November 16 event in the Umstead Park (Whispering Pines)

Yet another great day for orienteering. No rain, and the temperature was just right.

We arrived at early (at 11.30) as Michael and I volunteered to help with the start and registration. So, naturally, we worked during the first hour until Nadya and Charles released us. And Tanya was watching two little girls our friends left with us for the weekend. With 40 girl scouts we had a lot of people attending the event, many newcomers too, which is always good to see. The only bad thing was the download box not working (again!). I really see it as a problem now. We should either test it a day before or get a spare one (which I guess is expensive...). Artem and Ken kept doing some manipulations with the box and at the end they were able to fix it somehow, but many runners left without the printed results.

Initially we planned that all three of us will run and watch after the girls in turns, but we ended up only with me and Tanya running. Michael decided to stay at the start.

Tanya ran the Orange course and I did Green. Well, actually, I did my usual "1 hour" run, which turned to be Green this time. I liked the course. It wasn't very difficult, but Nadya and Charles hidden the controls pretty well (as usual :-)). It added to the challenge. Also there were a lot of steep hills on the route, which I couldn't avoid and had to walk up quite a bit. Anyway, here is how I ran:

#1: went to the left, crossed the re-entrant and walked uphill; then when I saw cabins on the left, turned and went down to the control.
#2: walked uphill, then ran north until the slope started to go down. There I stood for a few seconds and located the stony ground on the other side of the re-entrant (I wouldn't be able to use this trick in summer time!). Then just ran straight to that stony ground and up to the control.
#3: walked up the hill, ran down aiming to the bend of a re-entrant, crossed it and walked up another hill (I told you, a lot of uphills walks...), crossed the re-entrant and ran along the slope will the control.
#4: straight to the road and them took compass bearing to the control. Missed it and reached the open ground far to the left. Corrected the mistake and took the control. Met Ken and Terese there and we ran together back to the road.
#5: used the road to get there, attacked from the road's turn, watched and counted gullies and dry-ditches without crossing them; then turned to the cluster of dry-ditches with the control.
#6: thought about using the road again, but decided against it; crossed the first re-entrant in its higher part, then went down into the second one and ran along the slope to the re-entrant with the control.
#7: walked up to the road and ran till it started to curve; met Bill there; ran by the big re-entrant and crossed to the small re-entrant I was looking for; unfortunately, didn't notice it and reached another branch (eastern) of the same re-entrant; looked for the control there, didn't find it, looked at the compass and realized the mistake; went west and got the control.
#8: ran north-north-west over the hill and down the slope (but not straight down!), then cut through the green to the trail; the green area was bad, I could have probably been better off running all the way down that hill and then turning west, but I really wanted to reach that trail; after I got to the trail the control was very easy to find.
#9: used the road to get there, that was a mistake: the road went up, so I spent a lot of effort; I should have used the lower ground to get to the creek instead. Once at the creek, the control was easy to get.
I looked at the clock at #9 and realized that I spent 35 minutes to get that far. I wanted not to exceed 1 hour, so I had to turn back now, which meant finishing on Green.
#13: walked all the way up to the road, then ran east crossing and counting upper parts of re-entrants, reached the hill and followed it to the saddle.
#14: ran south-west using the high ground, then went down to the re-entrant and reached the road; used the road to get all the way to the control and walked up crossing gullies till I found it.
#15: back to the road, across the bridge; ran by the shore till the first re-entrant, but it was very slippery on the dry leaves in that area, so I decided to get away from the shore asap; went over the hill to the middle of the second re-entrant, crossed it, went up another hill to the beginning of the third re-entrant and aimed to the control from there; unfortunately missed and realized the mistake only when I saw that familiar stony ground ahead; turned back and took the control.
#16: was too tired to attempt the straight run, so used the re-entrant to get almost to the lake, then went up the control's re-entrant; it was easy to find this way.
Then barely managed to crawl up to the camp - the slope was very steep and slippery...

Ended up spending exactly 1 hour on the course.

Huge thanks to Nadya and Charles for organizing the event, it was fun!

Here is my route. Click on the image to enlarge. Blue - mostly running, yellow-brown - mostly walking.

From Orienteering

November 2 event in the South West Umstead Park

Very interesting orienteering today. No trails, no easy controls, every leg was challenging. In conjunction with perfect weather it made the course very satisfying and enjoyable. Big thanks to Joseph, Ruth and Josef!

There was also an unusual start location. We had to carpool and drive to the Old Reedy Creek road entrance. I've never been there, though, the forest itself was somewhat familiar, as Tanya and I organized an advanced event in these parts a year ago.

But back to the event. We signed up for 9.15 group, arrived on time and carpooled with Nadya and Charles to the start location. Tanya had to be in the Raleigh Little Theater shortly after noon, so we had only 2 hours to run our courses. Tanya and Michael decided to go together on Brown and I was going to tackle the Green course. I decided upfront that I must not run more than one hour (because of my knee), so I was going to watch time and switch to Brown or Red depending on how fast I was going.

Tanya and Michael started and I followed in a few minutes.

#1 was probably the easiest control on the course, but even this one was carefully hidden, so after I found it I told myself that I should expect a difficult course.

#2 proved the statement nicely. I tried to go straight north keeping to the higher ground, but veered to the left and crossed the creek to the west of the spot I was aiming to. Then I saw Tanya, Michael and Larisa even further to the left and ran toward them. That was a mistake. When I met them they appeared to be sufficiently lost and when I looked around I realized that I was rather lost myself. I decided (correctly) that I must had run to far to the west and walked east, then Tanya noticed #17. I ran toward it, checked the number, located it on the map and quickly ran to #2. Lucky.

#3 was a disaster. It took me 10 minutes to find it! Ouch...
I went up the hill and watched the re-entrant on the left. When it ended I turned north-west with an intention to cut north when the hill starts sloping down. The problem with this approach was the fact that the hill proved to be very flat and I simply couldn't distinguish where to turn. Plus I veered to the left again. As a result I reached slopes which were going down to the creek to far to the left (sounds familiar, right?). Several other people were walking in the same area looking for #3 as well. I noticed Eugene and Miles, there was somebody else too. After a few minutes of aimless wandering I decided to find a new attack point, went down to the creek and found the creeks junction. Yes, I was too far to the left, but at least I knew where I was! From the creeks junction I ran along the big creek and took #3. Whew...

I took #4 cleanly. Ran east up the hill, then north-east-east in parallel to the slope, crossed a re-entrant (again rather flat one) and then went up the hill toward the control.

Avoided an area with fallen trees by walking uphill and cutting straight to the road, used the road for about a hundred meters and went down to #5 using northern slope of the re-entrant. I would probably be better off by simply using the re-entrant's bottom, as there were a lot of fallen trees on the slope.

Crossed the re-entrant and walked straight uphill, then ran south-south-west, crossed a small re-entrant with a dry ditch and went south down the spur until I reached the bottom and found #6 a few meters further.

#6 to #7 was the longest leg and I am happy with the way I handled it. First I walked south-south-west over the big hill, then ran keeping the high ground, noticed beginning of the big re-entrant on my left and finally hit the top western branch of another big re-entrant I was running toward. Exactly where I wanted. From that point it was easy: down to the bottom, then south and looked for the pit across the second western branch.

I chose the slope running to get to #8. I think I would had been better of walking uphill and running there instead. The slope was cluttered with fallen trees and there were quite a few dry ditches too, not an easy run.

#8 was very close to the finish and I had already spent 42 minutes and was tired. So I decided to cut the course short and finish on Brown. The funny thing was that if I would simply walk from #8 to the finish it would be Brown! But I thought Brown also included #9, 10, 18 - 20... Which in reality was Green. So I ended up running Green thinking I was running Brown.

I lost time on #9. I was tired and walked up the hill. I ended up too close to the road and couldn't see the control which was about a hundred meters to the east. Finally I realized what was going on, went east and saw the control from far away.

At #9 I also parted with Eugene. We happened to run with similar speed from #3 till #9. Some controls I took faster, others - Eugene, but the end result was that we saw each other on all these controls. At #9 Eugene got a headway, as he didn't wandered to the west as I did, but apparently he lost a lot of time getting to #10, so I took it earlier and proceed with the rest of the Green course.

#10 was easy to find, but hard to get to as I was very tired. I went down to the re-entrant and further east to the big creeks junction. Then walked up the hill, crossed another re-entrant in its higher part and proceeded to the small re-entrants with the control from the top. When I reached them, simply ran down to take #10.

Walked back uphill, then west till I reached the familiar re-entrant, went up and to the top western branch to take #18.

Walked south uphill, then continued south, noticing the beginning of the second western branch and avoiding the green area. Then down to the control (#19).

Remembering the hard northern slope and crossed the creek and took souther slope. Well, it wasn't any easier... Still the control (#20) was easy to find by going along the slope and then up toward the road.

Ran further toward the road and then to the finish. Finish time: 68:09.
The time was an "OK one", #2 and #3 added minutes...
But I really enjoyed the course, and that's what counts, right?

Here is my route. Click on the image to enlarge. Blue - mostly running, yellow-brown - mostly walking.

From Orienteering

October 19 event in the South Umstead Park (Whispering Pines)

South Umstead and Whispering Pines? Not quite. White, Yellow and Orange course were indeed in that area, but advanced courses were set in the eastern part of park, way north east from the Whispering Pines Camp. With remote start and remote finish all advanced courses pretty much gained 3 extra kilometers or so. Some people didn't like it, but most did. The courses turned out to be quite challenging and orienteerers got to visit some new areas of the park, which is always nice when taking in account how many meets we do have in Umstead throughout the year.

The weather was perfect and turnaround was beyond expectations. What can I say, all the maps (except for 8 advanced ones) got spent! I don't know how Joseph guessed the exact numbers for each course, but somehow he did!

Also so many people helped with this event, especially with the controls pickup despite the controls being so far away! I am very grateful. Thank you very much! Here is the full list (and I hope I didn't mess up the names...):

• Joseph Huberman and Ruth Bromer - help with courses design, beginners class and maps printing.
• Holly Kuestner, Molly Nicol, Nadya and Charles Scharlau, Larisa Nord, Artem Kazantsev, Terese Camp - controls pickup.

And, of course, Michael helped tremendously. While it was my and Tanya's names that appeared on the schedule for this event, it was Michael who did a lot today to make the event a success. Tanya had to spent almost all day in the Raleigh Little Theater setting lights for the next show, so she drove us into the park around 9.30 AM and returned only around 3 PM just in time to help with controls pickup. One smart decision we made was to take a bike to the meet. With advanced controls being so far away, it would had been very hard to set the ones visible from the road in the morning. But using the bike, Michael was able to turn around very quickly. Then he set eastern part of white and yellow controls, while I was setting the tables up. When he returned, I ran and set the rest of white, yellow and orange controls. So, by 11.15 we were ready.

People started to arrive shortly after that and soon enough there was a huge line to the register where I was working. I want to apologize for you having to wait in the line... Having remote start and finish for advanced course slowed the process, as I had to explain how it worked. Michael was working at the start, and there were no delays there. The next two hours were a blur for me - so many people showed up! I can hardly remember details, I know only that Joseph did the class somewhere around that time and then I ran out of the maps. Fortunately, everyone got the map they asked for, but we were very close to upsetting someone.

Then people started finishing and to my relief everyone seemed to like the courses. The only critique I got was about a legend for the control 69 (#9 of Red/Green). I should have specify that the control was in western dry ditch, instead of just dry ditch. The most difficult control proved to be 65 (#5 on advanced courses) - a lot of people had troubles finding it clearly from the first attempt. Also 45 (#3) and 41 (#11) caused some delays.

All in all, very good event. I am happy with the way it went and I am very grateful for all the help I had received prior and during this event.

Till the next time!

One day till the event

Tomorrow is the event.

Almost a month away from the country, away from the forest (except for 5 hours mushroom picking hike in Belarus) - it was such a pleasure to set advanced controls today.

Tanya and I went out to the Umstead and set all remote controls. Tanya set Orange ones and I basically ran the Red course. Two ribbons were missing, other than that everything went fine and we managed within 1 hour and 45 minutes. My personal feeling is that the advanced courses will be rather hard, a lot of hills. But we'll see.

See you tomorrow!

Preparing for the Oct 19 event in South Umstead

I will be out of country from Sep 21 till Oct 11, so this week was the only time I left for the preparation of the Oct 19 event. It will be in Whispering Pines, but the courses will be set in such a way that they won't intersect in any way with Sep 21 event courses. In fact, Red, Green and Brown courses will have a remote start and finish and will touch areas of the park I personally have never been before!

Here is where the advanced courses will reside:



Very physically demanding courses, if I may add. A lot of up and down running, plus long walk to the start. Beware :-)

Anyway, I designed the course on Friday and Joseph and Ruth made several fixes and great suggestions (thank you!), so now the courses are final, pending only the park's approval.

On Sunday I went and hanged ribbons on all advanced controls and a few orange ones. What can I say. A lot of hills are out there.
Saw a few tortoises and a big black snake (a little less than 2 yards). The snake was right under the tree where I was going to hang a ribbon, so we stayed there cautiously watching each other for a few minutes before the snake decided to move away.

The only thing remaining before I go for the trip is to visit all white, yellow and orange controls and write down their legends. I think I'll do it on Tuesday evening, but we'll see.

Sprints at the Lake Johnson

The final sprint event. Right from the beginning I want to thank Josef, Ken, Terese and everybody else who participated in organizing these events. This was the best orienteering summer I ever had. Thank you very much!

Now, back to this final sprint event. Ironically, being in September, it was the hottest one. Very hot and humid, but fortunately not many hills and some of them avoidable.

As I wrote before, I like sprints. And this summer only strengthened this feeling. Plus I did well on both courses (first and second places). This time I avoided making big mistakes. Pretty much the only thing that slowed me was my inability to run uphill in such weather. I ended up walking quite a bit during both courses.

Here are the reports.

Sprint A

#1: Right from the beginning I wasn't going to loose an inch of elevation, so I used the road instead of going down to the lake. It also helped me to avoid a nasty green in the control's re-entrant. Now looking at the splits it seems that the route I chose was indeed the best one.
#2: I simply took a compass bearing and went straight to the beginning of the trail that would lead me to the control. I saw Joseph running from #1 to the right (using another route up the re-entrant) and was actually surprised, as my "straight" path was 90 degrees off his route!
#3: I caught up with Joseph at #2 and ran behind him to #3. It was a trail all the way. Apparently we did have the same speed on a trail, so I felt quite comfortable running behind.
#4: For some reason Joseph ran to the right from #3 (which was a wrong direction) and I went to the left, walked uphill and then ran toward the control.
#5: Nothing special, just a few paces away.
#6 and #7: Down to the road, passed the creek and then walked up to #6 and then to #7. I wish I could run up such hills...
#8: I was rather tired after getting up the hill, so I wanted to get to the road as quickly as I could. Thus I ran straight down (it also helped to avoid another green area). Then used the road to get to #8.
#9: Just went straight over the hill (well, actually a little bit to the right, to avoid getting a few extra feet of elevation). Had to walk again on the way up.
#10: Walked up, up and up...
#11: Used the road and then cut through the wood a few yards after the slight road bend.
And then finish (17.24)

Here is my route. Click on the image to enlarge.


Sprint B

This sprint was tougher. I didn't make big mistakes, but I didn't run as clean as during the Sprint A and I was generally slower.

#1: Down to the trail and then till the control.
#2: Remembering the green re-entrant from the previous course, I consciously made a big curve around it. It also allowed me to stay on the same elevation. However, because if this route, I didn't spot the control right away and lost a few seconds there looking for it.
#3: Used trail until it went down to a small depression, then went south till I saw the pits.
#4: Nothing special, a straight cut. The only delay was at the very control. I got to the bend of the creek, but couldn't see a control there. Instead there was one of the runners looking at his map. I hesitated, but then decided that I couldn't be that wrong and control should be right there. I ran toward the runner and then noticed a control behind him! Virtually hidden by his body...
#5: Walked over the hill and it was there.
#6: I just ran toward the trail while staying on the same elevation. Saw #7, then used the trail to get to #6.
#7: Simply ran back.
#8: Used the trail and then "unmapped" shortcut trail to get to the control area. Saw the dry ditch from the trail and went up to the control.
#9: Used trails to get to the road and then cut through to the control. Felt very tired there and missed the control, then spent 15-20 seconds gathering my thoughts and catching my breath before running toward the control.
#10: Used the road to get around the green area and re-entrant. After the re-entrant went straight north to the control.
#11: Another curve around green re-entrant.
#12: Very tired run... and then finish (18.41).

Here is my route. Click on the image to enlarge.


P.S. I will be out of country from Sep 20 till Oct 11, so unfortunately I will miss the next two events... Then Tanya and I will be organizing the October 19 event. It looks like the next time I will be competing in an event will be in November...

Sprints in the Crab Tree Lake park

Mixed results and mixed feelings from today's sprints.

I won Sprint B with a good time, but I got disqualified on Sprint A (and rightfully so). Actually I am quite embarrassed by the way I ran Sprint A. Not by the wrong control I took but by the way I completely lost orientation between controls 6 and 7. But read on...

Sprint A

#1: easy, used the trail to go over re-entrant and then shot straight to the control.
#2: exited the control badly and ended up more to the right than I wanted, then ran north up the hill and took advantage of one of the numerous trails up there. Then went down to the re-entrant and found the wet depression spot. From there took compass bearing a little bit to the right of the control and went up the hill. Soon enough I spotted the control, ran toward it and discovered that the number on the control (#58) was from another course. Oops. However, I was quite sure that I was in the right place. I looked around, didn't see the second control (which by the way was hidden 10 yards further to the right), went west hoping to find the correct control there. Of course, I didn't find it there, hit the trail and decided to double-check if the wet depression was indeed the one on the map (the reason was that there was no water in it). So I ran by the trails, found the depression again, took another compass bearing this time to the left of the control, ran up and found the same wrong #58... At that time I decided that the controls were switched and continued to #3. And that's how I got disqualified.
#3: I took a quick compass bearing and ran approximately west-west-north. It turned out that I went a bit further north than I wanted, so I reached the power line (was it a power line?) by the trail crossing it. From there I went down the re-entrant using the trail and soon enough found the control.
#4: Here goes my second big mistake. I went up north re-entrant and then went north-west toward a re-entrant which would had lead me to the control. But instead I found another re-entrant 100 yards south and mistakenly went down it all the way to the creek. The creek there had steep banks and big curves, so I realized my mistake right away and decided to go along the creek until I see two creeks crossing from where I could go straight to the control. I didn't see the crossing though and ended up at the trail crossing the creek. Hmm. OK. From there I finally went over the small hill to the control.
#5: Thankfully, #5 was easy to find. I just ran up the re-entrant using the east slope thus avoiding green area at the top.
#6: South, using a trail in the middle, then down to the re-entrant.
#7: Now this is the part I am embarrassed to tell about... I was going to go further down the re-entrant, then up to the power line, up to the hill and then use trail to get to the control. So I ran down the re-entrant and then something happened. I honestly don't know how I ended up at the road instead of the power line. I guess my mind just blacked out or something. I have no recollection of that part of my route. Anyway I reached the road and somehow accepted it as the power line. I vaguely remember myself musing why there were cars driving on the power line, but even that didn't alarmed me enough to think clearly... So... According to my initial plan I ran up the hill on "the power line", then went left to the trail and "ran toward the control". Only when I reached some strange benches on the trail I realized that something was amiss. And bingo! I looked at the compass. Ouch. I stopped, oriented the map properly, realized where I was, ran back by the same trail till the parking lot, then went east up the re-entrant till the control.
#8: I ran straight south ignoring trails till I got to the control.
#9: The same, south, using corner of the parking lot as an attack point.
And then finish (31.06).

Here is my route. Click on the image to enlarge.



Sprint B

As a redemption to the Sprint A failure I ran Sprint B without making any mistakes.
#1: Used the trail to go over re-entrant and then followed the paved trail to the control.
#2: Simply ran toward the control and found it right away
#3: Ran north-east and down the slope till I hit a corner of the trail, then used the trail to get to the gully and went up to the control.
#4: Used the trail to go down, then crossed the creek and went up to another trail. Followed that trail till the sharp curve and got the control from there.
#5: Decided to ignore a cobweb of trails and used terrain instead. Went north-east, crossed the creek, noticed a re-entrant on the right, but continued north-east over the hill to the correct re-entrant, then went up till the control.
#6: Compass bearing.
#7: Another compass bearing. Counted trails I crossed and, when I hit the right one, looked for the curve and found the pit from there. At that point I also felt sharp pain in my bad knee and ran the rest of the course slower and very carefully.
#8: Just ran south, the control was hidden from that side, but I've already been there twice during Sprint A.
#9: Another compass bearing. I saw a trail to the left when I was running, but the forest was very clear, so I just continued till I hit the trail curve and took the control from there.
#10: Used the trail a little bit to avoid loosing too much elevation, then ran south.
And straight south to the finish (18.40).

Here is my route. Click on the image to enlarge.



Yet again, big thanks to Josef, Ken and Terese for organizing these sprint events!