Training Log Archive: cedarcreek

Night O' at Camp Timberhill, a part of Rentschler Preserve near Hamilton, Ohio. A score course, shorter than our normal "Midnight O'", but very, very fun. A few mistakes of the sprint variety: A short leg, with choices, and I committed to one before seeing the other. A really fun event. (I'm now doubly-bummed that I missed the HW Night Champs courses.)

Event: OCIN / TROL Indian Creek
 

OCIN_Indian_Creek_Dec_2013_4 Brown - Splits

Event: MVOC - Night-O and Potluck Party
 

Really stressful day. Valerie Meyer basically ensured I had no big problems with the relay software. I have used the OS2003 product for two events, and Valerie encouraged us to purchase OS2010. We bought a really nice license with "speaker" functions, which means the software provides support for radio controls and provides data in good formats for the announcer. Long story short: Valerie created the event in OS2010 so that I could save time for other things. If she hadn't, I would have had no sleep on Friday night. (And past experience has shown that sleepy people make stupid mistakes. I got 90 minutes of sleep Friday night.)

I sort of volunteered to be the relay course setter because I've set two already, I really love designing relays, and of all the A-meet course setters OCIN has, I'm the least valuable in the "performance per relay point" parameter. What wasn't apparent was the extra responsibility that brought. Mike and David (Waller) and Steve and Pat and Ben all planned to run, so I couldn't consult regarding courses, map changes, flag placement, map printing, control description "correctness", event center layout, correct difficulty, and so on and so on. We did get a vetter, David Williams, who hasn't designed a lot of courses, but provided a lot of really good and thoughtful comments, and totally saved me embarrassment on a few important details. Since the Flying Pig at Middle Creek, England-Idlewild, and Big Bone Lick, it's been my position that OCIN has to have very solid vetting and/or block vetting (because of a screw up I made, for what it's worth).

When we scheduled the A-meet, our weekend choices were a weekend in September or October (I can't remember) or this weekend in December. We had gotten lucky last year with an early December date and nice weather for the night-O, 60 degree temperatures for the 2012 relay, and 40F cold rain for the Ultralong the next day. We knew going in that the weather might be really bad. What really made it difficult for me personally were the short days and the limited accessibility to the boy scout camp. Even an hour more light would have made setting easy.

I've told the story to a lot of people. I went to the park last Saturday with 75% courses to get a few new control locations and verify the ones I planned to use. We had just had rain to ice to 4-5 inches of snow, and it was cold. It was a disaster. I had many "through or around" options to either go straight across a big reentrant or around on a trail, but the ground was just super-saturated with water. I couldn't climb anything steep, and sometimes when I tried, the land under my feet just slid downhill. I went home and was just in a state of despair. My courses just were not going to work. Also, I was pretty much locked into the event center: A shelter for nature programs at the Camp.

(I'm nodding off as I type from lack of sleep. I'm typing gibberish. More tomorrow.)

C • But oh what fun... 3

Event: OCIN - US Night and Relay Championships
 

Ted Good's Night Champs GPS track. Lost SI... time: 13422

Control 10-11 (Ted Good lost SI): Time: 1041 (a few seconds extra on either end).

Event: OLOU Goat Meet (CANCELLED)
 

Setting. No GPS track until next week.

C • Really... 2

Event: Sprint the Golden Gate