For my own edification, would there be significantly more people from the US northeast or elsewhere in the US going to the Gator Cup this weekend if it had been on the calendar as far in advance as the typical US A event?
With kids, anything up to 3-4 hours of driving isn't too bad, but beyond that it gets hard: days get taken off, and/or flight $ & logistics, etc... so the Gator Cup is in the potential 'hard' travel category of events.
I'm only doing 3-4 of the 'hard' travel events this year - Team Trails, CO-5-day (I have family there & US Relays), NavStock (because the rest of the family will be out of town), and probably at least part of the US Champs week. The Sprint Series finals is a semi-hard event (5+ hr. drive) that we'll probably make it to.
It's even harder to justify given the alternative of the pretty good schedule hosted locally by DVOA...
So... that's why I'm not there.
I may or may not have gone (via different schedule planning) - but the first I found out about it was word of mouth at the team trials (that is, April 3). That's way too late if people have already planned their schedules for the year.
I think a good comparison is the OCIN team trials versus the Guelph Canadian trials. Both should start off roughly equally likely to get better fields. Guelph scores points for better terrain, OCIN for being not under snow at the beginning of the season (so that Canadians want to come south to see what bare ground looks like). The key difference - advertisements for the Pig started years ago (every previous annual Pig), whereas the Guelph race started advertising in April.
Agreed - i probably would have come if the event was placed on the calendar earlier: because we didn't know about it, Sergei, Greg, and I committed to putting on a local meet in Connecticut this weekend.
Well, if a year is good lead time then let it be known that SLOC will be hosting US Team Trials next year. Still working out arrangements for the Sprint venue, but it will be urban and on a brand new map. Short course at S-F (updated map), classic course at Hawn (mapped 2001). May 19-21, 2006.
Weather today was 60 degrees, but I would expect warmer temps. S-F and Hawn are mature forest. Two of the few places in MO where the woods are runnable year round.
Where are the results (or where will they be) posted?
No results posted yet (other than Hammer's informal list in another discussion thread), but keep an eye on the
Orienteering Ontario web site.
If this were announced earlier with the expectation of large US participation, we may have scheduled our local events around it. We avoid A meets; we can also avoid Canadian events in the East. As it was we had a weekend event to make up for the shortage of A meets in the US east this season with a great event put on by the Team - thanks Boris, Sergei, Greg!
I can't blame anyone for not being there but it's nice to get the impression that a lot more people are likely to show up to the COCs in the Guelph area in August 2006 - the terrain this past weekend was well worth the trip. Presumably they'll have the dates for that nailed down and online sometime next winter at the latest.
Now if I can only get Ottawa to plan and announce its major events several months in advance, I might be able to attend one of my own club's events.