Delaware Valley Orienteering Association

Topic created by WindWalker on Sun Apr 15, 2012 at 8:03 pm

WindWalker
Num Posts: 164
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map:
First O: 2011

First off I want to thank the people who helped pull this off. Specifically - Dory Peterson for showing up early, handling registration and helping set up shop, John De Wolf for setting up e-punch and running it until the end, Kathy Urban for finishing out e-punch, Dave Urban for manning start and helping get the newbies going, Janet Porter for taking over registration and closing the show, Ed Scott, Peter Hartman and Diane Reider for control pick-up. And of course to everyone that gave guidance before hand so Lisa and I could pull this off.

Overall I think it was a success. I set out controls in the morning in the rain, but that soon gave way to cloudy skies, that soon gave way to sunny skies, so the weather was good. We had somewhere around 120 runners, pretty cool!

Next I want to apologize for a glitch in my course setting. There was one control, #35 that caused some confusion and also caused at least one runner to go stomping off in a huff all pissed off. This control was placed correctly, and it was not in the out-of-bounds marked on the map, however it was inside the Scout Camps rope and ribbons to keep people out of the rifle range area. This rope was in poor repair and some places it was missing and some places it was laying on the ground. Some took this as the out-of-bounds and did not enter. I should have been more clear to follow the out-of-bounds on the map not the ropes at the rifle range. (the ropes at the COPES course were in much better repair). While picking control locations, I liked the location and knew it would be tricky, so I kept it in thinking that most would ignore the scouts boundary and follow what was on the map. And looking at the stats, I guess most did just that. But for the ones that didn't, I'm sorry. The print out from 2:00 showed 65 runners would have had that control and 10 out of the 65 had missed punches. Until the splits are up we won't know how many were a result from the famous control 35.

It was a cool learning experience and I'm glad I did it and at the same time am glad it's over.

And lastly thanks to all those that ventured up in my neck of the woods to run the Hawk Mtn Map.

Mike and Lisa Carter

Reply by Len on Sun Apr 15, 2012 at 8:28 pm

Len
Num Posts: 125
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map:
First O: 2011

Mike & Lisa,
Thank you for the time and effort in putting this together. I really enjoyed the map (except for #35  :) ) but everyone on those couses had to deal with that. I have been fighting with poor map reading and poor decisions over my last two courses and I think the 5000 scale helped me stay connected with the map. That and the number of controls made it more critical to know my route. I look forward to comming out here again for another O event. I will be keeping my eyes on the schedule.
Thanks again.
Len

Reply by yoyonateo on Sun Apr 15, 2012 at 8:32 pm

yoyonateo
Num Posts: 43
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map: Colliers Mills
First O: 2006

Great job today mike. For a first time course setter the courses were very well designed and most importantly fun. Good job. Do it again soon!

Reply by BevH on Mon Apr 16, 2012 at 6:00 am

BevH
Num Posts: 9
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map:
First O: 1981

Thank you, Mike and Lisa! 

Hawk Mountain is a very long drive for us, but we had a great time.  It is a nice venue with great weather, amenities (shower!!!), and courses.  Looks like 8 of the 10 runners with missing punches were only missing #35. Hope there is a way to forgive them, under the circumstances.

Bev

Reply by DaveDarrah on Mon Apr 16, 2012 at 8:34 am

DaveDarrah
Num Posts: 47
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map: Fatlands
First O: 1976

Some photos here.

Reply by furlong47 on Mon Apr 16, 2012 at 12:21 pm

furlong47
Num Posts: 385
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map: Bucks County Community College
First O: 1994

Sorry I didn't make it there - I really wanted to attend, but got asked to volunteer elsewhere at the last minute to fill in for a person who was in a car accident (they are okay). It sounds like it was a great event!