Smokey Glen

Course results can be seen below. To enter your routes and see how others went, head to RouteGadget.

What a perfect way to celebrate the Bumble’s 10th anniversary – a sunny, clear, cold winter day coupled with an indoor venue to keep us warm (when not on a course, of course) and lots of folks having a great time!

We had 161 total starts (all courses) for a total of 200 participants. Of that number, 134 people tackled the Bumble (both mass and non-mass starters) with 119 starts. It was super fun to have a mass once again for the Bumble, a favorite aspect of the race. This allowed us to bring back the Time Bonuses, which played into competitors strategies. Jon Torrance and Ted Good had an exciting race as they ran neck and neck in the woods of Window #1 to get the coveted 3-minute bonus. Jon snagged the prize just a few seconds before Ted! See below for more details of the various Bumble winners along with a special note from David about the courses.

As in the past, we welcomed members from sister clubs DVOA and SVO. Thanks for joining us Rob, Glenn, Janet, Steve and Julie.

And finally, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to the many awesome volunteers who made this event possible. Well before the event our VPs for Maryland – Craig Shelden and Mike Newman – secured the venue and permits and ensured that as meet director and course designer, we had everything we needed! Next, Greg Lennon worked his magic to get the website updated and pre-registration set – not an easy task especially when you have start windows that contain a mass start (plus all the edits Heidi requests.) Valerie Meyer does hours and hours of work formatting, printing, and sealing the maps, something that used to be reserved only for national meets! Amy Louden always arrives first and unloads and sets up the e-punch registration (and then loads it back up to be ready for the next event!) Then day of……Jeff Haskell, Dave Levine, and Greg Palardy came early to help set up and then run registration along with Stephanie Coffin and Dan Lathrop. Each of these folks took on other tasks throughout the day, too, as did Michelle Fish and Jody and Cecelia Landers. Ben Roberts kindly assisted Valerie and Amy with e-punch registration/downloading. Greg and Kathleen Lennon were on the spot documenting the day with their wonderful photography (photos will be posted by Thursday on QOC's Flickr site and also shared via QOC's Facebook and Instagram accounts). Then the army of control collectors added more mileage to their already tired bodies. Many thanks to those warriors Joe Barrett, Frantisek Brabec, Erin Brandt, Ted Good, Chris Gross, Jens Wira, and Tom Wells. Lastly, these folks were joined by Anne and Kim Jepsen to pack up the meet kit, controls, and e-boxes. HUGE GRATITUDE TO ALL INVOLVED. You make our events beyond fabulous!!!!
-Heidi and David Onkst (meet director and course designer)

BUMBLE PRIZE WINNERS:

• First female across the line (regardless of handicap/course): Peggy Dickison / OK & QOC / Brown / 52:07
• First male across the line (regardless of handicap/course): Eliot Hamilton / QOC /Brown / 54:29
• Fastest Female on Red: Marie Pangracova / QOC / 99:38
• Fastest Male on Blue: Joe Barrett / QOC / 90:27 (3x consecutive defending champion as Top Bumbler! For those who want to know, his 2020 time at Seneca Creek/Smokey Glen Farm was 83:57)

TIME BONUSES (windows numbered from farthest west to farthest east)

• Jon Torrance – 3 minutes, Window #1, control #E
• Diana Aleksieva – 2.5 minutes, Window #2, control #G
• Andrew Bloom – 1.5 minutes, Window #3, control #K
• Debbie Pederson – 2.5 minutes, Window #4, control #R
• Tom Nolan – 3 minutes, Window #5, control #Y

Did You Have a Feeling of Déjà vu Today?
Well, that’s not surprising as the windows were the same ones we used here during the 2020 Bumble at Smokey Glen/Seneca Creek.
But today, the controls were all different from the 2020 race, save one, the Go Control, # 127.
Still, here’s what I did, although all of the controls were different, 21 of the 27 were on features that are in the original control circles from the 2020 race. And of the other 6 controls - 4 were less than 60 meters outside the original control circle, and 2 were roughly 100 meters outside the original control circles.
Essentially, you ran a slightly altered version of the 2020 race today.
So:

• Did you have a faster time?
• Did you pick the same windows?
• Did you pick the same routes?
• Did you beat some people you didn’t the last time?

Why:

• Quite often, orienteers say they would run a course differently or execute their run better if they had another chance at it.
• It helps build your confidence to redo a course that you are already familiar with, and you thereby become a better orienteer.
• People really liked the 2020 Bumble, especially the windows, and I didn’t see a better way to set-up the windows this year, so I duplicated them and just tweaked the controls a little bit.
• It’s really cool to see how good your map memory is!
• I’m just devious.
• Oh yeah, and I’m still recuperating from a broken foot ☹

I hope you enjoyed it.
- Dave Onkst (Course Designer and Head Bumble)