Discussion: Saturday meet report

As meet director I have the joy of sending out a huge thank you to all of our amazing OOC volunteers that made the day go so so smoothly. Without them I would have had to do real work today instead of getting my hands on a mic and hanging out in the glorious weather (though I feel sorry for those that had to race in this heat) watching some great races unfold.

A particularly large thank you has to go out to our course setting teams of Pierre Brassard and Stefan Bergtröm (middle) and Randy Kemp and Gord Hunter (sprint) for some truly inspired course setting!

It seems everyone had only good things to say about the courses (though there was an interesting discussion about placement of controls circles on features - should control circles be placed directly centered on the feature or centered on the side of the feature the control is on?) so great work guys!

You can find maps and html style results with split times on the event website here.

Thanks to Stefan you can find photos from the middle here and from the sprint here

A few highlights from the results:
Eric had two very good races today particularly a dominant run in the middle and a nice 3rd place in the sprint to round out his day. Patrick Goeres destroyed the field in the sprint in 13:31, 1:01 in front of Serghei Logvin, after mispunching in the middle.

In the women's field it should be noted that Ottawa junior Molly Kemp pulled off a great second place in the middle only 20 seconds behind veteran runner Katarina Smith. Awesome run Molly!

It was also great to see so many Ottawa OC juniors out - 15 of them in the middle and 7 of them in the 14- and 12- categories. It looks like orienteering in Ottawa is in good hands for the foreseeable future!
Also 35 people out on the clinics and rec events this morning. Great work Linda!

Fantastic start so far. Great job by all the OOC crew and some top quality events!

Terrific job. Thanks to your team of volunteers for a fun and challenging day!

...and for getting all that great info onto your website so quickly!

I feel a note of explanation is necessary for Wil Smith and James Connell's middle results in M21-34. They were the last two runners through control 7 on course 8 and the battery died on that control before they punched. They came in as mp but were reinstated thus the combined leg splits shown in the results.

If it is a point feature (boulder, dot knoll, tree, pit, fence corner, wall junction etc) then centre the circle on the point. If it is a linear or area feature (hill top, side of hill, re-entrant) then centre the circle on the control.

As far as I know, anyway.

I suspect the discussion related to control circles on the sprint that contained one or more big concrete walls and multiple levels. Control description = foot of stone (concrete) wall. Fun and tricky!

Sprint map control placement: due to scale of the map and nature of the sprint it would be desirable to have a center of the control circle right where control is placed, otherwise: what Neil said.

Just like ski-O. ANother vote for the purple dot int he center of the circle.

Routegadget for the the middle and sprint are now up along with all the maps from this morning's long event.

Results will come once we've got all the teams signed up for tomorrow's relay.

I will say though that there were a lot of people that didn't finish today because of the heat. Congrats to all those that survived the high temperatures and finished the tough courses. That's an accomplishment in and of itself.

Results are up on the website now. Sorted by course and class for all races now.

The heat was one factor. The evilness of the course setter was another...

Loved my course today - so much fun! (Albeit hot.) Thanks again to all the awesome Ottawa volunteers for an excellent weekend.

great weekend! I came in late in the long and never saw the results until now, didn't realize that EVERYBODY struggled so much in the heat (figure I could have run the long in 1:50 to 2:00 in cooler weather...that would have put me in 3rd yesterday)

cooler weather for everyone or just for you el chucko ?

This just in from CBC: (great coverage of this morning's O-Fest relay) How many shares and likes can we get on facebook?

The ranking wouldn't change much if it was cooler (ie. I don't see any set of race conditions in which I would actually get 3rd....other than an alternate universe where I have done more training) but the times would be a lot closer to where they should be according to the course setter's planning.

What I am really saying is that I don't think it is the course setter's fault that only 3 people finished in under 2 hours. I actually really enjoyed the parts of the course that I was able to walk/jog through.

Mind you if I was able to acquire some sort of air-conditioned o-suit to give me a competitive advantage it would be tempting

Great CBC news video!

I think the M21 course was the appropriate length. In the alternate universe where I had actually trained in the past month, remembered to bring gels on the course, and it was "only" 25C out, sub-90 minutes was quite easy, really.

I appreciate the improvements on the La Peche map - it's great (but tough!) terrain, and certainly deserves the best possible map you can manage.

Yeah, it's a shame we didn't have more time to get it mapped to even better standards. The work Gord and Bill put into updating that map in a short spring month was amazing.

Nice to read a thread these days that is not tearing the organizers apart so nicely done Ottawa. Circumstances made it impossible to come but will definitely be there next time.

Ditto to Sudden's comment. The organizational depth that Ottawa OC has among their membership is truly incredible. I missed this year but I'm looking forward to the next O-Fest and of course the NAOC in 2014! Any hints on what terrain OOC will be choosing for those races?

Must, renew, Visa before next year!

Great stuff OOC! And yes, that CBC news spot is really good.

Props to the CBC video. Just another feather in the cap of a brilliantly run event. Announcers, finish line BBQ (even had food during awards after my 3hr long adventure), map updates....all top notch stuff. Thank you to all of the volunteers.

Sorry Hammer, no hints yet.

Well, if you're investing in new LIDAR data, I'm sure it'll be good. I'm in.

Will you be posting splits for the Long? It's been fun to look through the data for the Saturday races. A few forehead-slapping moments!

Well didn't OOC get all the Gats in Lidar from the taxpayers gardner (aka NCC)? If so imagine what a huge opportunity (and some huge improvements) that would make!

I'm sure the NCC was their usual pleasant selves to deal with and I'm sure OOC could not get a single form line for free.

@ Bash, yes... I'm now at a training camp in Canmore though so things might take a bit longer from here on in.

Unfortunately there are arena production issues in Gatineau park which I won't go into...we have yet to choose locations.

No rush, Canadian. Have a great time in Canmore - some well-deserved fun after all your hard work!

who said training camp and tough events are just.. fun ? :)

I didn't say "just" - but if there was no fun, I don't think any of us would do this stuff! :)

:)

Btw I hope your 7 stitches from the middle distance aren't too painful, Nick. How much fun was *that*?! ;)

It's too bad that it will be a while before Route Gadget for the Long gets up. There were some truly great legs on the various courses - like 7-8 and 10-11 on Course 8 - where I would enjoy seeing who did what.
Speaking of Route Gadget course 8 for the Ottawa O Fest Middle shows a great contest between four very competitive orienteers with the lead being decided on a very long and 'head scratching' leg.
More orienteers should treat the rest of us by placing their runs on Route Gadget.