Course results can be seen below as well as on
Attackpoint or
Winsplits. To enter your routes and see how others went, head to
RouteGadget.
Next events: Saturday/Sunday Night-O/Day-O Combo Jan 7/8 at Little Bennett Regional Park (near Clarksburg MD). See you in 2017!
Orienteers at Swanson Road enjoyed better weather than many expected, with it remaining fairly dry and warm through most of the day. A short period of gale force wind blew a front through, and almost blew away the e-punch tent! But we had a full cadre of volunteers to hold it down as well as the other canopies. Despite the weather forecast and the holiday season Sunday, we had a solid turnout, at 90 participants, and a very friendly gathering.
This was Jane Leggett's first attempt at Meet Directing, and she pulled it off thanks to all the advice, moral support, and willing volunteers from QOC! She'll definitely try it again and invites other newbies to give volunteering a try. There's a job that will suit everyone, and it's a great way to meet people and learn. She wants to recognize Craig Shelden in particular, who went well beyond the duties of course-setter in explaining tasks working with park management and other tasks. Tom Nolan's guidance and humor were also invaluable.
Orienteers appreciated the new map from course setter Craig Shelden. Craig, in turn, said he owed a great deal of his success to Dave Linthicum for his original map - which captured much of the park very well. Diana Todd provided contours and solved the georeferencing problems. Craig asked for and appreciated feedback he received on the map and courses from orienteers -- so thanks to everyone who provided him with input.
During course drafting both Tom Nolan and Francis Hogle reviewed the draft courses and recommended changes to improve them. Prior to the event Rick Oliver and Don Fish both spent time at Swanson Road for on-site course and control reviews for placement and descriptions.
Thanks to Tom Nolan and Suzanne Shelden for their support in setting the controls, and Mike Newman for arranging for the porta-potties.
We appreciated the help with control pick-up from Frantisek Brabec, Charles Carrick, Sam Listwak, Daniel Shelden, Suzanne Shelden, and Courtney Shelden - with special thanks to Frantisec and Sam for retrieving two large groups of controls.
Ted Good also volunteered for control pick-up but instead showed critical flexibility and expertise in successfully retrieving a stranded orienteer. He brought much relief to the parent and the rest of us knowing Ted was on the job!
Lydia Andrews, John Baker, Mike Berry, Glenn Gibson, Jan Merka, Daniel Pike, Courtney Shelden, Suzanne Shelden, Mary Sniekus and Florence Tan provided excellent support in registration, parking management, set-up and clean-up, and keeping the tents from blowing away. In that regard, we discovered that, in addition to those listed above, Diana Aleksieva and Victor Lin make surprisingly good ballast, along with a few others who we've forgotten in the excitement of the moment.
Special thanks to our youngest volunteer, Nicole Aleksieva, for snack management, clean-up, and cash accounting as well.
Amy Louden and Valerie Meyer performed their able duties at e-punch even after the weather brought down their shelter.
Thanks to Amy for her delicious cookies and peanut butter candies -- yum and energy restoring. And thanks to Valerie's husband for filling two tanks with hot water for drinks.
Jon Torrance and Gavin Weise stood ready for beginner's instruction though their talents and willingness were severely under-used.
Mihai Sirbu provided intermediate training. He had a good crowd, though his planned training exercises were blown away by the weather. We'll look forward to another shot at them at another meet, Mihai willing. It may be worth noting that at least three orienteers came to the meet because of the intermediate training.
Apologies to others who may have pitched in but were inadvertently left off the list.
