What a fabulous beginning to the 2009 Fall Season!
1) National Orienteering Day
2) No rain to speak of despite a gloomy forecast
3) Tons of JROTC showed up for training even with no competition at stake
4) The park rangers actually mowed the parking area for us, as requested
The overcast conditions were deceiving, since the humidity made running just as exhausting as if the sun were shining full force. I’m guessing the temperature topped out at about 90F. About 225 people showed up to celebrate together.
It was National Orienteering Day and we handed out a number of Door Prizes, randomly it seems, but still have a few left, to be distributed at next month’s Moss Park Event. In addition we passed out some souvenir tokens returned to us from the O-Ringen event in Sweden (5 days, with about 20,000 people), attended by FLO member Lorena Kleinmann.
A special 'Thank You' to a dedicated core of volunteers who made this event happen. Will Pirnasch, Course Designer, also singlehandedly set all controls, losing 5.5 pounds of fluid in the process, he says. Thanks to Jonathan Hendricks for picking up supplies from our house and delivering them to the event bright and early. Ray Bruneau showed up early with all the equipment, then he, Russ Steinke, Mike Dempsey and Jerry Sirmans handled the huge crowd together, through the peak hours of registration and start. Russ and Ray stuck it out through the whole day behind the table, not going out on a course, and staying until after 3 pm. Jerry Sirmans and Safina England retrieved controls – leaving the Red course out for John Hollingsworth to retrieve on Sunday. There may have been a few other folks helping out whose names I did not get.
This 'Thank You' for helpers is especially noted on this day since no one had stepped forward to be our designated Event Coordinator for this event. This, despite repeated email calls for someone to do so. Membership take note: It is unfair to repeatedly rely upon the 'Usual Suspects’ to plug the gaps on an ad-hoc basis for event administration, as has been the case all too often in recent months. FLO needs fresh faces. FLO especially needs both regular and irregular participants to step up and take their turn, so as to unburden the familiar faces. Do not be concerned that you ‘don’t know how to do it’. Neither did anyone else at first. Everyone must share the load. It appears to me that FLO is approaching a crisis point where too much reliance on too few people has been the rule. In this lies potential disaster for the continuation of FLO activity at the historical pace. FLO needs everyone’s help. Do not wait to be asked. Contact any Board member at any time (see web page for email addresses) to make it known you will pitch in. Be specific as to which event and which duty you can fulfill. Look at the Event Schedule on the web page and note where Event Coordinators are needed. If you want to get your feet wet in something other than EC, there is an even greater need in registration and start/finish tables at every event.
There. Got that off my chest.
Now for the event itself: Terrifically challenging courses as evidenced by the winning times: W= 76 min; O = 71 min; G= 83 min; R = 96 min; B=101. Only Yellow came in on target at 52 min, thanks to the large field of JROTC cadets who brought those results into line. In fact Thanks to all the JROTC contingents for their attendance; a witness to a willingness on the part of both leaders and cadets to learning and improving O-skills.
Very competitive times on Red and Blue for top spots: 40 seconds difference on Red and 23 seconds on Blue. I like to see that. I detected a slightly mis-placed control on Blue - #8 – and was surprised that no others complained at the finish table, since by the look of the crushed grass pathways in that area, everyone had the same trouble I did. Will had warned the open fields at the north of the map had not been mown (as had our parking area) so the tall grass and dog fennel could be a real runner’s slower-downer. As it happened, most competitors who visited controls in the north fields seem to have agreed on the routes because I followed what looked like elephant tracks the whole way, all correctly leading via solid compass bearings and vegetation boundaries, to the correct spots. This would, on a good, day have provided a huge advantage to those of us who ran late, making running through the tall grass much easier. Alas, there was no running left in these legs during that portion of the course, so no advantage whatever.
Good times were had by all, whether or not ‘good finishing times’ were turned in. At the end of the day all were present and accounted for. Thanks for coming out.
Bob Putnam
| Name | Time |
| Boca Ciega #1 | 76:05 |
| Boca Ciega #2 | 87:15 |
| Cenker | 91:20 |
| Sanders | 97:30 |
| Name | Time |
| Kay Brown | 52:20 |
| Titusville #4 | 54:00 |
| Amy Jo Reed | 57:30 |
| West Nassau #8 | 59:40 |
| Katie Craycroft | 60:40 |
| Troop 196 | 60:40 |
| West Nassau #9 | 62:55 |
| West Nassau #7 | 63:10 |
| West Nassau #2 | 63:20 |
| Ben/Tyler Walton | 63:46 |
| Nicholas Iaterio | 64:00 |
| West Nassau #4 | 64:28 |
| Timber Creek #2 | 65:15 |
| Briana Tambasco | 66:50 |
| Sabrina Gallion | 67:00 |
| Titusville #3 | 69:15 |
| West Nassau, Hall | 69:49 |
| Clifton/Hunter | 70:15 |
| Amanda Reitsch | 70:30 |
| West Nassau #5 | 70:51 |
| Water Trackers | 71:50 |
| Kora-Ann Manz | 72:10 |
| Boca Ceiga #5 | 75:20 |
| Shawn Platisha | 78:40 |
| Titusville #5 | 83:00 |
| Jacey Volkman | 83:15 |
| Kathy Ramsdell | 85:50 |
| West Orange #3 | 87:20 |
| Levi Elsea | 93:20 |
| Titusville #1 | 104:10 |
| Ian Ross | 105:50 |
| Titusville #2 | 119:52 |
| West Nassau #3 | 103:38 |
| West Orange | DNF |
| Boca Ciega, Otero | DNF |
| Boca Ciega #1 | DNF |
| West Nassau #6 | NTR |
| Timber Creek | NTR |
| Cruise Aiders | NTR |
| Evans High | NTR |
| Name | Time |
| Moira Roberts | 71:20 |
| Safina England | 78:00 |
| Evans HS | 81:15 |
| CRHS, Ben | 87:14 |
| CRHS, Jon | 89:15 |
| Karl/Nick Armond | 93:33 |
| TCHS, Roberto | 96:15 |
| TCHS, Quintana | 97:20 |
| Falcon One | 111:45 |
| Jack Cash | 115:46 |
| Jonathan Hendrix | 119:30 |
| Christopher | 120:00 |
| Squad 727 | 133:30 |
| TCHS, Ybarra | 134:00 |
| TCHS, Oviedo | 134:20 |
| Felice Gilmartin | OT |
| Andrew Brown | DQ |
| CRHS, Griffith | DQ |
| Missy Kaler | DQ |
| CRHS, Hughes | DQ |
| D&J Gewerth | DNF |
| TCHS, Sagardia | DNF |
| West Orange | DNF |
| CRHS, Tyler | DNF |
| BCHS, Keshish | DNF |
| BCHS #6 | DNF |
| Falcon Navy | DNF |
| West Orange | DNF |
| Richard Reed | DNF |
| Cindy & Ian Trent | DNF |
| Greg & Mike | NTR |
| TCHS, Kevin | NTR |
| Name | Time |
| Mike Dempsey | 83:10 |
| CRHS, Eric Johnson | 101:25 |
| THS, Ashley Alton | 106:44 |
| French Dream Team | 119:50 |
| Kris Mante | 121:40 |
| Dennis & Carolyn | 139:50 |
| Italian Stallions | 153:55 |
| DHS, Rogers | 154:00 |
| DHS, Los Gringos | 158:10 |
| CRHS, Calabrese | 164:10 |
| CRHS, David H | 165:40 |
| B&A Skees | OT |
| BCHS, Preton | DNF |
| BCHS, Jackson | DNF |
| BCHS, Hopkins | DNF |
| THS, Mahurin | NTR |
| McGlamry | NTR |
| Name | Time |
| Warburton | 95:20 |
| Jerry Sirmans | 96:00 |
| Philippians 4:13 | 120:20 |
| David Shuman | 121:28 |
| Team Griffield | 155:30 |
| Kyle Tallent | OT |
| Pete Schmid | DNF |
| Name | Time |
| Bob Putnam | 110:27 |
| Chris Johnson | 110:50 |
| May-U Cuypers | 146:00 |
| Greg Owens | 158:07 |
| Pangea 2 | DNF |
| DNF | Did Not Finish |
| DQ | Disqualified (Missed Controls) |
| OT | Over 3 Hour Time Limit |
| NTR | No Time Recorded - Did not check in at Finish |