Training Log Archive: barb

Event: NEOC Powissett Peak
 

White course at Jeff Schapiro's Halloween-O. Not particularly tough training, but a nice walk nonetheless. I shadowed Elizabeth. She's not had as much experience as the older girls. She was doing fine, but I was a bit nervous about the time. Here she is:

This was a typically tightly scheduled Barb plan: 2 soccer games, a bunch of kids to get out in the woods for orienteering, adults tagging along here and there, being dropped off by one person, picked up by another, taken home by yet a third party, everything spread out all over the Boston area, Cambridge and beyond 128, and just a few hours to do it all in.

We got a late start at the orienteering meet but for some reason I still encouraged Rachael and Isabel to do yellow. I was attached to the idea, and had talked to them on the drive there about how they might tackle it.

But when Elizabeth and I finished the white course, the girls weren't back yet, and now we were really late not just for Rachael & Isabel's pre-game warmups, but for the soccer game itself, in Carlisle, 23 miles away, and it was a serious game, and not at all good to be late. I sent Elizabeth to the car and ran the yellow course backwards (which is where my logged training comes in), shouting their names and worrying. I found them at control 9 (out of 10) (and 10 had all the candy but we had to skip it). We ended up being 25 minutes late to the game, so I was fretting instead of enjoying their orienteering success - but success it was.

They told me they leapfrogged. One girl navigated while the other followed behind, checked the route, and planned the next leg. And it worked. They said they were good partners because they go about the same speed. I'm real proud of them. But sorry about making them late for the soccer game. Which their team lost. Maybe it was all my fault.

While all this was going on, David and Kyle played their soccer game and then came out to the woods with Dave to orienteer and do the junior training. It was Kyle's first time orienteering at a meet.

Work commute. Plan was to get up, run, do yoga. I was going to feel great! But Isabel was sick again, starting at 3:30 am, and I skipped running because I was zoning out too much by 6, and I skipped yoga so I could get in some time at the office before heading back to care for her. At least I have an excuse, eh, what!

Yay! I ran! With Dave - so it was faster than I would otherwise have run. We got home to find out that Isabel had thrown up. What a trooper she is. She wanted some of the black medicine that we were kindly given at the junior orienteering training camp. But we don't have any. I think it was activated charcoal.

I hear Keith Olbermann gave a great commentary last night. Maybe I should figure out the technology to watch TV for such occasions.

C • That he did 10

Biked to school and back to plant tulips for the Journey North project.

To work & school.

I met with the school prinicipal to talk about parents' concerns and ideas and a little bit about science. Then I met the two women organizing the 2007 Cambridge Science Festival. Mostly we talked about how to connect school kids to scientists. But at the end I mentioned the remote control orienteering idea and they were kind of enthusiastic about it, and want to contact GPS companies to help sponsor it. This doesn't mean it will happen, of course, but I'd better find out more soon about what it would take to pull off.

Work commute.

OK, here's Barb's latest overly elaborate crazy get-people-orienteering idea:

Remote-control orienteering.

I'm meeting tomorrow morning with the organizers of the week-long 2007 Cambridge Science Festival. I thought that might be one possible venue for this wacky idea.

Here's how it would work:

There would be a Runner on the ground. Say, for example, they're at Boojum Rock, my favorite local O map. Then there would be a person (or a team) back in Cambridge (or wherever) who would be telling them where to go in order to find the controls. This would be the Navigator. The Runner would have no map. The Navigator has the map. Communication could be via cell phone. The Runner would be hooked up to a GPS transmitter the way they did at WOC (right?). I didn't see the WOC technology - but my understanding is that you could overlay on a map in real time where each runner was. The navigator would see the map and the location of the runner. The runner would have a compass. The navigator could say things like: "Run south along the trial." "Now turn south and climb to the top of the hill."

People could follow along on the internet.

Maybe we could make it some big gala competition, with multiple computer projectors, and several teams of navigators in one big room.

And people could play along in Catching Features somehow? Maybe we could put the map into Catching Features and the navigator could be observing the Catching Features version of what is going on in the woods. Requires that Catching Features accept location information from the GPS transmitter instead of being controlled by a player.

But we could certainly allow people to use Catching Features to "race" the real human team, in real time. We'd have to calibrate the runners in the game and real life somehow.

Point - in case not obvious: introduce orienteering to a bunch more people in the context of a festival that already would be drawing people. Make it a game, and very participatory - but also very real. Also, this might be a way to explore the "televisability" of orienteering for a wider audience than hardcore orienteers.

We could allow anyone to be a runner: one family member, or a friend, could be the runner, so the navigator is talking to someone they know. Or we could get elite runners so they're well-matched for a head-to-head competition.

How do I find out about that WOC tracking system? Does it actually work? Is it accurate enough to be used in this context?

We could do the same thing "blind" - where the phone communication has to suffice, and the runner has to clearly state what they see around them. The navigator has to keep track of where they are on the map. Distance estimation would become very important.

Score-O format. Each player/team has to get as many points as possible, and back to the beginning in the alotted time. Maybe allow a little time before the start of the race for the navigation teams to plan their strategy.

On the navigation team, you could have specialized roles as I'd laid out for the junior high orienteering extravaganza week before last. You could have someone who is reading the contours: "You should see a depression on the left in 50 paces." And someone reading the vegetation and rock features, and so on.

What do you think?

C • Remote control O 7

Highlander. Unbelievably gorgeous. Got to meet Barb Campbell.