Near the end of the day, around 4 pm, Ray Bruneau walked by me and said “Remind me again why we don’t stage events in the heat of summer?” At that moment the temperature was about 97F, the humidity was about as high as it could be without actually raining, the sun was shining bright and the Canyoneros were on their way out onto the course with a couple of bottles of Gator Aid for FLO veteran Joe Maliszewski, who was reportedly lying down at a trail intersection unable or unwilling to proceed. And so it went.
Ron Eaglin and Jim Gorton came in after 3.5 hours on the course and promptly returned to the Econ River to immerse in the relative coolness, not caring a whit how many or how large the gators were. When Joe M. had returned to Finish area an observer looked him over and assumed he’d jumped in the river too, and I had to clarify: “No. That’s all sweat – head to toe”. John Sheriff came in looking more beat than I’ve ever seen him. I think he was looking at me funny. Tracy Acuff, the highest scoring female on the day, pointedly delayed beginning her 5-hour drive back to Naples until she could, I don’t know, see straight, I think. All of this is by way of my circuitously apologizing for demanding too much, I suppose, in light of conditions. I should have left out, probably, the five more distant controls, and called this a “Two-Hour-Max” event. But, hey, it was to Benefit one of the US Teams - the MTBO Team. That means it was special. And I was charging all outdoors for it, just to raise some money. So I felt I had to give them a “Monster Score-O” just to make it worthwhile. I shouldn’t have worried. I now understand the same people would have shown up, paying the same price, having just as much fun, with a shade less agony. (shade….Get it?) (….I am so hilarious).
The Noon Mass Start was supposed to add to the carnival atmosphere, with a starting ribbon and all, but once all the controls were in place, several people wanted to get out right away, to minimize the heat factor. Like 90F versus 95F at the start made any difference. I told everyone that finishers after 4 hours were totally disqualified, not just penalized. In the end I didn’t have the heart to DQ anyone who honestly tried to make it back in time but couldn’t. So I created a category called “A Little Over 4 Hours” Even so, there were still some who either left without telling us, or got lost and bailed to the far east end of the map, rather than follow the very clearly communicated: Safety Bearing = Due North To Route 426.
Knowing a photographer would be on site getting photos to accompany an upcoming magazine article on orienteering in the Oviedo area (in ‘Oviedo-Winter Springs Magazine’), I invited a number of area families to come out, expecting those to be the best subjects for photos. It worked to a degree: two local Oviedo families did indeed turn out, not knowing what to expect of course. For their benefit I included a Yellow Course, for family style orienteering. As it happened, many of those planning to do the Score course, with its Noon Mass Start, arrived early and were willing to warm up (more puns….) by trying the Yellow. Check out the Results. I think only SBF felt OK after their Yellow course, but even they were wise enough to come in early as “2-Hour” category finishers. Note also in the Results, the times, in minutes, in parentheses serving as point total tie-breakers The Rule for the day was that everyone could start the Score Course together at Noon, but you did not have to decide whether you were competing in the 1-hour, 2-hour, 3-hour or 4-hour category until you were out on the course. I didn’t think anyone would visit all controls in under 3 hours, but Gareth Hearn did. In fact Dave Ashley in retrieving all controls pretty much matched that, effectively at least, since he brought all 27 controls (Yellow included) back in less than 4 hours.
Many thanks to Dave Ashley for his huge help on this event. It is he, current FLO member, who is also a member of the 2013 US MTBO Team, going to Estonia for the World MTBO Championships the last week of August, who served as Guest of Honor at this event. And he helped set controls. And he volunteered at Registration/Start/Finish all day. FLO wishes him all the best in Estonia, and will forward an additional grant of $400 to Orienteering USA in support of the US MTBO Team, representing the net proceeds from this event. Thanks also go to Ray Bruneau for arriving early and leaving last and volunteering whenever he wasn’t competing and to Janet Putnam for helping out through the very hottest hours of the mid-day.
Hope to see everyone at Rock Springs Run State Reserve on September 14 for the inaugural Fall Season 2013 opener – where the weather could still be pretty warm, so your friendly course designer may make allowances.
Bob Putnam, Course-designer
| Name | Time |
| Canyon Eros | 27:00 |
| SBF | 36:58 |
| Will Pirnasch | 50:00 |
| Team Mayhem | 55:00 |
| Running on Empty | 56:14 |
| Gator Bait | 101:10 |
| The Russells | 107:00 |
| Wood Dragons | 130:00 |
| Longneck Brewhouse | DNF |
| Name | Score |
| SBF (*) | 55 |
| Tim Martini | 40 |
| Team Bunnies | 30 |
| Jack Cash | 25 |
| Name | Score |
| Gareth Hearn | 150 |
| Oliver Welser | 95 |
| Name | Score |
| Ron Eaglin | 150 (210:00) |
| Jim Gorton | 150 (210:10) |
| Greg Owens | 150 (219:00) |
| Canyoneros (*) | 150 (230:00) |
| Tim Cowan | 150 (232:00) |
| Tracy Acuff | 100 |
| Ray Bruneau | 95 |
| Get Mud | 90 |
| Vikinait | 90 |
| Carey and Nancy | 85 |
| Blaik Mathews | 65 |
| Running on Empty (*) | 50 |
| Jason Scott | 45 |
| Leigh Thomas | 40 |
| Summerfield | 25 |
| Name | Score |
| Sherrif’s Posse | 120 |
| Two Guys | 95 |
| Joe Maliszewski | 80 |
| Team Haupt | 80 |
| David Hill | DQ/NSR |
| Hank Pagok…ski | DQ/NSR |
| Team Mayhem (*) | DQ/NSR |
| Woods Dragons (*) | DQ/NSR |
| NSR | No Score Reported |
| DQ | Disqualified (Missed Controls) |
| (*) | Second course of the day |