Discussion: Billygoat

I've posted the map and my route. Note that there are two shades of green. The lighter shade printed quite dark, and it fact there was very little difference between white woods and light green woods.

I thought it was a fine course by Peter Goodwin. Not too easy, not too hard.

Winners were Samantha Saeger, with Kristin Federer second and Pavlina Brautigam third, and Neil Dobbs, with Boris Granovskiy a very close second and, well, I can't remember who was third, maybe Vadim Masalkov(?), but I know Ross Smith was fourth, because it was his birthday and we sang him a song and Samantha gave him a tasty looking cake.

I also posted Peter's courses for the Billygoat sprints the day before -- sprint 1 and sprint 2.

And we even managed to escape with no rain on both days, even as most of New England was getting soaked both days.

It was an awesome weekend. I hope that the Billygoat Sprint tradition continues.

Results are up at http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/rdewitt/wcoc/0605... Let us know if you see anything that needs to be corrected.

Sprint results are up at http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/rdewitt/wcoc/0605...

Neil!! Now we can ship that hideous goat thingy off the continent for a little while. Can only immagine the look on the customs guy's face. Be sure to show it to Thierry. He'll be so jealous he'll probably sign up for next year's race immediately.

Problem is, as far as we can tell, the hideous goat thingy went to Canada in 2004 and hasn't returned. Does Mahoney still have it on his mantel?

thanks to all concerned for a fantastic weekend, the organisers for great courses, everybody for the great atmosphere, john and boris for not letting me rest an instant, jj for not letting me bleed to death in west point '02....

two short races on the saturday followed by a long on the dsunday makes for a great program and will lead to a lot of technical improvement if done regularly. keep it up!

where's my goat?

I can confirm, Doug Mahoney does still have the Goat, however, it only lasted about a day on his mantel before his wife banished it to their basement. He's mentioned getting it down to the powers that be several times, but perhaps has a little shrine set up down there.

Where is Doug Mahoney? Did he realize he could never top the Billygoat win and decide to retire on top?

What kind of compensation should I consider suing the DABSC for given that I never got to enjoy even a minute of togetherness with the Goat after my win last year?

And can we schedule the 2007 Goat early enough that I can avoid scheduling an AR on that date next time? (And for that matter, will there be a Highlander this year and if so, when will it be?)

Doug has said a few times that he is interested in defending his Goat, but isn't sure when. He's here in Ottawa, training lots and racing the odd duathlon and trail race. And yes, his wife would like the Pig out of their basement.
I would put his career highlight as outkicking the US anchor, not sure who, at WOC in Scotland during the awards.

Feet: I told Brian not to schedule to Genesis against the Billygoat, because it causes deep painful wounds in the heart of devoted orienteers. I will tell him to have a look at Randy's scheduling page before setting the next races. May 13 was taken, so he couldn't schedule in on Saturday.

Did the clues give you any edge in the race on this tough orange course? The team who enjoyed it most spent five hours on the orienteering course. Two Billygoats in a row, real heroes compared to these dashing orienteers who did it in an hour.

There was an interesting development in the race. John, Neil and Boris were in the lead, than the second pack with Andy, Greg, Mikkel, Peter Grolimund and piutepro himself skipped #10, with the effect that suddenly the packs were together. No wonder, that the race got so brutally fast. I got deposited not very gently in the swamp after #16 (which was not to cross in the first place) and imploded on #18, since my brain was fried after running with the big boys, ahhh, the young boys, ahhh, let's say the spring goats.

Well, it was fun while it lasted. Got to do more of the blistering barefoot hellish tempo runs. Except right now my left toe shows all colors of the rainbow after colliding at meteor speed with a tree. Do the have orienteering shoes with steel caps?

Hej Daniel, did the tree survive the collision?
And is there alternative spelling to your countryman last name?

Steel caps might cause compass problems - Always running north. Kevlar?

Greg - It's Peter Grollmann. He was very impressed with the BG. He seems to have done quite well until the kids kicked into gear and took off at the end.

Glad everyone had such a good time.

"Kids" are the same age as Peter - Vadim (Speedy) is 36 and counting :-), I was the victim of this speed up too. When Vadim and Ross could smell John Fredrickson in front ot us and within reach, the pace of our train went well beyond my threshold

I take full responsibility for dragging everyone (including the doubting balter?) through the swamp after #16 that wasn't even close to straight-line route to #17... oops!

I was cursing myself for not looking at the map on that leg to #17 - totally guilty of blind following

I was actually in the 3rd group, with Kristen, Peter, Ernst, Samantha, and also (at times) others.

I wish I had been in the 2nd group.

My quite verbose leg comments are now available.

Herd effect :)

I think Swampfox missed the radio and TV coverage of this year's Billygoat action once again

given that the real Goat award is still north of the border, what awards were given? besides the cool shirts of course.

To answer my own earlier question, Randy's calendar has the Highlander scheduled for October 15.

Piutepro, your comments were amusing and made people think that you are mad, but were not actually helpful, not to put too fine a point on it.

Well, to the extent that those comments make people think he is mad, perhaps they are indeed helpful.

To answer my own earlier question, Randy's calendar has the Highlander scheduled for October 15.

Please note that as this is in red, it is rumor/tenative, based on talking to Paul at the BG.

As for awards - beer and fine wine was given to top 3 male and female finishers

I find it kind of condescending to assume that nobody under the age of 21 will be in the top 3...

Assume what? John F. has been winning alcohol for years. I don't know what made him decide to give it up this year...

Greg - You all look like "kids" to me.

I didn't want to get the organizers in trouble, so I decided to wait until next year when I am finally legal.

Oh, right, forgot about that. So yeah - a weird tradition.

Oh, there was no such assumption. I was relieved to find that Neil had won, because it relieved me from any concern about how to award the wine to John. Ditto for some of the younger women. The beer for 2nd and 3rd was courtesy of Vadim, and was a bock that came with a little decorative goat hanging from the neck of the bottle.

I have leads on next year's Billygoat (and the one after that!), which I will try to get nailed down as soon as I can. Meanwhile, do we have any bright ideas on how to get the goat doorstop to Neil? (William, you probably owe us for not saddling you with it! :-)

Hey, I also got the women's goat back - since I remembered to return it and then take it back :) It will go back up on my shelf so Ross can complain everyday how ugly it looks. He's just jealous ;)

I loved that goat that now appears to be lost in Ottawa ;(

It will go back up on my shelf so Ross can complain everyday how ugly it looks. He's just jealous ;)

But think how much uglier it would be to have two up there! Maybe next year Ross?

Sorry for renaming Peter Grollmann, I put too much Swissitude into the name. In any case he is a heck of a runner.

'Kids' refers to everyone who was at least a day younger than me in this train. With 49 years and 14 days I was the oldest goat until I ate too much cabbage in the swamp. After a safety loop around #18 to some other walls in the non existent green I was cleaned up by the Alan Young (kid), Ernst Linder (man), Peter Gagarin (man) and Kristin Hall (exempt from kid-man configuration).

My toe has undergone severe polar ice treatment. I will talk to NASA about kevlar reinforcement on my new pair of o-shoes. I can still run, but not exactly in an elegant way. The tree survives in excellent condition. Tough guy, it didn't even scream. I heard some kind of a faint whisper tough, something like, 'ha, there are not attack badgers in the east' or something like this.

I lost a contact lens some minutes later, too. So I returned one eyed and beat up. I guess I was beyond my threshold.

I found the lens today, when something irritated my eye. The lens had spent the night rolled up somewhere under my eye lid. Did anyone say, orienteering is a tough sport?

I lost a contact lens this Sunday at an O-meet, as well. Are you sure the one you found rolled up somewhere under your eye lid is yours? Is it clear and concave? It could be mine.

Oh boy...

so that Doppelbock Beer
with the goat ornament left outside my garage was not for me???

That belongs to Pafi. If you want one of your own, you'll have to show up. (And turn in a better result than you have since 1997.)

News from the Head Goat:

"I have only begun to feel how lucky we were yesterday. The Billygoat
had no rain except for about 5 minutes of a sprinkle. However, I have
heard that if you went 15 miles east to Goshen, it rained most of the
day and if you went 15 miles north to Lakeville, it rained for a good
hour and a half starting at 11:00. I guess that we dodged the bullet.
The collective "Peters" must have been working overtime.

Peter"

And this morning (8 am till noon) in central CT we've had another inch. Anybody know the Goatpaddle.

Yes, the lens was clear, round and concave. A definite ID.

Contact lenses are known to take flight. So maybe yours popped out and was flying a day and a night to land at my desk? Happens.

So where was mine going? Maybe it went to Peter Goodwin's house to have a good look at the food and drinks which I had to ignore during my hurried visit.

On a more serious note, as Spike points out on his scientific research about the use of clear or tinted glasses in the woods, I would use them, if there weren't my reading glasses, which are in the way.

Maybe there are Oakleys with some magnification built in in the lower half of the glass. Kind of what Lance Armstrong needed to read the speedometer on his bike while racing downhill with 60 mph on a French mountain road.

Hammer has some cool looking prescription shades.

Maybe there are Oakleys with some magnification built in in the lower half of the glass.

They do exist!

Perforamance Bicycle has various glasses that will take prescription inserts, some quite reasonably priced.

Rudy Project makes very well made sport glasses that take prescription inserts and have interchangeable lenses - not cheap, but mine have held up very well to lots of abuse... My first pair lasted over 4 years until I broke them when I crashed really hard in the Middle Pig in March.

They've recently begun to offer interchangeable RX-able lenses which will eliminate the insert for prescription wearers.

I've found the Goat and it can travel this weekend. It can be moved to Hamilton or hopefully to New England. Where would the powers that be want it sent? I hope it makes it across the border...

Does Goat have a passport; they may take it for an illegal immigrant

Or worse, an instrument used in some sort of ritualistic sacrifice.

Now you guys will always know where it is...just check with the NSA.

I think the NSA always knew... too bad they don't have their stuff together enough to read discussion threads on attackpoint and post the answer to questions like this.

Okay, I've got the Men's Goat Doorstop now. It was handed off to me at the Rogaine this past weekend. So, any bright ideas for how we should get it to Neil? Is there anybody out there who will be seeing him soon who would like to be a courier? Is there a convenient time for feet to get his hands on it briefly so that he can add his signature?

If somebody wants to pick it up, the Goat could visit the Jukola this weekend where it could be the CSU mascot. It could then head onwards with Boris, unless Neil will be there himself. I'm leaving tomorrow; Ross and Ken are leaving Thursday.

boris could give it to a frenchie who will see neil at the nationale in france the week after. after all that travelling i'd better watch out for the poc ar buile

Will,

Don't forget to sing at the back, same goes to Neil.

Goat from the past.

Okay, the hitchhiking goat has been inspected by a member of the DABSC, found to be in good working order, and has now made the next step on its journey. I left it on Ken's doorstep (hope I got the right house!) for him to discover in the morning, and pack off to Finland. We'll assume that the goat is clever enough to make connections on its own and find its way to Paris. If any of you see it on its journey, post a note here so we'll know how it's going. With luck, it will pass through William's hands and get to Neil in the next couple of weeks. Then it will be up to Neil to find a way to get it back to New York next spring (the Polish postal system is not recommended).

yes, the goat has booked his ticket to finland.

goats!

And few more pictures from Billygoat XXVIII event are available too. Let me know if you want to have a full sized images (~3MB).

Who rides the Magic School Bus?

Neil, who should we give the goat to? (The default is me keeping it till WOC).

i'm not really sure it can be trusted to non-AP people... perhaps WOC would be better... but if you really want it off your doorstep, any of the french squad&hangers on could probably get it to me the following weekend

Either that or they would use it in a ritualistic sacrificial rite.

On a separate but related subject, I am in possession of an equally ugly trophy, this one for the super veterans (that means really old veterans, not really cool veterans, I fear) from the World Rogaine Champs in Arizona. I needs to be delivered to Australia in October. Any suggestions?

Give it to Rob Walter at Jukola.