Training Log Archive: vmeyer

NJROTC National Championship - Day 2

Again arrived at 6:30 AM, and with the tent already up, as well as the tables and cables left out from yesterday, Amy and I were able to get set up quickly.

Then, I went off to tackle putting out radios for Day 2. This was with no advance scouting, as I attempted to do for yesterday's event. And, if you haven't figured out by now, I need to get better at this thinking on the fly - 2:26 on my feet, but FR reports only 1:21 of moving time.



Suggestion was for a repeater on #3 and #5, with my goal being to reach #6 and 7, the water controls, and the controls which would indicate that someone had crossed over the NW road.

1 - Go control
2a. Repeater on right side of road
2b. Yagi on left side of road attached to maintenance yard fence
3. Repeater on spur
4. Repeater on spur
5. Repeater on hilltop
6 & 7. Repeater and control

This woods on this side were denser than the ones yesterday, but I was hopeful that I could get this to work.

All the things that happen when you rush pretty much happened.

Had Amy drive me to the road with the yagi, pole and stands. Was walking in to put up the yagi when I realized I had forgotten the antenna wire. Called Amy and she came back with that.

Put up a repeater across from 2 to relay the signal from the GO control. Then it was off to 3.

That craziness was because I was running back and forth in the vicinity of 3 trying to figure out why I couldn't get a signal from 2. Started the trip back to the road and fell hard going downhill with stands, repeater, compass in hand. Get up and shake it off, and get back to 2b, then 2a to discover that I had not put an antenna on 2a.

Call back to the Finish and other Peggy brings out an antenna while I head back to 3. But, first she goes to the other maintenance yard by #7, and she calls me from there confused. I direct her back to right place, and plant my repeater at 3 and head to 4. At this point, I am just hoping that fixing 2a will do the trick, but I can't wait to find out.

At 4, I get a signal on the bottom of the circle (this is the repeater Jon forgot to pick up later), and head off to 5. Also get signal from 5, punch it and call in to Amy. Apparently, a fuzzy Max (Peggy and Nadim's 8 year old son) is capably manning the O-Lynx computer by this point.

They report that my punch from #5 (124) has shown up, so I push on to #6, though not in the most direct way. For some reason, I decide not to leave the 124 control there, even though 5 is that control location. Punches from there would have least told me if the work up to 5 was good or not.

Anyway, after getting to #6, I see no lights from #6, so I try moving back towards 5 to see if I can pick up a signal. Seeing nothing, and knowing that it is now getting close to 10 AM, and since I didn't set up the live results display before I left, I abandon the project. I take the control and repeater with me, and head out to get a ride back to the barn.

Rush in and set up the results displays and then the upload of the results to the internet, change my clothes, and sulk for a wee bit.

Later on, I see that a couple of punches did come in from #6 while I was off exploring my options. So, the other Peggy and I go back out and put out #6 and #7. The control at #6 sends about a dozen more punches, while nothing is ever received from #7.

So, I guess this is a partial success.

C • Behind the scenes 1

Event: 2013 NJROTC National Orienteering Championship
 

Got cold waiting for the controls to come in, so I headed out on the Red trail to stretch my legs a bit, and at the same time, if I could help carry some stuff in the last part for Jon, that would be a bonus. Met up with him at the bottom of the hill, thankfully before I climbed up the next hill, and I carried back the backpack and water control debris.

NJROTC National Championship - Day 1 of 2
330+ high school students competing

My responsibilities for the event were:
1. Print maps and arrange for maps to be stuffed and sealed into map cases by someone else. Did not get these printed in time to hand them off, so Amy assisted me with the stuffing and sealing. Map printing process hampered by the fact that I had to reprint all of the Day 1 maps after discovering I spelled the name of the park and host school incorrectly. Agh! The maps came out well though and were worth the extra drama/trauma to get them done.
2. Coordinate two sets of controls (bags and boxes), pin punches, and stands to the two course setters (Peggy and Dave). Thankfully, they didn't go crazy and only used 31-33 controls each day. Process was helped by the fact that QOC's new set up controls arrived the week before, so I was able to use those instead of having to make two round trips to borrow and return the other set.
3. Coordinate getting loaner SI-cards to meet director. No problem getting them to him and only need to get seven more back from him.
4. Setup and run the OE software used to download the finishers and provide live results. Created the event and imported the competitors around 10 PM the night before. Good thing I have the OE process down cold.
5. Network to the OE computer to a computer running the O-Lynx software and to another computer running the four projectors displaying the live results from O-Lynx. Good thing I have this process pretty much mastered as well. :)
6. Use OE to upload current results to the web. I used my website, iphone personal hotspot and uploaded results every 5 minutes starting at 10 AM. Worked great!

A couple of things I didn't have to do that I normally do:
1. Provide and print the start lists. This was fine with me, since I was not allowed to...
2. ...make changes to competitors names for race day substitutions. Schools, even traveling from afar, tend to juggle people around, and the edict that no name changes would be accepted after Thursday was supposed to teach the coaches that they needed to get it right the first time or three. However, having competitors in with the wrong names irked me then and still does now. I hate that the results are incorrect since that reflects on me, and I did not like standing at the results display and having Johnnie's mom try to figure out what name Johnnie was really running under. Next time, my "contract" includes the option to correct names in the computer on race day.
3. Set up my tent since a Army tent was being provided for me. Supposedly a warming tent. Well, I was there at 6:30 AM trying to get set up, and no tent. I think the tent got put up by 8. So, everything was behind schedule, and it turns out that there was no warming of the tent involved. The tent also was like a coffin, dark and a low ceiling and dry rotted, and it was put up so poorly that the side post started to blow away on Sunday, the windy day. My tent from now on.
4. Provide the equipment to display the live results. The MD provided four projectors, and I used my three vga convertors and one direct vga connected to one computer to project the O-Lynx results on bedsheets which were hung up in the barn.

This turned out really well, and with the addition of the Start Time (the purple numbers), it was a very useful tool even before the event started.
And, as always, people loved the updated results.

C • name change 2

I worked really hard on getting the radio controls into three controls in the middle of the advanced courses (Orange, Brown, and Green) for Day 1, evidenced by three 70 mile round trips to the park in the week before the event.

I had planned to go out and turn on the radio controls myself, but running behind meant that the vetting team (just Peggy and Nadim to 33 control locations) had to turn on the radios instead. Circumstances meant that they were also running behind, flustered and rushed, so, the radio didn't get turned on at 125 (#11 on the map below).

Around 10 AM, I noticed that while punches from 127 (#8) were rolling in, there was no coverage from 125 (#11) or 130 (#10). I was extremely disappointed that my efforts to figure out the right location for the repeaters had failed. I decided to ask Peggy if she would walk out to the locations and check that the repeaters were on. She commented that she was pretty sure she hadn't touched 125 (#11), and she got out of her warm car and walked out there and turned on 125, and recheck 130 and the repeater at #9. Thank you, Peggy!!

The punches started rolling in from 125, and while 130 from heard from, there were only intermittent punches for about an hour and then nothing. I am guessing that the steep sides of the reentrant had a lot to do with it. Sadly, that was the one for the Orange course, and it would have been helpful to have gotten more data from that point.

This was a great learning experience for me, satisfying, and frustrating at the same time.

After stuffing and sealing the competition maps last night and this morning with Amy, we headed off to the park, arriving a bit after 10 AM to haul out water for Day 1 of the NJROTC National Orienteering Championships being held at PATuxent River Park, Maryland.

I took 6 gallons to 113, and Amy took 4 to 108. It felt like it took me forever to get there, and I was starting to worry that I had messed up, but eventually I made it in 23 minutes (.7 miles). Ran back as hard as I could in 13:49 (.7 miles, though more on trail).

Six more gallons, this time to 127. I disdained the Blue trail to take a more direct route to the bridge crossing. Total fail since I went about 45 degrees in right instead of left. I blame it in the knapsack I was carrying on my front. Truth be told, I should have just followed Amy down the Blue trail.

Sort myself, after sitting down and contemplating just where I might really be, because it is really stupid to wander around with six gallons of water! Contemplating was a failure because I wasn't as far west as I had hoped I was, and I realized this when I hit the bridge about 8 minutes after I should have.

Navigated fine to the control, dumping another gallon off at 113 after reading Peggy's email and seeing that 113 was due another gallon. Put the other five at 127 (33:46 - .97 miles) and then headed back to the car (15:08 - .9 miles).

Expected to see Amy back at the car by now (she had taken off with 3 gallons to 122 when I went off to 127), and I was a bit concerned, but since I was going to 122 next, I loaded up with four gallons and headed off.

Hoped two things: 1) she wasn't hurt, and 2) I would see her and she could drive the van back to the barn, and I would head back a different way. This back and forth stuff was getting boring.

I was relieved to see that there was water at the control when I got there (19:46 - .86 miles). Despite the fact that we both claimed to have stayed on the trail, we did not see each other, and I got back to the car about 15 minutes after she did (14:16 .86 miles - my butt was dragging!!).

Tweaking some of the repeaters for tomorrow. Hard to believe that Garmin Connect claims an hour of stoppage time.



Today, I mounted the Yagi on a better pole, so it did not tilt or wiggle around like yesterday.



Then, I was able to the repeater down the trail to the position between 3 & 4, moved the repeater at 4 South, just outside of the circle, and then I went into 8, 9, 10, 11


to see if I had coverage there without having to use the repeater at 7.

There wasn't coverage in that circle, so I turned them all off, revisited 7 on the way out to make sure it was still in place for tomorrow,

and then headed back in turning off the repeaters on the way.

What a beautiful day to be in the woods!



About 55 F when I left the park. I may even gotten a bit sunburned. Though my feet did not like being in the Ice Bugs two days in a row. With the sliding around that I was doing, I have a few hot spots this evening, and the left foot PF has flared up a bit. However, I will take that any day over not being able to be out in the woods!

C • radio locations 14

2:40 out but just 1:25 moving time. Another stab at getting the radio controls out to where I want them. Better results today after correcting a misunderstanding to the suggestions I was initially given.



Repeater at 1 (GO control)
Yagi at 2
Repeater at 3 and just North of the circle at 4.
Water was way too high, so I went around on the Red trail, though the controls at 5 & 6 and put the next repeater at 7.



Repeaters/controls at 8 & 10 with the second Master at 9.
Then over to 11 for the final repeater/control.

Managed to stay mostly dry/clean as I tackled a location in the marsh, but the water is pretty high in general, and there will be lots of wet feet this weekend.

A bit of a set back when, near the end of printing the maps for Day 1, I realized that I had spelled Patuxent incorrectly in the maps I had printed - 300 of them already. Two sides! Printer acting sluggish, so I needed to print through the night to get the reprint done in time. So, I had to keep getting up and checking it. Agh! Sort of like sheeps - I know how to spell Patuxent, but we always use the Pax River shortcut, and that stuck - Paxtuxent, spelled incorrectly twice on all of the maps. Not acceptable.

So, it was a later start then planned, but getting out was worth it since it was a lovely day to be out in the woods, clear skies and with temps right around 40 to start.

Even got to use the new Men's room at the park, after using the new Women's room last weekend.

C • Spelling 5

C • International Exposure 8

The only thing I did in my jeans today was work.

Knocked out the core dvd. Forgot to bring shorts to work. Jeans were hot to do core in.

Around the paved loop at work. Jeans were hot to walk in.