Discussion: A Few US Champs (Telemark) Comments
in: Orienteering; General
Oct 20, 2004 5:22 PM
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1) Thanks very, very much to MNOC for this well organized, high quality event! It would have been clear to even a cabbage head that a lot of work went into this event, and it showed.
2) It was a lot of fun getting to run through the kettle moraine terrain and the northern woods were nice too. I wish we had more areas like this mapped and in use than we do in the US.
3) Arranging to have a ski resort lodge only a few hundred feet away from the Day 1 Finish was an extra nice touch for that blustery, cold day that even featured a little early snow.
4) A special thanks to MNOC for finally getting the US Champs/WRE combination right! It was a US Champs that happened to have a day counted as a WRE rather than it has been the other way at previous US Champs, with bizarre start group sortings and other unchampionship-like manipulations. It's an unfortunate human failing to maike things more complicated than they have to be, but MNOC did not succumb.
5) I would like to single out Brian May's contributions to making this event a success. Just look over his training log and you can see he spent *a lot* of time out in the forest working on the courses. The Blue courses both days were well designed with plenty of challenges and yet were fun too. It was extra nice to see controls that were fairly placed (finally!) and without using any bogus features (will future course setters *please* take note?). And note Brian's personal sacrifice in choosing to course set a US Champs at a time when he's in his prime competitive years. Just try to imagine that happening in a country such as Norway or Sweden, for example! Thanks very much, Brian.
6) The longer course on Day 2 was nice, but it's going to take a bit more to get things out there to a true Classic distance.
6) It was also great to have such a competitive field in M21. Pretty much all the top names were there, weren't they?
7) Finally, and on quite a different note, what in the world was going on at the warming hut at the end of Day 2??? I had to rub my eyes a few times before I could really convince myself that what I was seeing was reality: Don Davis with a can of Coke in his hand. And not just Coke, but Diet Coke!!! Some people would say this is the kind of sign they expect to mark the beginning of the Apocalypse. When I talked to several close confidants of Don, I learned the truth was that he has had a closet addiction for Diet Coke for some time now, but had felt pressured to maintain a public beer image. This apparently was his coming out. No doubt Coke executives in Atlanta are overjoyed.
Again, a big thanks to MNOC for a terrific championship!
--Mikell Platt
2) It was a lot of fun getting to run through the kettle moraine terrain and the northern woods were nice too. I wish we had more areas like this mapped and in use than we do in the US.
3) Arranging to have a ski resort lodge only a few hundred feet away from the Day 1 Finish was an extra nice touch for that blustery, cold day that even featured a little early snow.
4) A special thanks to MNOC for finally getting the US Champs/WRE combination right! It was a US Champs that happened to have a day counted as a WRE rather than it has been the other way at previous US Champs, with bizarre start group sortings and other unchampionship-like manipulations. It's an unfortunate human failing to maike things more complicated than they have to be, but MNOC did not succumb.
5) I would like to single out Brian May's contributions to making this event a success. Just look over his training log and you can see he spent *a lot* of time out in the forest working on the courses. The Blue courses both days were well designed with plenty of challenges and yet were fun too. It was extra nice to see controls that were fairly placed (finally!) and without using any bogus features (will future course setters *please* take note?). And note Brian's personal sacrifice in choosing to course set a US Champs at a time when he's in his prime competitive years. Just try to imagine that happening in a country such as Norway or Sweden, for example! Thanks very much, Brian.
6) The longer course on Day 2 was nice, but it's going to take a bit more to get things out there to a true Classic distance.
6) It was also great to have such a competitive field in M21. Pretty much all the top names were there, weren't they?
7) Finally, and on quite a different note, what in the world was going on at the warming hut at the end of Day 2??? I had to rub my eyes a few times before I could really convince myself that what I was seeing was reality: Don Davis with a can of Coke in his hand. And not just Coke, but Diet Coke!!! Some people would say this is the kind of sign they expect to mark the beginning of the Apocalypse. When I talked to several close confidants of Don, I learned the truth was that he has had a closet addiction for Diet Coke for some time now, but had felt pressured to maintain a public beer image. This apparently was his coming out. No doubt Coke executives in Atlanta are overjoyed.
Again, a big thanks to MNOC for a terrific championship!
--Mikell Platt
Oct 20, 2004 8:05 PM
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Alas, were it only so (see Eddie's link.) I had a chance to observe the can at close range, and it was "the real thing, coke is it." Plus, Don wasn't slugging it back. He was taking dainty little sips, just like experienced Diet Cokers do. I hope the Marines don't find out, and lord only knows what hell will break out if his hash buddies hear of it.
Oct 22, 2004 2:15 AM
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bmay:
Hello swampfox. On behalf of MNOC, I will say you're welcome. We put a lot of effort into the events and we're very pleased with how everything turned out.
Yes, I put in a lot of work. But, as a relatively novice course-setter with a lack of vast experience, I figured I needed to. And as the 1000-day head-honcho, I suspect you are no stranger to mapping and course-setting efforts yourself.
Leading up to the event, I had these great dreams of spending a summer running around the woods of Telemark, pre-running all my great courses. Unfortunately, I spent a lot more time walking around the woods, tweaking a contour here, adding a depression there, adjusting veg. boundaries, moving controls, etc. I place no blame on our mapper Plamen ... it was he who rescued us from an unsatisfactory map.
Also, I wasn't alone in doing the work. On the course-setting side of things I had great support from Abbi and the Baird trio (Owen, Heather, Graham). A little anecdote ... on the Wednesday before the event I looked over the master-maps to devise a control setting strategy, effectively dividing all the controls for two days into 12 groups. On Thursday evening I walked into Owen and Heather's room to find that they had already arranged a dozen bundles of numbered control stands, flags and e-punches all ready to go the next morning. That kind of organization helped my job significantly.
Anyway, I worked hard, had a lot of fun and feel quite a sense of accomplishment. But, I'm also really looking forward to a relaxing weekend of only competing in a US Championships two weeks from now!
Brian
Yes, I put in a lot of work. But, as a relatively novice course-setter with a lack of vast experience, I figured I needed to. And as the 1000-day head-honcho, I suspect you are no stranger to mapping and course-setting efforts yourself.
Leading up to the event, I had these great dreams of spending a summer running around the woods of Telemark, pre-running all my great courses. Unfortunately, I spent a lot more time walking around the woods, tweaking a contour here, adding a depression there, adjusting veg. boundaries, moving controls, etc. I place no blame on our mapper Plamen ... it was he who rescued us from an unsatisfactory map.
Also, I wasn't alone in doing the work. On the course-setting side of things I had great support from Abbi and the Baird trio (Owen, Heather, Graham). A little anecdote ... on the Wednesday before the event I looked over the master-maps to devise a control setting strategy, effectively dividing all the controls for two days into 12 groups. On Thursday evening I walked into Owen and Heather's room to find that they had already arranged a dozen bundles of numbered control stands, flags and e-punches all ready to go the next morning. That kind of organization helped my job significantly.
Anyway, I worked hard, had a lot of fun and feel quite a sense of accomplishment. But, I'm also really looking forward to a relaxing weekend of only competing in a US Championships two weeks from now!
Brian
This discussion thread is closed.