Jan 10, 2010 - Bond Park

Just posted the results.

Destruction-O event at the Lake Johnson

Thanks to Joseph, we had an extra event on Jan 1 with very unusual format: Destruction-O. In short: the run consisted from two parts. During the first 30 min part everybody was doing regular Score-O trying to position himself/herself to be in a good spot for the second part by the end of these 30 mins. Then during the second 15 min part everybody was running back to the finish trying to collect at many controls as possible along the way. Controls collected during these 15 mins were counted with double score. The idea was that almost all controls would get picked up during these 15 mins, so it would be easy to wrap up the event and collect the rest of the controls after the finish.

Reality turned up to be even better: ALL controls were picked up! I should also add that the way the controls were set up was the following: every participant took 2 controls and set them somewhere in the forest, then came back and plotted them on everybody else's maps (that's why there were a few unusual control clusters).
From the organizer stand point it was an ideal event.

And it was fun too. I wasn't able to collect many controls during the last 15 mins (only one...), but I had very good 30 mins Score-O prior to that and got 22 controls. From Destruct-o strategy stand point it wasn't a good approach, but I was too pleased with the run to be upset. As for the winning strategy, Joseph used it - the idea was in finishing 30 mins in the middle of the map, so clusters of 10 pointers could be picked up before people would start coming back from remote controls.

Here is how I ran. Click on the image to enlarge. Blue - mostly running, yellow-brown - mostly walking.




#55, 53, 54: very easy cluster of controls. I think #54 was at wrong root stock, but it didn't matter much.

#52: used the trail and cut to the control when approaching the re-entrant.

#56, 57, 59: another easy cluster. Used the trail until I saw 56, then went up the re-entrant collecting other two controls.

#58: used road, then cut down to the control.

#61: followed the shore to the control - it was quite hard, as the shore bank was steep. I think that the control was a bit further south comparing to my map, but again it wasn't essential.

#60: walked up the hill and then down to the root stock with control

#68: followed the slope until the trail, then went down to the creek and followed the creek.

#69; simply to the re-entrant across the creek (I think the control was further up the re-entrant though)

#66: crossed the creek again and went for 66 using the section of the fence where only poles were left.

#67: along the fence across the hill

#64: jumped over the fence (or rather crawled over it - it was kind of dangerous... but I have only myself to blame there, as it was one of the controls I set). Then proceeded down the road and cut to 64 when I saw the creek further down.

#65: back to the road and along the creek to the control

#63: walked up the hill along the fence (again slight mismatch between my map and reality - the control was right on the fence, while the map shown north from it)

#73: simply down the hill

#62: crossed the road by the creek and went up to the control (second re-entrant)

#74: up the hill, then used the road for a bit and went down to the re-entrant with the control.

There I made my tactical mistake. I had 6 minutes left and instead of turning back I went for two more remote controls.

#72: simply used the road and counted re-entrants on my left

#71: across the hill and attacked from the road bend.

And there I stood for 30 secs waiting for the 30 min to run out. Then picked up the control and went back to 72. It was already picked up... Ouch... I made one more attempt to pick another control at 62, but it wasn't there either, so I simply ran/walked back to the finish.

And that was it.

Mapping at Lake Johnson

Finally entered into OCAD another portion of the Lake Johnson map. I did field work back in November, but only now had some time to plot it. With February event approaching (and vetting tasks starting in 2 weeks), I am not sure how much mapping I'll be able to do - maybe 2 more small pieces this winter - we'll see.

Here is the new area.



P.S. Also designed courses for the Jan 10 sprints. Tried to make them as hard as possible in the Bond park.