Discussion: Happy New Year !!!

I wish to everyone to kick some butts next year, that every of your O-dreams come thrue, and that the new year would be better then this one.
Happy one to everyone !!!

USA New Year's Resolution: Top 100 at Jukola!

Time to start training.

Top 100 will be hard. To do top 100, we all should have already been training for a couple of months.

Looking at last year's results, top 100 is 16.0% behind. For reference, James's best runs were in the 13–14% range. My own best-ever performance was about 14%, but that was more of a fluke; more like 20% (in 1997). Eric's best is probably also between 15%–20%.

Now, for a more realistic estimate. I'd say we (the first Jukola team) should be able to do 25% behind, which would have meant 210th place in 2002. So maybe top 200 should be a realistic goal.
If you look at the historic US WOC results, 25% is actually not that common (unheard-of for the women). But we'll have the train factor going for us.

Presumably you mean 'train factor' as in 'we'll be able to get a ride from the train of runners in front of us', not the 'we'll be the first ever US orienteering squad to do any training', don't you, Vlad? :)

I'm not sure I'd ever make the latter statement, and not because, should I say, the amount of training would show indications of a sudden explosion.

One interesting thing about the Jukola is the availablity of people to follow. Yes there is forking, but given you keep track of where you are, and you make sure you are going in the right direction, you can save a lot of time by following people.

From my understanding of most US Orienteers, our strength is our speed. We stand a better chance of rivaling our Scandinavian counterparts in sheer speed than we do in navigating ability. Given this factor, as well as the following factor, I can see the US doing surprisingly well.

Last year the Tyrving first team placed 119th. Tyrving is not a very strong Senior team, and 4 of the runners on their first team were Juniors. Not only that, but their first runner had an awful run setting them back considerably.

I think that the US could put together a better all around team than this Tyrving team, and given everyone has a great run, I can see us placing in the top 100.

Then again, what do I know about these things? ;-)

Um, John, not really. Our sheer running speed disadvantage is around 16%–18%; we have at best 35–37 min/10K runners and the best are 30–32 min.10K.

Keep in mind that the best are also following (someone who is just as good as them but just happens to be more confident or luckier at the time), so you can't make the argument that they have to navigate and we don't, so we'd be less behind than otherwise.

Of course Vlad, when you are talking about the top 20-30 teams, but when you are talking about the top 100, I see us as having the running ability to place.

I'd say top 100 is a very ambitious goal.

A team of 35-37 minute 10K runners could do it. But, it'd take a bunch of good clean runs. I ran on a team of 7 runners with a couple who probably could run 34-35 minutes and the rest of us around 36. We all had clean runs. We finished 48th.