Seneca Creek Smokey Glen

Seneca Creek State Park Map and Course Notes as of 11/13/2018
• For all but the White, Yellow, and the Relay courses, there will be an approximately 450m walk to the start. Allow 5-10 minutes for the walk which takes one to the west side of Riffle Ford Rd. The White, Yellow, and Relay courses will start near the event center pavilion.
• Please don’t walk with metal spikes in the heated indoor pavilion.
• For safety and potential interference considerations, the Blue, Red, Green, Brown, and Orange courses will cross back over Riffle ford Rd. off-the-clock. This is accomplished by punching controls before and after the crossing. The road is not hard to cross. There will be no crossing guard. Competitors will have up to 3 minutes to punch the second control before continuing their course without their course time being affected.
• Seneca Creek State Park has basic ridge and valley terrain. Parts of the park are surrounded by suburban houses. The ridges form drainages into Great Seneca Creek which is un-crossable. The ridges tend to be low and straight. They tend to have few side reentrants. There are several flood plains where long ditches vary in depth. Together these features force many route choice decisions that will be crucial to winning runs.
• Side streams, areas of detailed ditches, and gullies are the most prominent navigation features in the forests. Clusters of rock detail exist too, but root stocks are the most common point features. Depending upon the nearby terrain, mapped root stocks may be as low as 1m.
• The main trail encountered by the advanced color and Orange courses is the Seneca Ridge Trail. It winds and contours around the ridges. It was designed for mountain bike cycling but it is also local favorite of long distance runners. Orienteers should watch for the occasional but fast moving cycling traffic.
• There is a variety of terrain in close proximity within Seneca Creek Park. Much of the land was once farmland. The newer the forest that’s grown in, the greener the area tend to be. Newer forests in the park tend to also change more dramatically from season to season. The different terrain lead one to using different navigation techniques. It may favor different competitor abilities and it may require adjusting one’s route choice decision rules.
• Mapped distinct slow run sections of forest tend to be places with blow-down deadfall, have bushes, or are places where succession with pine trees is continuing. A wet summer and fall has made bushy vegetation, taller and wider than it was. Several areas have been re-mapped for this (original mapping started in 2014 has been updated several times through now). Some loopy low vegetation has grown in. There may still be some areas that are slower than the map may suggest.
• The new terrain mapped in 2018, is used by the Blue, Red and Green courses.
• Where rough open terrain is mapped, heather and grasses may be tall enough to slow running speeds. The rough open symbol with widely spaced vertical green slash on the map reflects this. Two rough open fields on either side of a tall power line ride, may be thorny where mapped with dense vertical slash—these are best avoided. A rough open area used by the advanced and intermediate courses was once a shooting range. Some unmapped pavement for the shooting range is visible but most of it is covered over with grass. Structures for the shooting range, and most of the ruins in the area have recently been removed.

Smokey Glen Farm Map and Course Notes as of 11/13/2018
• The event center is located in Smokey Glen Farm (SGF). This is a private property adjacent to Seneca Creek State Park. Smokey Glen Farm is often used by corporations for private catered picnics, and for large family reunions. The farm is large enough to host multiple events simultaneously; each event area has clusters of small buildings and shelters. However, most of the SGF terrain is picturesque fast open rolling field, broken by a network of small roads.
• Conifer trees are farmed in SGF in some areas—mowing in the areas is done in parallel rows with the low trees and rough open grass strips in the space in-between. These farmed trees are mapped with the orchard symbol. There are additionally scattered distinct trees and bushes, as well as small streams on the property.
• The edges of SGF along the park, are mostly open hardwood forests. Some rocky areas can be found.
• There are many fences along the roadways inside SGF. Some are wooden with 1 slat, and are easy to duck under. Others with 2 slats are mostly thin and fragile, and won’t hold weight—please take care not to climb or break these. If needed, go under where possible, or around to an already broken spot. Some well-kept, and some old broken barbed wire fences exist within lines of trees. Though low, with the vegetation, the lines may be very difficult to cross. Simple rope and pole fences surround horseshoe throwing areas. An attempt was made to map all of these types of fences in SGF.
• A few buildings in SGF can be passed through. The buildings are used for dances, weddings and other paid events. Please do not pass-thru if wearing metal spikes since these will scratch the floors. No significant course advantage will be gained by passing through.
• Various picnic tables and equipment are scattered around some buildings. Since these are moved about, these items have not been mapped. Signs and the wires for zip lines are generally not mapped. Some signs are posted to keep different SGF guest parties apart. Orienteers may move about SGF anywhere except where marked out-of-bounds (for private residences), and so long as one is not destructive.
• The relay begins in a mass start on SGF. All 3 legs are on a mix of wooded, open and rough open terrain however, most of the terrain used is fast. Please see below for information about the relay team rules.

Mid-Atlantic Championships Club Competition Scoring

The coveted Broken Compass Award will be awarded to the Mid-Atlantic eligible club with the highest number of points, awarded as follows:

Attendance: 200 x (club members participating/total club membership) - maximum 200 points possible for each club.

Individual Courses: separate points for top championship eligible (by OUSA rules (here and see below) and Mid-Atlantic club membership) male and female finishers on each course as follows, for a total of 398 points at stake.

White -  M/F 1st through 5th- 10/8/6/4/2 pts - 60 points at stake
Yellow -  M/F 1st through 5th- 10/8/6/4/2 pts - 60 points at stake
Orange -  M/F 1st through 5th- 10/8/6/4/2 pts - 60 points at stake
Brown -  M/F 1st through 5th- 10/8/6/4/2 pts - 60 points at stake
Green -  M/F 1st through 5th- 10/8/6/4/2 pts - 60 points at stake
Red -  M/F 1st through 5th- 10/8/6/4/2 pts - 60 points at stake

There will be no separate male and female points for the blue course, points will be awarded to top finishers' clubs as follows:

Blue -  1st through 7th - 10/8/6/5/4/3/2pts - 38 total points at stake

Note: only people running the appropriate course color for their competitive class according to OUSA rules (or running up on a harder course), and running on behalf of a Mid-Atlantic club of which they are a current member count for scoring purposes on each course - all others are invisible to the scoring system and can neither score points themselves nor prevent others from scoring points by finishing ahead of them. Also, if anyone runs more than one course, only the first one they run counts. To keep the burden of computing the scores manageable, it is each competitor's responsibility to make sure the results list them as competing for the correct club and in the correct competitive class. All are encouraged to pre-register in order to minimize the burden on the timing/results volunteers.

Relay: 1st through 10th- 60/50/41/33/26/20/15/11/8/6pts -  270 points at stake

Relay Details: The relay will have three legs so forming a relay team requires THREE (3) orienteers. Anyone can form a team and a club can enter as many teams as it likes. There will be three classes of relay teams: 3-point, 6-point, and 9-point, according to the total points of the three team members. A team with 3-5 points counts as a 3-point team; 6-8 points counts as a 6-point team, and 9 or more points counts as a 9-point team. Only teams with members all belonging to the same Mid-Atlantic club can score points; other teams are invisible to the scoring system. Teams with fewer than 3 points can be formed, if desired, and will be treated like 3 point teams except for being ineligible to score points.

There will be a “chasing” start. 9 point teams will take part in the initial mass start, 6 point teams will start 7 minutes later, 3 point another 7 minutes after that. There will be mass starts for 2nd, and 3rd leg orienteers who haven't already been tagged ~15 minutes after the lead runner on the leg in question starts. We will count each runner’s full time in the result. All classes of team are part of the same competition, i.e. the first 10 club teams whose third leg runners finish, with no one on the team mispunching, are the ones that earn points for their clubs.

Below are the rules for calculating team member points according to age and gender.

- Ages 17-20 or 35-49 receives 1 point
- Ages 15-16 or 50-59 receives 2 points
- Under 15 years of age or 60 and older receives 3 points
- a female orienteer receives 2 points in addition to any age points

There will be no charge for entering relay teams, provided all the team members ran an individual course. Anyone who didn't will be charged as for an individual race.

Individual OUSA Championship Classes
White F-10 F-12 M-10 M-12
Yellow F-14 M-14
Orange F-16 M-16
Brown F-18 F55+ F60+ F65+ F70+ F75+ F80+ F85+ F90+ M65+ M70+ M75+ M80+ M85+ M90+
Green F-20 F35+ F40+ F45+ F50+ M-18 M50+ M55+ M60+
Red F-21+ M35+ M40+ M45+
Blue M-21+

Non-Championship Competitive OUSA Classes M/F White M/F Yellow M/F Orange M/F Brown M/F Green M Red

Age class ranges are indicated by a "-" and/or a "+".  A "-" before the age means "and younger"; the "+" after the age means "and older". Age is assessed based on year of birth only, i.e. all individuals born in the same calendar year are considered to be the same age, regardless of what month and day they were born. Gender classes contain M for male and F for female.  Classes containing the course color are open to any age. Classes containing M/F are open to any age or gender.