The event was on FLO's Croom map, near Brooksville, FL, an IOF 5-color map at 1:15000. The 7.14 km Red course was the longest offered this day. Courses were designed by Bob Hill of the British Royal Air Force O' Team, on temp assignment in Tampa FL. Courses were vetted and control sites ribboned (and several map updates added) by Gord Hunter from the Ottawa Canada O-club, who thought he'd simply have a quiet Florida vacation until I put him to work. This venue has very low relief terrain, with only about 25 meters total elevation change. Most of the forest is very open with long range visibility, except for the areas to which White and Yellow courses are largely confined, per park ranger fiat. The mapper has depicted vegetation changes using only the green-hatch symbol, and FLO'ers know by now that the edges of these mapped areas are often very indistinct. A visiting Finn, in FL for the first time, was prepared to run green as I started. I had urged him to run red but I left before confirming his choice so ran my red course with an image in my mind of chasing someone really fast, focusing on pushing hard and making zero errors. Conditions were ideal: 70F and sunny skies. I offer the following for its Lessons and its references to various O-techniques.

Start to Control 1
Holding the cased map up to the sun in the last few seconds before my start, I can see roughly in which direction the first control lies (is this legal I wonder, since I usually also try to do it at A-meets and no one has ever called me on it), so I know I'm going to blast out of the start due east and pick up better bearings as I go. Within 100m I smack into a low tree branch which rides the rim of my reading specs straight into my left eyeball. Ouch. Quick check - no blood. I can still see. "Rough Compass" proves way too rough. I never get down the slope far enough to run the trail to my "Attack Point" bend in trail. When I finally hit the trail I see its at its high point so at least I know the control is a due south compass shot - and I know already that the control is in the bottom of the vale, so no real navigation required. Control proves to be clearly visible from 100m off. Frustrating not to start off clean.

Control 1 to 2
Feeling fresh leaving #1 I follow what I think is "Rough Compass" across three trails, planning maybe to stay on one of them at some later point. Cross first trail and continue flying by the seat-of-the-pants without map or compass reference just because I'm feeling smug. Cross second trail and there's no 3rd trail immediately as there should be. Then I see a Big Bright Trail 100m ahead glowing in the sun. I think it must be the big N-S road beyond #2, but how'd I get here so fast? Check it out, looking for landmarks to relocate on and the nearby footpath doesn't make sense. Do a second full loop from road to trail again before actually checking compass - Good Lord! It's the main E-W road! How'd I get here? First major error of the day and first Lesson: do not fly seat-of-the-pants. Boy, is this disheartening. I'm bummed and kicking myself. I figure several minutes lost. So now I pay attention to the compass for last 500m into #2 and deliberately try to visualize the whole route up and over the broad spur - a trail is handy at the end and people standing around give it away anyhow (people: Lesson #2: don't do that).

Control 2 to 3
I see right away I must be careful on this leg since #3's closest Attack Point is a trail bend 400m away. Anywhere else but FL this is a "Bingo" control but visibility here is so good that it's a rather typically challenging advanced level FL leg. I try to visualize. I hope maybe I'll see that far edge of the green-hatch just before the control; maybe I'll see the shallow reentrant its in, too. However, I immediately lose count of my pace from the trail bend and now have to rely on reading terrain which is very subtle here. I never did see the distinct edges of green-hatch. When I come upon a Very Big reentrant I figure it's the index-contour reentrant and I've overshot, so I take a guess about where I am and try a compass-and-pace back to control. I spot it pretty quickly (too quick?). Dumb Luck. Many folks later discuss this and decide there are two other unmapped hunter stands in that area and the control was located a little SE of the mapped location.

Control 3 to 4
I head out of #3 due east full speed, expecting that I can spot the broad reentrant in which #4 lies whether I miss right or left. Anywhere else but FL you wouldn't do this - you'd "Attack-from-Above", which in this case would mean Aim-Off left so as to come down the middle of the reentrant to the control, minimizing climb. I just held a rough east heading and kept track of distance (this time I did count paces: 35 left feet, or so, per 100m in these woods). Crossing the big N-S road I looked for the green-hatch area but couldn't see anything. After the broad spur I easily see the reentrant unfolding in front of me pretty much as I'd visualized and only need to scan for the control. I was about 50m to the right. Not bad.

Control 4 to 5
Feeling better now and moving well I head roughly SSE knowing I'll see the Big Open well in advance and only have to hit its left end. At the trail I see just to my right the distinct white forest 'avenue' through the green-hatch and go for it. This time the vegetation patches are 'real' and would have been slow going so the white forest is a good choice. I congratulate myself on being so clever. Entering the clearing I scan the east edge but see no control. Hmm. I actually spent 5 or 10 seconds standing there looking around, without seeing either the control or three people standing right next to the control at the south end of clearing. Duh. Read the description sheet.

Control 5 to 6
Run the edge of the Big Open dry lake on the pig/deer trail typically found there, drink some water on the run and for the first time look over the rest of the course - should have been doing this before. I discover I must reach inside my map case to fold the corner of my control card. I had stapled it inside the map case at Start table blindly, so as not to look at map in advance, but the card covered controls #6 and #7. I continue on a SW heading out the yellow tip of the dry lake and trust that I'll hit the N-S trail near one of the two 'hilltops', shown by the single round contours, along its west side. Do so very nicely and just run S until I can see clear forest down the hill to the dry lake, the clearing for which is visible from the trail as a break in the tree canopy. Refold map and punch in at #6, knowing only that I'll head out of #6 NW.

Control 6 to 7
Seat-of-pants out of #6 going NW is via open forest and after a bit I check the compass. Oops. That's funny: I must sharply correct myself so as to veer left. I reluctantly keep going left as my oriented map says I must, but when I hit a trail way too soon I can't figure out what's wrong. Follow the trail, still thinking its going N. Then I stop, unfold the map, rethink, see what I've done and smack my forehead hard. I realized then that after folding the map I used the control card's orientation for my N reference - thus leading to second major error of the day. The control card was stapled in sideways, not oriented to N. So by referencing control card rather than the map's north lines, I'm traveling 90 degrees from the azimuth I really want to follow. (If you think about this, you'll realize I should have known I was then erroneously going SW after I had fully expected to be going NW, but I didn't think of that. Brain fade.) Now I'm discouraged again and standing on an E-W running trail way out of my way. I 'think' I know where I am, so the revised plan is to head roughly (correctly this time) N and let two trails funnel me to their junction. No need; I nail the junction. Oh, sure, when I don't need to be precise, I'm right on. Anyway, from there I planned to trend N still, so as to bounce off the looping trail, which should appear on my right as a "Handrail", on the way to #7 and also use its tip as the Attack Point. About the time I think I should have seen the loop trail I see #7 100m ahead on its "Terrace". Ah, Florida visibility. Lesson: just pay attention when either stuffing map case or folding map.Much discussion later about this terrace and how subtle it was. Other Lesson: be ready for anything including generously interpreted features.

Control 7 to 8
300m Compass shot all the way, though I do keep track of the hilltop shape on my right the whole time just to be safe and I did count paces, just to be safer. This could have been called either Rough Compass or Precision Compass, but nowhere except FL would we advise a 300m Precision Compass leg, so I'll just say I did a rough compass heading and lucked out.

Control 8 to 9
I had looked over this leg before when I had a little clean trail running, so I knew this was the last 'thinking' leg, since 10 and 11 were both along trails on the way in. I see that I can afford to (almost!) fold up the map and blast roughly NW, not caring which trail I hit first, simply letting the most open parts of the forest dictate where I go. Note there are two different trail junctions that I can encounter, either one of which will serve nicely and they are distinctly different. So I run as fast as I can at this point, with only quick looks at compass to hold NW line. Crossing the big N-S trail I don't even bother to try to locate myself as I would ordinarily, just keep going to some trail - any trail. I hit what proves to be the easternmost junction, judging by the trend of intersecting trails. I intend to follow the NW trending footpath all the way to the control, except that as I approach the intricate contours of the depressions, I leave that path briefly to avoid unnecessary climbing in and out of holes. People standing around #9 give it away and save me a few seconds.

Control 9 to 10
Straightforward crossings of powerline-trail-trail on a NNE heading and check another rootstock or two in the area just to be safe, even though clue says easternmost.

Control 10 to 11
Leaving #10 I'm pleased to find I can still run fairly well on the trail. No route choice decisions here, since the forest looks really junky. Just turn left at the correct junction and try to keep running.

Control 11 to Finish
Leaving 11 I get confused by a family at the next trail junction and turn up wrong trail but no problem since its the cemetery and there are indeed unmapped paths leading back to the run-in. Folks say: What happened to your eye?

Final time: 63:13 mins. Pace 8.85 min/km: which is the fastest I've moved in a long while. Evidently my errors were not as time consuming as I thought - they just felt that way.

Good run except for errors but then isn't that always the case. Fun day. Good course. Non-Floridians will note some 'lost distance' in the course design. This is typical of Florida terrain with its paucity of features and is generally unavoidable. Here in FL we necessarily spend a lot of time on rough compass headings waiting to encounter the next big collecting feature or handrail or, heck, the next big anything. In other more detailed areas, you must spend more mental effort "simplifying the terrain" and checking off selected landmarks along the way. And the eye's OK.

Bob Putnam