What a Day! What a Day!
If you were among the 70 or so FLO'ers - or among the 190 or so JROTC'ers - who braved the unrelenting weekend-long tropical storm, you know what I mean.
Assuming you chose the better part of valor, and stayed home all warm and dry, check out Jerry Sirmans'
Photos,
Video and
Map
to get just a wee hint of what it was like.
And check out the Results posted on the FLO web page also.
It was wet.
It was continuously raining.
It was pouring down torrentially at several points.
It was blowing sideways at times - like 35 mph!!!
But we did NOT waver.
Neither rain, nor sleet, nor gloom of night, will stay these die-hards from their slogging undaunted through puddles and ponds and streams and sinkholes (OK, maybe sleet would).
If the secret primal, unspoken, brain-stem ingredient of orienteering is that you can run and play in the mud that your mother wouldn't let you play in as a kid, (and it is) then this day made up for a lifetime of repressed mud-playing.
We'll be talking about this one for a loooong time.
So far the only time FLO has ever cancelled was for Tornadoes - so far never for too much rain. (knock-knock)
On this most unique and very nearly cancelled day I hope you all had as much fun as we did.
Thanks to everyone who pitched in - From Brian the Park Ranger who winched the stuck pickup out of the mud over in Split Oak Forest, to Toby Henson who set all 60 controls on Friday, to Jonathan Linforth who showed-up-early-and-stayed-late and Ray Bruneau and Mike Dempsey and Jerry Sirmans and Kris Mante and Gareth Hearn and Janet Putnam and no doubt others I'm forgetting. Everyone and everything was either drenched or limp-damp, but good cheer prevailed, much to my surprise - as Course Designer, I have to steel myself for 'comments' from folks who may think the conditions warranted adjustments toward the simpler, rather than harder, end of the difficulty spectrum. Not so this day. This was a long-O, rain or shine, with no apologies and no one minded. Thanks.
The weather-summaries for the weekend estimated 8" to 11" of rain, most of which had fallen by the time we were wading in the woods. We haven't seen the Split Oak causeway that full of water in many a moon, but with the continuous rain, it didn't matter much whether your feet got wet. Heck, just standing around under the rain tarp still involved standing in 6" of water. My chief concern was keeping an eye out for those who were shivering uncontrollably, so we could wrap them in garbage bags. That's in the Red Cross First Aid manual somewhere isn't it?
My other concern was that trails become a bit less visible with this kind of rain, since the whole forest floods in a random sort of way and you really have to concentrate to 'see' a trail sometimes. I also noticed that the 'edge' of mapped marshes have no meaning after a certain amount of rain falls. Mind you, I'm not whining - this is all good news to an old Mudder like me. As long as it's fairly warm, I should say. I do recall heavy rains up north when it's also cold - that was not at all fun, like this was.
I loved it!
Everyone who came out of the woods loved it! - at least I think they all came out......
The JROTC Training Day was cut short by the weather, but not by much. We suspect the kids all would have stayed but there is this matter of adults being responsible for safety and all, so we understand. The only glitch this caused was that the cadets did not get to run their competition courses on Sunday as they'd planned. And so they could not retrieve controls as they'd planned. So the controls are still out there. Yup, still there. Hope they stay put until the retrieval crew gets to them next week or so. If you want to volunteer for that duty, contact Jerry Sirmans to coordinate. jerry@floridaorienteering.org It's terrific practice, you know.
Thanks for Orienteering!
Bob Putnam
Related Links:
| Name | Time |
| TCHS #3 | 26:20 |
| TCHS #2 | 28:20 |
| TCHS #1 | 40:00 |
| Name | Time | |
| Roberts, R | 114:47 | |
| Delgado, D | 115:10 | |
| Springer DHS | DNF | |
| Cummins, M | DNF | |
| Hermitage | Sprint | |
| Tim/Ann | Sprint |
| Name | Time |
| Land, P | 72:00 |
| DHS, Harlan | 83:10 |
| DHS, Giardini | 86:10 |
| Camden, E | 103:20 |
| DHS, LaCrosse | 105:35 |
| DHS, Gutierrez | 108:00 |
| Griffin, J | 114:40 |
| DHS, Schock | 147:00 |
| Eastside Rams | OT |
| DHS, Surratt | DNF |
| DHS, Rogers | DNF |
| DHS, Falcon2 | DNF |
| Name | Time |
| Mante, K | 132:00 |
| Eastside Rams | DNF |
| Dixie Hollins #1 | DNF |
| Dixie Hollins #2 | DNF |
| Falcon | DNF |
| Name | Time |
| Heritage, E | 104:30 |
| Carr, Z | 159:00 |
| Bruneau, R | 166:37 |
| Sucka Meow | DNF |
| Nusbaum, A | DNF |
| Name | Time | |
| Johnson, C | 119:00 | |
| Hearn, G | 126:40 | |
| Lipponen, J | 142:30 | |
| Eaglin,R | 147:55 | |
| Tim/Anna | 165:18 | |
| Soar Team | OT |
| DNF | Did Not Finish |
| DQ | Disqualified (Missed Controls) |
| OT | Over 3 Hour Time Limit |