what happened --- 16 entries; 33 starters; 29 people total; Only 12 people were able to complete a course – and they were only White and Yellow. Evidently, a Tropical Storm (Barry), a 5 county Tornado Warning with us in the center, a forecast of heavy rain all day, and me telling everyone beforehand that you may be turned away is all it takes to keep people away. Who knew? Even though only the White and Yellow courses went off without a hitch, can we take comfort in the fact that with such a low turnout a smaller number of people failed to finish a course than at a normal event? I thought so.
Smaller events in FLO history: 7/14/91 Blue Springs Hasher Training (10), 8/1/92 Paisley Training (21), 10/28/95 Mead Gardens special Girl Scout Program (27). That’s it. Exactly three events out of the last 218 FLO has hosted (averaging over 150 at each of those) drew fewer people. Oh well. Maybe we’ll re-think trying to schedule a ‘regular’ monthly event at LBE in June of each year and use LBE strictly for special training events, etc. If you have thoughts on this post it to the Yahoo Group.
Course Designer Will Pirnasch and I realized the Green and Red courses would be awfully difficult and challenging, and perhaps if more people had entered, there would have been a higher (a finite!) success ratio.
At this writing we think we have figured out why there were no finishers on Orange. Those of you who left frustrated can at least feel vindicated since neither Ron Eaglin nor I could locate Orange #5 or #7 we I have to conclude they were stolen. It’s not hard to imagine a passerby seeing Orange #7 and being tempted, since it was hung Thursday evening. Orange #5 is more difficult to rationalize being stolen, since even though it should have been clearly visible from the adjacent field we didn’t think humans frequented that particular field. I expected to at least find a red ribbon or broken string if an animal had taken it. Only one person punched Orange #6, with everyone else claiming “it wasn’t there”, but I found it at lunch time today spot on.
As it turned out, the weather was beautiful. Maybe a few minutes of light sprinkles to get the table wet. Otherwise, big fluffy clouds and tolerable temperatures. You should have been there.
Thanks to Will for a great effort on course design, thanks to Jonathan Linforth and Janet Putnam for helping at Registration, Start & Finish and to Ron for control retrieval. Jonathan spent (nearly) the whole time manning the remote start for Green and Red courses and had only 3 customers all day. Dedication.
Have a great, relaxing summer, stay in shape, and we’ll see you all in the Fall, the first Saturday after Labor Day at Rock Springs Run.
Bob Putnam
| Name | Time |
| O’Neil Family | 64:20 |
| Nelson | 70:09 |
| Name | Time |
| O’Neil Family | 35:47 |
| Pyros Lions | 45:14 |
| Free Spirits | 125:00 |
| Mina & Pam | NTR |
| Name | Time |
| Mud Weasels | 177 [10] * |
| O’Neil Family | 136 [9] * |
| Pyros Tigers | 138 [9] * |
| Ian Sawers | 175 [8] * |
| Missy & Amy | 152 [NCC] * |
| Nick David | NTR |
| John Griffen | NTR |
| Greg Kalmbach | NTR |
| Name | Time |
| John Ide | DNF |
| David Hall | DNF |
| Name | Time |
| Bret Barker | DNF |
| * | Time + #controls found, (one was stolen and one mis-placed) |
| DNF | Did Not Finish |
| DQ | Disqualified (Missed Controls) |
| OT | Over 3 Hour Time Limit |