Discussion: Ramble On...

The registration deadline for Chicago's Big Blues Ramble is fast approaching. This is going to be a great time. Saturday dinner will be held at an Irish restaurant within walking distance from the meet hotel. They serve great food, microbrews and feature live music (individuals & groups will order and pay separately).
The orienteering will feature two different types of terrain. Saturday's Middle courses will take runners through diffuse topography covered by very open and fast woods. The U.S. Team fundraiser sprint will kick-off the 2008 Sprint Series and be worth a whopping 50 points for the winner. Sunday's long courses traverse the terrain for which Chicago is renowned - subtle topography requiring careful route choices to avoid our native carnivorous and hitchhiker plant species.
We are planning an all-around fun event. Drop me a line if you have any questions.

Wait a minute: is this the big blues ramble, or the big irish ramble? Either way, count me in!

Saturday's middle course notes added to the end of the Meet Info...
Also a List of current entries...
There's still time to register. Contact me to see whether we can waive the late fee.

I need a ride from the airport and a place to stay willing to go 50-50 with people

The famous Chicago elevated trains are available at O'Hare or Midway airports. And from there you can come downtown at stay at a hostel or YMCA, as well as many other places.

Both meet venues are reachable by public transportation too...see our public transit info page

The list of current entries is up to date.
Coming soon... start times and sorted views !!

Hey, I eat there every time I'm at a CAOC meet! My mouth is already watering for Sheperd's Pie & a pint of Newcastle.

will you guys have the start list posted as well?

Start Times... are assigned. I believe that I accomodated all requests. Let me know if I somehow missed yours.
Sunday's long course distances added to the end of the Meet Info...
See you folks soon...

Some sorted views:
Middle Course Times...
Long Course Times...

Added some entries, fixed some oversights on sprint registrations & made one significant change to the start order of the Sunday blue course:
Alphabetic Start Times...
Middle Start Times...
Long Start Times...

Ramble results, winsplits and route gadget are up at Meet Info...
Thanks to all who made the trip.
- Ramble Regitrar

Joe, it was a really fine event, good vibes the whole time. And today's red course was excellent, made good use of the terrain, let us see all the nice parts and hardly any of the nasty stuff. A very pleasant surprise after warnings of thick forest.

Definitely worth the trip.

Everything went smoothly. Fast results.

Quite a contrast between the two venues. Never expected CAOC terrain to be flat, fast, and confusing ( :) ) on Saturday. Sunday was much better terrain than expected - except for my choice to check out the dark green for 5 minutes of entrapment.

Thanks

Indeed, a fine meet. I just wish I'd had more than one decent performance.

Excellent event. Some photos are here. Photos by David Williams, Bill Swift & Mike Minium.

Have the splits been sent to AP headquarters for posting or do we need to post the courses ourselves? I don't mind doing it, just thought I'd check first.

Tom, we can certainly do it. I like that AP feature but didn't know how to do it. Your first phrase tells me to send them to Ken. Right?

The usual procedure for getting splits uploaded to AP:
1) Someone/anyone has to create each race. So, if you want Blue, Red, and Green listed, then Blue, Red, and Green need to be added to AP for each day the old fashioned way.
Leg lengths aren't required but are nice to have. These can be gotten from the OCAD file (probably Condes also).
2) Then CAOC needs to Export splits for each day in XML format. That's Competition Day/Results/Splits Times/Courses/OK/Interface (XML format).
3) Send them to Ken and ask him if he would kindly post them for you. :)

And while you are in the event file, the rankings data person needs the split files in CSV format - same format as for WinSplits. :)

If you did not enter Year of Birth into the event file, then that needs to be sent separately... Thanks.

Thank you Valerie. I have to get a hold of Jim (the EP computer owner) so this may take a few days because I know he's busy with a work project.

Pix... with rollover captions.

Update for folks looking for Ramble splits on AP:
I just got the XML files this morning but will be gone 'til Sunday. I will take care of adding all the races to AP on Monday morning. Sorry for the delay.
Valerie, your CSV files for rankings are being sent to you now.

Thanks to Ken, most everyone's splits are up for the Ramble advanced courses. You can check that yours are associated with your AP handle or go ahead and claim them.

Thanks, Joe.

Just wondering, how come only Mike's split is showing up on the Sunday Red course?