Running 5:24 [1] 0.84 km (6:27 / km) +19m 5:48 / km
weight:1kg shoes: 201410 Inov-8 Oroc 280s
Warmup jog to the start on trails.
Orienteering 1:15:29 [3] 9.04 km (8:21 / km) +177m 7:36 / km
22c shoes: 201410 Inov-8 Oroc 280s
Blue course (!) at Bear Brook State Park by UNO; courses set by Ernst, Bob Lux, and Jim Arsenault. The orienteering was fabulous today; it was cool, white to light green woods, some deadfall. I eked out a narrow win over Giovanni despite running slowly and blowing several minutes on one control (10). I could have run 70 on the 8.2 km course if I hadn't made a stupid mistake, but 60 is attainable for speedy person.
Today was the first of the (poorly advertised) New England Challenge - a series of major local meets by each of the four main New England clubs trying to encourage cross-club attendance. My reasoning is this: every club has a mix of major and minor events. For NEOC, e.g., the minor events are often WYOG or even WYO at small, frequented parks like Menotomy, Hammond Pond, and even Prospect Hill. These events are great bread and butter, but the major events usually with longer courses, better terrain, and longer travel are the substance of the schedule. For NEOC, these would be the Mt. Tom, Baldwin Hill, Nobscot, High Rock, Townsend, Earl's, and say Breakheart events. Someone not in the club might not be able to tell at a glance the difference between the two; if each club then nominates a few of its events as "big deals," and we cooperate schedules to avoid overlap, then the really serious people can go to more of these, and the casual enthusiasts can try a few events on new, spectacular terrain. The added effort is minimal, since the clubs were putting on the events anyway. Scheduling and advertising just maximizes the bang for organizer and attendee buck.
If this approach is successful, maybe one event per club per semester is feasible - like a little regional league. Today's event had A-meet quality maps, terrain and courses with simpler logistics. It's hard to imagine an easier way to get good training in.
Thanks to everyone who came out! The UNO guys really enjoyed having more Massfolk at their event.
The next events in this series (about 1 per club) are:
- May 17, NEOC Mt. Tom
- Fall 2015, WCOC
- Fall 2015, CSU
- September, UNO Pawtuckaway camping weekend