Discussion: Course setter's notes
in: US Team Trials for WOC '11 (May 28–30, 2011 - Peekskill, NY, US)
May 16, 2011 8:35 PM
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Sprint @ Purchase College, SUNY
Last-minute race notes here.
This is going to be fast and furious. Runnability is excellent with 95% or more of every course on lawn/paved areas. Dress more for a road race than a traditional O event. No spikes, please.
Pre-start:
Red/Blue course runners must be in the Phys-Ed carpark (parking lot, I know) by 2.40pm. Then by 2.55pm they must be on the other side of the tape in the pre-start/quarantine area, and stay there until they start. There is sufficient space to warm-up here, and there will be access to toilets in the Phys-Ed building.
On-the-day registration is possible – turn up at 2pm to have time to register.
Post-finish:
Don't forget to download after your race. Then hang around to cheer on later runners. There will be great spectating opportunities and we'll have a couple of Red and Blue course maps at hand if you want to see what they are doing. If you want to run back to the car to pick up a jacket and a camera, make sure those who haven't yet run don't see your map!
Giving directions or navigational advice to competitors is forbidden. Cheering is strictly encouraged! We count on you to create atmosphere. People will be running past you at speed. Try not to hinder them and watch out you don't get knocked down!
If you haven't had enough, there will be some fun bonus non-timed orienteering activity courtesy of Orienteering Unlimited to be done as a warm-down!
Then, once the race is all done and dusted, we invite you to check out the fabulous Neuberger Museum across the plaza.
Map notes:
The map is brand new by Bob Burg and drawn to ISSOM standards. Among other things, this means that it is strictly forbidden to cross walls/fences denoted by the thick black line uncrossable wall/fence symbols, and entering or crossing olive-green areas is also strictly forbidden.
There are two tunnels on the map, drawn with ISSOM symbols:
The black circle symbol is used to denote sculptures/artistic objects. Black X is used for other man-made objects. If you see a car with a lightning bolt attached, it is an artistic object. I think the guy with a bucket on his head is not viewed as artistic.
There are a couple of narrow passages and plenty of sharp turns without good visibility. Be courteous and be careful!
Course Lengths (straight line, actual distance up to a kilometre longer):
Blue 2.43 km; Red 2.17 km; Green 1.9 km; Orange 1.57 km; Brown 1.13 km; Yellow 1 km; White 0.95 km
Winning times for Blue and Red – 14, 14'30
Long and Middle @ Blue Mountain
These woods are special. Rock features like cliffs and boulders abound, but large swathes of the woods are really smooth and permit fast running. Course consultant seems to think it could be about the most technical weekend of races you'll do this year (on any course Brown or up). Course setter disagrees – if you like contour detail there's plenty to navigate by and the visibility is pretty good most of the time. On the other hand, since the floor is smooth, you might run too fast for your head.
Paul Bennett has done a big job, spending over 50 hours in the terrain updating the vegetation and tweaking some contour and rock detail.
There are still a few fallen trees in the terrain, but mostly the termites have had their way leaving the woods cleaner than they have been in decades. White forest ranges from pure open woods to areas with the odd fallen tree to occasional areas with low visibility but good running.
The crossable marshes are crossable and the streams are also crossable (with care).
Long Course Lengths (km):
Blue 12.4; Red 8.6, Green 6.0; Brown 3.6; Orange 4.5; Yellow 3.4; White 2.3.
Winning times for Blue* and Red – 1h27, 1h14
Climb is reasonable.
Middle Course Lengths (km):
Blue 4.4; Red 3.8; Green 3.5; Brown 2.9; Orange 3.8; Yellow 3.4; White 2.5.
Winning times for Blue and Red – 34.
Climb is reasonable except on Red and Blue where it is inordinate. Enjoy!
Walk to start:
For the Long, allow 10 minutes. For the Middle, 25-40, it's a bit under 2.5km with about 100m climb.
Water:
On the Long, there will be water stops on the Blue (*2) Red (1) and Green (*2) courses. Blue and Red will also have a spectator loop and there will be water available in the arena.
On Red and Blue the water controls (and arena passage) are appropriately spaced.
*visiting Norwegian dignitaries may well break 1h20 in the blue long...
Last-minute race notes here.
This is going to be fast and furious. Runnability is excellent with 95% or more of every course on lawn/paved areas. Dress more for a road race than a traditional O event. No spikes, please.
Pre-start:
Red/Blue course runners must be in the Phys-Ed carpark (parking lot, I know) by 2.40pm. Then by 2.55pm they must be on the other side of the tape in the pre-start/quarantine area, and stay there until they start. There is sufficient space to warm-up here, and there will be access to toilets in the Phys-Ed building.
On-the-day registration is possible – turn up at 2pm to have time to register.
Post-finish:
Don't forget to download after your race. Then hang around to cheer on later runners. There will be great spectating opportunities and we'll have a couple of Red and Blue course maps at hand if you want to see what they are doing. If you want to run back to the car to pick up a jacket and a camera, make sure those who haven't yet run don't see your map!
Giving directions or navigational advice to competitors is forbidden. Cheering is strictly encouraged! We count on you to create atmosphere. People will be running past you at speed. Try not to hinder them and watch out you don't get knocked down!
If you haven't had enough, there will be some fun bonus non-timed orienteering activity courtesy of Orienteering Unlimited to be done as a warm-down!
Then, once the race is all done and dusted, we invite you to check out the fabulous Neuberger Museum across the plaza.
Map notes:
The map is brand new by Bob Burg and drawn to ISSOM standards. Among other things, this means that it is strictly forbidden to cross walls/fences denoted by the thick black line uncrossable wall/fence symbols, and entering or crossing olive-green areas is also strictly forbidden.
There are two tunnels on the map, drawn with ISSOM symbols:
The black circle symbol is used to denote sculptures/artistic objects. Black X is used for other man-made objects. If you see a car with a lightning bolt attached, it is an artistic object. I think the guy with a bucket on his head is not viewed as artistic.
There are a couple of narrow passages and plenty of sharp turns without good visibility. Be courteous and be careful!
Course Lengths (straight line, actual distance up to a kilometre longer):
Blue 2.43 km; Red 2.17 km; Green 1.9 km; Orange 1.57 km; Brown 1.13 km; Yellow 1 km; White 0.95 km
Winning times for Blue and Red – 14, 14'30
Long and Middle @ Blue Mountain
These woods are special. Rock features like cliffs and boulders abound, but large swathes of the woods are really smooth and permit fast running. Course consultant seems to think it could be about the most technical weekend of races you'll do this year (on any course Brown or up). Course setter disagrees – if you like contour detail there's plenty to navigate by and the visibility is pretty good most of the time. On the other hand, since the floor is smooth, you might run too fast for your head.
Paul Bennett has done a big job, spending over 50 hours in the terrain updating the vegetation and tweaking some contour and rock detail.
There are still a few fallen trees in the terrain, but mostly the termites have had their way leaving the woods cleaner than they have been in decades. White forest ranges from pure open woods to areas with the odd fallen tree to occasional areas with low visibility but good running.
The crossable marshes are crossable and the streams are also crossable (with care).
Long Course Lengths (km):
Blue 12.4; Red 8.6, Green 6.0; Brown 3.6; Orange 4.5; Yellow 3.4; White 2.3.
Winning times for Blue* and Red – 1h27, 1h14
Climb is reasonable.
Middle Course Lengths (km):
Blue 4.4; Red 3.8; Green 3.5; Brown 2.9; Orange 3.8; Yellow 3.4; White 2.5.
Winning times for Blue and Red – 34.
Climb is reasonable except on Red and Blue where it is inordinate. Enjoy!
Walk to start:
For the Long, allow 10 minutes. For the Middle, 25-40, it's a bit under 2.5km with about 100m climb.
Water:
On the Long, there will be water stops on the Blue (*2) Red (1) and Green (*2) courses. Blue and Red will also have a spectator loop and there will be water available in the arena.
On Red and Blue the water controls (and arena passage) are appropriately spaced.
*visiting Norwegian dignitaries may well break 1h20 in the blue long...
May 16, 2011 10:02 PM
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bubo:
I´ve heard that Elvis is alive - but didn´t know that he was into orienteering...
May 16, 2011 10:15 PM
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AZ:
I love a course planner that is precise about his winning times ;-)
I'm willing to bet Neil is pretty damned close. In fact, as a Team Fundraiser, I'd be willing to put up $10/day on it. Perhaps there is some game we could play, with the winner getting half the pot and the rest going to the team?
I'm willing to bet Neil is pretty damned close. In fact, as a Team Fundraiser, I'd be willing to put up $10/day on it. Perhaps there is some game we could play, with the winner getting half the pot and the rest going to the team?
May 16, 2011 10:23 PM
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AZ:
I'm developing a mobile app that will provide event information in your mobile device's browser. It is in ALPHA mode - in other words it is completely unreliable. Not only is the software in an early state and incomplete, but the event information is completely unofficial too. So it really is not to be relied upon (at least, not at this stage of development).
With all of that disclaimer in the open, I would still appreciate if people gave it a trial and sent me any feedback - most notably about features you found useful / useless / impossible to understand / etc.
Currently you can get:
* Schedule of events
* Overview map
* Course planner notes
The app will really come into its own once the following is available (closer to the event):
* Start times
* Results
You can sort the start list by club, name, country, and you can create a list of "favorites" and display their start times together.
To try it out, visit www.barebones.ca/myO
With all of that disclaimer in the open, I would still appreciate if people gave it a trial and sent me any feedback - most notably about features you found useful / useless / impossible to understand / etc.
Currently you can get:
* Schedule of events
* Overview map
* Course planner notes
The app will really come into its own once the following is available (closer to the event):
* Start times
* Results
You can sort the start list by club, name, country, and you can create a list of "favorites" and display their start times together.
To try it out, visit www.barebones.ca/myO
May 16, 2011 11:34 PM
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AZ: thanks for sharing this. This is something that would be useful for when I host our IS/IC champs in 2012. I'm already thinking about utilizing the SCVNGR app for some trivia-o around the athletes' village.
On topic, I think my favorite line is this:
If you see a car with a lightning bolt attached, it is an artistic object. I think the guy with a bucket on his head is not viewed as artistic.
I thought mappers had a pretty subjective job before, and now they are expected to determine the value of artistry! Is the car-with-lightning 80-100% artistic? And the man-with-bucket only 20-60% artistic?
On topic, I think my favorite line is this:
If you see a car with a lightning bolt attached, it is an artistic object. I think the guy with a bucket on his head is not viewed as artistic.
I thought mappers had a pretty subjective job before, and now they are expected to determine the value of artistry! Is the car-with-lightning 80-100% artistic? And the man-with-bucket only 20-60% artistic?
May 17, 2011 9:40 PM
#
Thanks AZ for the vote of confidence. I might bet against me :)
For those who were wondering about climb, this is about the British selection race in the Lake district, 12.9km with 965m climb.
"Climb has been calculated in accordance with the BOF Rules, i.e.
along the shortest sensible route, not necessarily either the shortest
route or the optimum route. Appendix B advises ‘As a rule of thumb, if
a competitor will go over it, count it in; if you're not sure whether
they'll go over it, count it in – only discount it if you are certain
that all the competitors will go around it’.
On a lot of courses, the climb figure far exceeds 5% of course length,
and, indeed, sometimes exceeds 7%. However, by careful route choice
you should be able to reduce the climb you actually have to make to
well below 5% of your course length."
Something similar is true here. I don't know what sensible means...
For those who were wondering about climb, this is about the British selection race in the Lake district, 12.9km with 965m climb.
"Climb has been calculated in accordance with the BOF Rules, i.e.
along the shortest sensible route, not necessarily either the shortest
route or the optimum route. Appendix B advises ‘As a rule of thumb, if
a competitor will go over it, count it in; if you're not sure whether
they'll go over it, count it in – only discount it if you are certain
that all the competitors will go around it’.
On a lot of courses, the climb figure far exceeds 5% of course length,
and, indeed, sometimes exceeds 7%. However, by careful route choice
you should be able to reduce the climb you actually have to make to
well below 5% of your course length."
Something similar is true here. I don't know what sensible means...
May 26, 2011 11:29 PM
#
Important race information here.
If it doesn't make sense, or you want more info, let me know.
These notes will also be distributed at the events.
I didn't include, but it is on the maps, that the Sprint is 1:4,000 and Blue Mountain, both days, is 1:10,000.
Nor did I say that it is going to be hot and perhaps even sunny. Hydrate well and wear sunscreen at the sprint especially.
If it doesn't make sense, or you want more info, let me know.
These notes will also be distributed at the events.
I didn't include, but it is on the maps, that the Sprint is 1:4,000 and Blue Mountain, both days, is 1:10,000.
Nor did I say that it is going to be hot and perhaps even sunny. Hydrate well and wear sunscreen at the sprint especially.
May 27, 2011 12:25 AM
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Also, (not purely to bump), there will be brief announcements and awards after the sprint, 4:04-4:08 pm, by the finish.
Besides awards, we'll tell you how to get free access to the Neuberger and point you to the Discovery-O.
Besides awards, we'll tell you how to get free access to the Neuberger and point you to the Discovery-O.
May 27, 2011 12:37 AM
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Neil, the course notes only have the first page. Any chance we can see the rest of the notes, or are those secret until last minute?
May 27, 2011 1:31 AM
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So those are the selected highlights that I wouldn't want anyone to race without having read first. In the first post here, there is a lot of stuff not relevant to the actual race. It'll all be in the event packet.
Anything else?
Anything else?
May 27, 2011 1:46 AM
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Somewhere I seem to have read that the team trialers will be starting first implying that non team trialers will start after that group. So, when you say all blue/red runners have to be in the quartine area by 2:55 you mean ALL the blue/red runners and not just the team trialers?
May 27, 2011 1:58 AM
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ALL Blue/Red runners have to be in quarantine.
For Long/Middle TT start first. For the Sprint, TT runners start last.
For Long/Middle TT start first. For the Sprint, TT runners start last.
This discussion thread is closed.