Badger Orienteering Club Homepage(BGR)Badger Orienteering Club Homepage(BGR)Phone: 608-294-1958, email kevin@chorus.net
Results...UPDATED 11/2/8
UPDATED 11/2/8
This Saturday we wrapped up another year of Badger Orienteering. It was a mixed bag with regard to success. We had to cut the schedule way back due to a lack of help. But we ended on a strong note with the last two events having over 70 participants each.
We produced 2 more maps that are part of the cat maps series. We now have about 13 square K of maps in the Greenbush area. We will be hosting the U.S. Champs in 2009 on those maps.
The U.S. Champs will probably bring over 300 orienteers to the state. Most of the best U.S. orienteers will attend. But the event is open to all and you shouldn't be afraid to enter. It is just like a local event, except for all the fancy starting procedures, number of participants and number of courses. It is a fun experience if you've never been to a national event before. There will also be electronic punching which is interesting to check out. Give it a shot and see how you compare with the best in the nation. You might surprise yourself!
For juniors, it is a chance at winning a medal. The number of kids that participate is pretty small. That means a good run could get you a medal, or in some cases just finishing the course could, too. So, consider entering your children if they can do it on their own. The courses for young kids are at the beginner level like our short course club events. And sometimes they are even easier than that.
11/2/8
The Badger Orienteering Club put in a bid to host a 1 day U.S. Orienteering Championships in 2009 and that bid was approved by the USOF Board of Directors at the 2008 U.S. Championships in Wyoming. The event is being planned for October 25, 2009. We will also have a middle distance race on Friday afternoon/evening October 24th and a 1 day classic event on October 26th. The event will be held in the northern kettle moraine state forest near Greenbush, WI. The area will be embargoed starting 1 year prior to the event.
In order to host an event like this we are going to need all the volunteer help we can get. There are many tasks that don't require any orienteering skills, so don't shy away from coming forward. Most of the help will be needed the weekend of the event. If you are interested, contact me and I'll get you on the volunteer list. Then we'll contact you when we know better what our areas of need are. We will need someone to design a website for the event and maintain it. We also need someone to design an ad for the national magazine which will send them to the website. I think those are the first two areas of need. If anyone has skills of putting together a program for the event, that would also be helpful.
I anticipate having over 300 participants for this event.
8/31/8
We just finished up our spring schedule for 2008. We had smaller than usual turnouts, but had some nice courses. Keep your eyes on the website in case we decide to add another event before the fall schedule.
5/1/8
Our next event is just around the corner. It will be held at Glacial Blue Hills in West Bend, WI. This park is small and hilly with some nice woods. We will have one course that has two loops. You will be able to do one loop or two.
The advanced course will do memory O. You will memorize how to get to the first control at the start. Then once you find #1 you will find another piece of map at the control. You will memorize this part to get from 1 to 2. At 2 you will find a map to 3, etc. You don't take the map with you, you have to memorize each one. If you can't find it, you have to return and try again. It isn't as hard as it may sound, since the placement of controls is easier than for a normal course. A few of them will be harder than the others.
If you are uneasy about doing memory O there will be maps with the whole course on them, so you can orienteer in the usual way.
Also, coming up in May we may be adding an event in the Madison area Sunday, May 18th. Watch the website for more details.
4/20/8
The past few weeks the Badger Club had a visitor from Norway. Ivar Helgesen came over to help complete the fieldchecking in the Cat Maps area. Ivar is best known for making orienteering basemaps. Many of the orienteering maps in the USA were done using his basemaps.
We have now expanded the Cat Maps area by about 5K. The total area will be about 14 square K once it is all finished. The new areas fieldchecked include a variety of terrain. There is a lot of moraine terrain, some pine plantation and some open and semi-open areas. We will be able to hold a lot of nice events in this area. The finished area will be about double what we currently have at Cat's Agenda and Cat's Meow. I plan to name the two new sections Cat's Pajamas and Hepcat. This will complete the cat map series.
I hope to hold a national event there in 2009. It should be fantastic.
4/7/8
2008 is here and it's time to start planning for some great Wisconsin orienteering. We'll have 4 events this year with 2 in the spring and 2 in the fall. The annual scout event is cancelled for this year. I hope it will return in 2009.
We'll have 2 events in the Northern Kettle Moraine State Forest on one of the best maps in the country. We'll also have our traditional Lapham Peak event in October. And we'll visit Glacial Blue Hills in West Bend this May. I hope you'll be able to make it to these events!
We just finished our 2007 season. We had 9 events with 10 days of orienteering. Two of the events were held on new maps, Wildcat Mound and Cat's Agenda. We also returned to Kellings Lakes after 3.5 years. The quality of the events was good.
Weather played a bigger part than usual this year with both the first and last events of the year encountering weather issues in the form of snow. The Kellings Lakes event got 5 inches of snow, and the Bong event had warm temperatures with the fallen snow melting.
We were able to pay off our debt and ended the year with a little money in the account. We'll use that money to pay for more fieldchecking, if we can find someone to do the job. Getting out of debt was no small task. We have been thousands of dollars in debt since making the Blue Mound and Devil's Lake maps back in 2002. It has taken us 5 years to get back in the black!
All in all it was a solid season for the club.
We now need to look at how to move forward in 2008. I hope we are able to map some more new areas and hold at least 8 events. If you are a regular participant please consider helping out at 1 or more events next year. Any assistance is greatly appreciated.
We'll probably have a club party in January. Until then have a nice winter and happy new year!
Our next event is at Kellings Lakes the first Sunday in December. We haven't used this area in 3 years and I don't anticipate using it too much in the future. It is a nice area, so don't miss this rare opportunity to orienteer there.
Last used over 3 years ago, this map is a bit out of date and needs to be refieldchecked. But for local events it is still a good venue. Plan on enjoying a beautiful day in a little used area of the Northern Kettle Moraine State Forest. Watch for a sign less than a mile(?) east of Dundee, WI. See directions on the schedule page.
Our state championship event is like all of our other events. There will be a long course for the advanced people, and a short course for beginners. Everyone is welcome.
This year's championships were held in Virginia at Prince William National Park. This area was used in 2002 for the U. S. Champs, as well. The weather was really great for running. It was sunny on the first day and partly cloudy on the second. Temperatures were in the 40's and 50's.
Unfortunately, the event was a disappointment for many. I'll use my course and class as an example of this. The M45 class was put on the same course as the F21's. This isn't unusual since they both run the red course and the numbers work out well to combine those two classes. However, on day 1 the F21's were on a World Ranking Event course. This means they are required to have a course that is blue length, not red. Nevertheless, organisers put the two classes together. The results were abysmal. Only 1 runner on M45 was under 90 minutes. 22 out of 29 went over 2 hours. This is supposed to be a winning time of 60-65 minutes.
To make matters worse, the forest wasn't pleasant. The woods were often times thick and thorny. It was more a battle against the vegetation than an orienteering challenge. And the forest won.
Okay, the course was too long and the woods too green. That's not the end of the world right? Try adding in that the scale was 1-15,000. While this is allowed by the rules, I haven't run using a map with that scale in years. Everyone uses 1-10,000 for us old folks. And if that weren't enough, it appeared they also didn't have the correct IOF sizes for the symbols. They were all too small(perhaps to match the smaller maps?). The bottom line is reading the map became it's own little adventure. Simplifying technique was no problem, since I couldn't see most of the detail anyway. There was a run on magnifying equipment at the vendor stand. The other irony was that the clue sheet on the map was double the normal size(may to balance out the small map stuff?).
I added my own issue when I ran into a control hung on a parallel feature to my own control. Both were in reentrants and both were next to hills. Both reentrants were going east/west, though the one had a dry ditch symbol in it whereas the other had a couple of rootstocks. Well, I can't be sure about those symbols, since I couldn't see them anyway. The reentrants were about 150 meters apart, north/south of each other. And the codes on these close by markers on parallel features?.....178 and 198. The good news is I didn't get disqualified.
Day 2 had better woods and a normal red course, though climb was a bit excessive at 5%. It was a refreshing change from the day 1 debacle. Only 8 of 25 on M45 were over 2 hours this day and the world returned to normalcy.
I ended up 3rd in M45.
Our next Badger Club event will be at Devil's Lake. We'll start from the Steinke Basin parking lot off of Hwy D on the north end of the park. Don't enter the park proper on the north end. Take D across the top of the park until you see the parking area.
I will be setting courses for this event, but will not be able to attend. If you are able to help at registration and picking up controls please email me(kevin@chorus.net). I plan to hang the long course controls in advance. We'll need someone to hang the short course, run registration and make sure all the controls get picked up afterwards.
September 15th we'll kick off our fall season with an event at Blue Mound State Park. Rich J. will be setting courses and hanging markers for your enjoyment. Blue Mound is a nice park and the terrain is good for orienteering. The start time, as usual, is noon. We'll probably be starting at the swimming pool parking lot. Watch for signs after entering the park.
We will have long and short courses. Beginners are welcome and the short course is suitable for beginners. Much of the single track bike trail is not on the map. If you cross a trail unexpectedly, it is probably that. Also, be aware of wild parsnip in the fields and sides of roads. If causes burns if it gets on your skin and reacts with sunlight. It takes an hour to react, so you can wash off afterwards and will be fine, or if your skin is covered, you shouldn't have any problems.
The following is my report from my 3 week trip to Norway, Sweden and the WMOC in Finland. For results, check the websites at the end of the article.
I just completed my 3 week trip to Scandinavia to compete in some international orienteering events. I participated in a Park World Tour(PWT) trip. These are run by Jorgen Martensson, a former world champion.
PWT runs many trips and has a core following, so many of those I traveled with were regulars. They included former world champs and many world class orienteers in their age groups. Most were over 50 years old. There was a mix of Norwegians and Swedes with just a few people from other countries. It was a pleasure getting to know a lot of them, and experiencing a little bit of the culture.
The tour for me started in Olso. We did some long hours of driving to arrive in Tromso for the Midnight Sun Galoppen. Along the way they set up events with electronic punching(EMIT) and we orienteered almost every day in wonderful terrain. Of course, we visited many beautiful places, too. These included fishing villages in Lofoten, fjords along the whole route and the arctic circle, to name just a few. The trip was pretty much non-stop until we got to Tromso where the pace slowed.
The first event was 7K and all downhill. It was some of the nicest terrain I have ever seen. We finished at the bottom and had a barbeque. Next was an event near Bodo where the current caused by the tide is the fastest in the world. From there we traveled to the Lofoten Islands and orienteered on the top of a hill where the views were spectacular. This is where I had a fast run and actually beat Jorgen, who was injured, out of shape and made some mistakes. In spite of all those things, he usually beat everyone.
The forest in Norway was very nice in the north. There isn't much undergrowth and the trees are small and often not close together. It makes for generally good running. They consider the ground to be very nice. But compared to our usual woods, it is bumpy. It is often rocky ground covered with moss. So the footing isn't bad, but I'm partial to our nice relatively flat forest floor. Sweden, I was told, is more rocky than Norway.
At the start, I had some difficulties interpreting the maps. There are subtle things that often confused me. For example, sometimes the forest is so thin that it looks like clearing to me. Also, our marshes are almost always wet, whereas theirs are often dry and look like clearings. Over time I got better at recognising features, but it often caused me problems. These are things that go away with more time on the maps. It isn't the maps that are bad, it's my lack of experience that is the problem.
As the trip went on I gained more confidence and started to get more aggressive. But I only had one really good run. That was at a small event in Sweden(300 participants) where I actually placed third in M45 behind Jorgen(former world champ) and Lars(winner of the Midnight Sun Galoppen). I learned that I could run with most of the people in my age group, but can't navigate as well as them.
The trip helped me get rid of some of the rust in my orienteering. I could tell as the weeks went on that I was improving. I made quite a few big mistakes at the start, and then I started getting my mistakes down to smaller numbers of minutes. Had I stayed another few weeks, I am sure I would have had more good runs.
At the World Masters Orienteering Championships I made the B final, which put me in the top half of the participants. Given that I never had a stellar run, I thought that was pretty good. I'll do better in the future. Unfortunately, in the final I had a great run and blew it on one control. I just got sloppy for a minute or two and it was over.
So, in summary, it was a fantastic time with some great people.
http://www.mg-norway.no/ is the Midnight Sun Galoppen website. June 30 - July 4.
http://www.svenskidrott.se/Organisation.asp?OrgElementId=32268 is the website for the Overtornea Orienteering Club which is holding an international event July 7th.
http://www.wmoc2007.fi/fin/ is the World Masters website. July 8 - July 13.
Wow! We just got started and now we are done for the spring. It was by American standards fantastic. We had two new maps to run on, a 2 day event, night orienteering and Devil's Lake. Few clubs in this country have 2 new maps in half a year's time. The quality of the terrain has also been first class. We are lucky in Wisconsin to have good places for orienteering.
Now we'll have to wait until September, yes that's right, September for our next event. Thank you to everyone who pitched in a little or a lot, and made the events fun. A special thanks goes out the the meet directors, who put in long hours planning and setting up the events. They spend their own money on gas, and a few days of their time helping others have a good time orienteering. Thank you.
If you check into the website from time to time, I'll probably keep posting things that you might find of interest. I'll be off to Norway this summer for 3 weeks, so I may post a story of my adventures there(probably about getting my butt kicked by truly good orienteers).
On another happy note, I believe the club now has as much money as it owes. The club has been in debt for many years due to the production of the Devil's Lake, Blue Mound, Wildcat and Bong. Having some money will allow us to do more mapping projects without going into debt again(or at least not as much in debt : ) ). Ultimately, we have to keep spending on maps or the club will become stale. There is nothing as invigorating as a new map in good terrain!
Happy trails until we meet again!
I have heard from quite a lot of people who will be attending the event on Sunday. I am going to need help at registration. If I could get 2-3 of you to volunteer it would be greatly appreciated. No special skills are required. I will show you what needs to be done. You can email me at kevin@chorus.net
Also, if 1-2 of you could stay after and pick up a few controls or cover the finish while I pick up controls, that would also be helpful. I will be leaving home around 7am and probably won't get home until after 6pm. Thank you!
One other note.....I plan to have the courses set up by 11am. While this isn't a promise, it is likely people will be able to go out starting around then. So, if you want to show up a little early, be my guest. As always, we will start picking up controls around 3pm.
In the USA orienteering world most people associate colors with courses. While our club keeps things simple with a long and a short course, other clubs have reds, greens, blues, oranges and other colors. If you attend a national event most people will run the color that corresponds with their age group. Not doing so will bring shame to your family name and looks of distain from the other national competitors. Why aren't you running your age group they will ask should you be so bold as to go against the norm.
This happened to me recently at a local event where I entered the green course. One person questioned why I would run green at a local event(as most of you know, I am quite competitive and can do well against most people in the midwest regardless of their age or course length). Ironically enough, others asked why I would run green at a national event when my age group is red. Following this reasoning, I should not run green at local or national events. So, Kevin, why do you run green from time to time?
When I am considering participating in an event I take a number of things into consideration. For example, I like to know what map is being used and who is setting the courses. Often I choose not to attend based on those two considerations. Since you have to travel long distances to participate, I don't find it worthwhile if the map isn't interesting or the course setter doesn't have the skills necessary to design a good course.
But once I decide to attend an event I must then decide which course to run. For many this decision is a no brainer. They run the longest course at a local event and their age group at nationals. This is what I see most of the competitive runners do. I, however, ask one more question, how long is the course.
I don't want to travel hundreds of miles to run a 20 minute course. On the other hand, I don't want to kill myself running really long courses that I am not in condition to really compete at. Sure I can hammer out a 2 hour course and pay for it the next few days with a sore back, while missing out on my daily training runs while I recover. But I find that this sets me back in my overall scheme.
So, when I traveled to Chicago last weekend which was to have a winning time of over 2 hours, I opted for the 1.5 hour option. The fact that it was 80 degrees made the decision even easier. I wasn't interested in getting dehydrated and overextending myself. With a national event just around the corner, it was more important to me to get in a good long slow distance run that would help me in a couple weeks. 1.5 hours was plenty and that meant green. Had I run further I wouldn't have improved my performance. More likely, I would have had a greater opportunity for injury from overdoing it. I could also start orienteering sloppily and perhaps build up bad habits. I think I made a great decision that day to avoid the lure of the long red.
But what about the national event in a week? I'm running green there as well. There are are a couple of reasons for this. The event has 3 events, a sprint(10-15 mins.), a middle distance(35-40min) and a long(1.5 times the normal course length). Well, forget the sprint. I'm not particularly interested in those. The middle is okay, but pretty short as well. And the long course is, well, longer than I like. So, if I run red, I get a 30 minute middle distance and a 90 minute long. Shorter than I want and longer than I want. But what about green? Green is just the regular distance, not middle or long. That means a winning time of 50 minutes. I feel like the three bears here. It's just right! And as a bonus, the blue middle distance is the exact same course that the green is running. So, I'll be able to compare my time with all the big boys on day 1.
Another benefit for me is that the distance fits in with where I'm at in my training. Two days of running almost an hour will be perfect conditioning. I should be able to run hard, compete well and concentrate the whole time. It should be a very positive weekend.
So, I recommend to others to consider more than just ranking points and trying to beat some other guys that run the national events. Consider your own personal training objectives and where you want to be six months from now. Maybe using Michigan as training for the US Champs this summer would be more satisfying in the long run. See if you can perfect a green course, before advancing to red. Or, perhaps, your age group fits your objectives to a tee. Then go for it. Or maybe you want to see where you stand against the best this country has to offer. Then give blue a go. It doesn't matter what course you run if it fits what you want. And for me that will be green..... : ) : ) : )
I had the opportunity yesterday to pre-run the long course for our next event. I had a very good time doing so. The terrain is tricky and the course is techically tough. I was happy with the quality of the map though it isn't perfect. This event is going to be really good practice for anyone heading to Michigan in May.
I noticed two things that you may want to take note of. The first is that if you relax for even a minute, you are likely to get lost. You'll need to really stay in contact with the map(ie know where you are). It was very easy to slip off to the left or right and then get confused. This is similar to the Cat's Meow map.
The second is the small depressions are sometimes pretty big. Just keep in mind that if there is a depression on the map, it may appear bigger than you think in the forest. Some of the small depressions are very small, others aren't.
The short course, as always is suitable for beginners. It will be near trails and should also be a fun course.
This is our last event of the Spring. Let's make it a good one by getting as many people as possible out there! It's a new map and will be a lot of fun.
The grand finale of the spring orienteering season will be the Cat's Agenda event in the Northern Kettle Moraine State Forest. This area is right across the road from the Cat's Meow map, and we will meet in the parking lot just north of the Cat's Meow parking lot. The start is the big parking lot where many of the bikers and skiers park. There are actually bathrooms(outhouses?) at that location.
Cat's Agenda is a brand new map which hasn't been used before except for one tiny part. It has lots of bike trails on it, but there are areas that don't have any trails. I think everyone will find this event to be fun. The short courses will have to find their way around the maze of trails. And the advanced runners will not have the use of trails for the majority of their course. I anticipate the winning time on the long course will be just under 1 hour. The short course will take about 1 hour to walk.
So, don't miss your last opportunity of the spring to orienteer on a map I consider to be one of the best in the midwest(note: I might be biased, since I made it). But trust me on this one. I wish I were running the course instead of setting it up. It's going to be a blast!
Our first event of 2007 is only 3 weeks away! This event will feature 3 events in one day. There will be two short courses of roughly 3K and 4K respectively. These courses are designed in the sprint style which means they will be fast and easy. This is good speed training for advanced orienteers, and good practice for beginners.
The 3rd event will be night orienteering. This is always an adventure, especially for those who have never tried it. It is intimidating at first, but really cool once you get used to it. So, don't shy way. Give it a go!
Courses will be set by gold award winner Charlie Shahbazian who finished 2006 ranked 3rd nationally in his age group. So expect a fun time in the woods! The start time is 3PM for the shorts and after dark for the night event. Don't show up at Noon!
We've posted the 2007 schedule. Please note that it gets off to an early start with 3 event planned for March. We have 2 shorts and a night event at Bong, a two day event on a new map up by Black River Falls. In April, we premiere our Cat's Agenda map. Then don't forget our Devil's Lake event and Indian Lake, where we haven't been for a while.
This is a very impressive lineup of events for a local club. Three of these maps are A-meet quality and 2 of them are brand spanking new. I know you are going to love the two new areas. Black River SF is beautiful and not as technical as the Cat's Agenda (what is?). There should be some fast times there. The Cat's Agenda map continues in the tradition of the Cat's Meow, but with more variety, such as fields, marshes and trails. Of course, there are hundreds of depressions in mostly runnable woods, as well. Both these events are in the don't miss category.
We'll only be using the Black River SF map every other year, since it is quite far from our usual base. That's why I decided to have a 2 day event there, to encourage more of you to make the drive up there. I hope we get a nice turnout!
What else is new? I'll be heading to Norway, Sweden and Finland this summer for 3 weeks of orienteering, mostly above the Arctic Circle. One event will be in all three countries at once. There will be lots of daylight, as the sun won't be setting at that time of year. The trip will end at the World Master's Champs in Finland. There I'll be looking to not finish at the bottom. There will be lots of competition. My age group will have one former World Champion participating, Jorgen Martenson. It will be interesting to see how much better he is than me. I hope we're in the same qualifying heats, so I can compare splits.
Currently, there are about 250 entries in the M45 category. Compare that to our entire A-meet having 150 in 2004. Orienteering over there is a completely different experience from here.
2007 should also be special in one other way. I think this will be the year that we actually get out of debt. It's been a struggle for many years keep the ball rolling without any cash flow. Hopefully, by the end of this year, we'll be able to tackle some more mapping projects and pay for them up front!
So, dust off your compass and take a look at some of your old maps. The new season is just around the corner!
The warm weather hasn't been good for ski buffs. But it has given me the opportunity to sneak up to the Cat's Agenda map and get in some unexpected winter fieldchecking. The Cat's Agenda map is now larger than the Cat's Meow map. The current combined area is roughly 6.5 sq. K., which makes it the second largest mapped area(Devil's Lake has about 15 sq. K. mapped).
The Cat's Agenda terrain is more varied than the Cat's Meow side. There are ponds, marshes, pine plantations, open fields and more trails. There are many areas of kettle features and some that have very open woods. This will be a very popular orienteering spot.
We had a very good year in 2006. We were able to put on a good schedule of events. We didn't spend much money and were therefore able to reduce our debt significantly. We mapped a few more square kilometers of nice terrain. We set up a new permanent course at Lapham Peak(maps available at the ranger station). We also had quite a few new faces at our events.
Our one disappointment was that attendance dropped. Most, if not all, of that was ROTC kids not being able to attend our events due to scheduling. Hopefully, they will be at more events in the future.
Next year, I hope we will be able to hold one or two additional events. We will have 2 new areas to orienteer in, Black River Falls State Forest and Cat's Agenda(across the road from the Cat's Meow map). I also plan to schedule a few events on Sundays to see if that day has less conflicts for people.
I hope we will be able to host another national event in 2008.
So, thank you for supporting the Badger Orienteering Club this year. I hope you will continue to do so for many years to come!
Two weekends ago we had six members making up two 3 person relay teams for the annual relay in Chicago. There were 11 teams entered in the event and our two teams finished 1st and 6th. Badger 1 was comprised of Alexei D., Marco T. and kevin. Badger 2 was Maja T., Ioana S. and Rick S.
The event had a few problems. The start was delayed by 30 minutes, since the only person who knew what was going on was in the woods setting up. But once things got going it seemed to go smoothly.
The course was 18 markers and every team member had to find the first 5. Teams then could find the other markers however they chose, but only one team member could be on course at a time. We split ours up, like many teams, into one short loop, one northern loop and one eastern loop. Because of the many options, no one knew where they stood in the relay until it was over.
When I finished the final leg for Badger 1, I didn't know that we had won. As it turned out, we won by over 25 minutes!
The Badger 2 team divided up the markers so that they would each go about the same distance. They were pretty steady and finished a respectible 6th place.
Our next club event is at Lapham Peak on the first Saturday in October. We'll have to usual long and short courses set up. We plan to start at 1PM instead of Noon to avoid the colorama runners and congestion in the parking lot. Please show up around 1PM instead of the usual noon start time. We have a new meet director, so please thank him for his efforts at setting up this event!
Due to the events prior to our orienteering event at Lapham Peak, this event will start at 1pm, instead of noon. Please show up then! I suspect by that time the parking lot will have a lot more space and we will not be disturbed as much by the 10K runners.
In the latest edition of ONA(Orienteering North America), the official magazine of USOF(United States Orienteering Federation, there was an article on an orienteering event in Venice, Italy. Yes, that's right, the city that's flat, except for the bridges. There was a photo of an orienteer running in the midst of people on a busy street. Who was it?
If I'm not mistaken, it was Giovanni B. who was a member of our club last year while studying at the University of Wisconsin(Madison). Giovanni is from Italy. It's a small world after all.
Were you aware that the World Orienteering Championships were this week in Denmark? They just completed the week's events with the relay on Saturday. I'll give you a brief report on the results.
The best USA results were in the woman's sprint. Two USA sisters made the finals, Hillary and Samantha Saeger, finishing 12th and 15th respectively. There were 3 qualifying groups with the top 15 from each group advancing to the finals. Each group had about 30 entrants. In the finals Samantha finished 29th and Hillary was 42nd.
Sprint events have a 10-15 minute winning time and don't have a lot of navigation involved. It is more a race of speed and making quick decisions. Often, these events are held in cities and run in the streets or on a campus or city park. They are intended to increase spectator interest, as these events are often designed so that you can see the runners finding markers nearby spectator areas.
Well, so much for the good news. The rest of the American results were typical and not impressive. The other races are the middle distance, the long and the relay. The middle distance is a 30 minute race, while the long is 90 minutes. The relays were 3 person. No Americans made it into the finals of the middle or long. All countries get to run the relay final.
The long course was won by Jani Lakanen of Finland in 1:45:01, followed by Marc Lauenstein(SUI) and Andrey Khramov(RUS). The middle distance was won by Holger Hott Johansen(NOR) who finished just 9 seconds ahead of Jarkko Huovila(FIN) and 10 seconds before Jamie Stevenson(GBR). Past champion Thierry Gueorgiou of France finished 4th. The sprint was won by Emil Wingstedt(SWE) 1 second ahead of Daniel Hubmann(SUI) and 2 seconds ahead of Claus Bloch(DEN). Jonne Lakanen(FIN) was 4th.
On the women's side, Simone Niggle-Luder(SUI) continued her domination of the sport finishing in 79:50 ahead of Marianne Andersen(NOR) and Dana Brozkova(CZE) in the long event. Simone has been the number one ranked women for quite a few years. She also won the middle distance in 33:58 ahead of Marianne Andersen(NOR) and Tanja Riabkina(RUS). Minna Kauppi(FIN) was 4th. Simone was edged out by 6 seconds in the sprint by Hanny Allston (AUS). Kajsa Nilsson(SWE) finished 3rd 11 seconds back.
The women's relay was won by Finland, follow by Sweden and Switzerland. The men's relay was won by Russia. Finland and Sweden were 2nd and 3rd, respectively. The Czech team was 5th. I only mention them because they were at the same training camp I went to in Portugal. I got the chance to talk with a few of them over the course of the week and was cheering them on as the race progressed.
There are many international orienteering events that you can follow in the internet. They have electronic punching and usually have intermediate times radioed back and posted on the Web. Then after the event, you can read stories with more details of the race.
We are continuing to try and work out the details for a night orienteering event. We have run into a problem when the park superintendent said he wants us to pay to have a staff member there the extra 2-3 hours. His first off the cuff price was $100, but I don't know for sure what he would charge. Of course, I'm hesitant to open up that can of worms and end up paying every time we enter a park. We keep working on the situation.
In the meantime, make sure you check the website prior to the night event to make sure it is being held.
I have been fieldchecking a portion of the Black River State Forest. I have a 4.3 sq. K area pretty much completed. The map is usable in the current form, though I will continue to make improvements on the map prior to our first event there sometime next year.
I think you will find this area to be a lot of fun. It has some very nice woods and very few prickly areas. There are also thicker forested areas, but these are all passable albeit at slower speeds. The soil is sandy.
Technically, it isn't terribly difficult, though there is enough be a good challenge for most. There is a moderate trail network and a lot of former logging/service roads. I have chosen, in most cases, not to map the old roads. Many of them are hard to recognise as old vehicle tracks unless you are on them. If I mapped all of them, it would greatly reduce the difficulty level. Many are already being taken back by the forest.
While fieldchecking in the Black River State Forest I was finding a lot of ticks. Now I've been in the woods before and on occasion have found a few ticks. But here there seem to be more than usual. The ticks I found were all wood ticks(the safer ones). However, it was a concern and I went online to find out if there was a better product than Deet for discouraging them. I had been putting on 100% Deet and was still finding them on me.
What I found was the active ingredient Permethrin. This stuff is so toxic you can't put it on your skin. The instructions said don't apply to your clothes while you are wearing them! The method is to spray it on your clothes before you put them on and let it dry for a few hours. Then put on your clothes and go out in the woods. The insecticide doesn't just deter them, it kills them.
Well, I gave it a try and went from finding dozens of ticks to zero. I think this product is very valuable for those of us who go out in the woods alot and could be exposed to lyme disease. I plan to apply it to my orienteering clothes below my knees, since this is where ticks latch on.
There were a couple of varieties of the insecticide. You can soak your clothes with it or spray it on. It lasts up to 6 weeks even when your clothes are washed, depending on how you apply it. I'm excited about this product and the results I saw firsthand this past weekend. However, I'm not thrilled about regularly handling a carcinogen(may cause lung cancer). I recommend using this product when you feel the threat of ticks is great and limiting your exposure to it as much as possible while applying it and handling your clothes.
Summer is our offseason, or so it would appear according to our event schedule. But behind the scenes there is work being done to prepare for future events. Today I spent a few hours fieldchecking another area, and I'm confident that next year we will have one more fantastic map available for club events. I will still have to put in a lot of hours to complete the project, but early indications are that I'll be able to finish the 4.3 square K area before winter sets in.
The area is in the Black River State Forest. It features a mix of pine plantation and oak. The soil is sandy and I have never seen such large areas of ants! The terrain has stunning hills jutting out in a few places, and elsewhere the sandy soil has led to subtle features being created. The area seems out of place here in Wisconsin. It has more of a rocky mountain feel.
The runability that I have seen so far is good. I have only found a few areas where it would be difficult to run. Many areas are just wonderful open forest with grass growing underneath. Elsewhere, smaller trees make running more difficult. Footing will be in sharp contrast to some of our more recent maps, where the ground is rocky. Here expect soft footing with few rock features, except near the tops of the hills.
As I said, there is still a lot of work to be done on this project. But I'll keep you up to date and watch for an event to be scheduled here in 2007!
I've already mentioned our next event, but I wanted to plug it one more time. This area has some very technical terrain. The small area has hundreds of depressions and very few linear features. That means that this area is a great way to see how good you really are! This area is my favorite. Also, this will be our last event of the spring. The next event won't be until night-O on August 5th.
We have reset 14 markers at Lapham Peak for the permanent course. There are maps for sale($5) at the ranger station at the entrance. The first 6 markers are the intermediate course and the last 8 markers are the advanced course, so you can do two loops with the one map. The locations are marked with the same brown posts we had before, but the tops are now painted yellow to make them more visible. We still have the same beginner course on the west side of the park. This map is also available for purchase at the ranger station.
It looks like there is a good chance we'll have night orienteering at Lapham Peak, August 5th. It isn't 100% sure yet. But we have talked with the park manager and he said he was okay with the idea. He wants see what his staff situation is the summer before committing. I'll let you know when it gets the final okay. But put it on your calendars now, so you don't miss this fun event!
There are a few things that we sometimes take for granted when we orienteer. Here are a few reminders, in case you forgot or haven't heard yet...
Ticks are common in Wisconsin. There are two types, wood ticks and deer ticks, both hop on you and find a place to bit you. They then suck your blood before detaching. Wood ticks are larger and are easier to see. But they often walk to places they can't be seen easily. Deer ticks are about the size of a pinhead and are harder to see. Some deer ticks carry lyme disease, which can be transmitted to people after attaching themselves. I've been told that they usually need to be attached for 24 hours to give you the disease, if they are infected.
The preventative measure you should take is to check for ticks after each event. Once you finish check yourself for ticks, so you can find them before they attach. Also, later when you are washing up at home is a good time to recheck yourself. If you remove them in less than 24 hours you should be fine, but you may want to contact your physician for a professional opinion. Also, ticks don't like Deet(bug spray's active ingredient). So, you may also want to spray with insect repellant before each event.
If you notice a bullet shaped rash later on, see your doctor. If detected early they do have medicine that should take care of the problem. Late detection can cause cronic health problems. I've heard of one or two people that may have been infected at our events. Often times there are no symptoms or rash at the time of infection.
We have wild parsnip and poison ivy in Wisconsin. I recommend that you become familiar with what these two plants look like and avoid them. Poison ivy causes small bubbles and itching. When scratched it can spread to other parts of your body. Some people are not effected by poison ivy, or don't become sensitive until after coming in contact with it a number of times. It is caused by oil which is in the leaves. Once broken and rubbed against you, your skin may have a reaction. If you think you have poison ivy on your clothes, wash them separately from other clothes and use extra soap to remove the oil. If you don't the oil can be trasfered to other clothes which can then cause a reaction the next time you wear them.
Wild parsnip causes burning. Touching any part of the plant gets something on you that reacts with sunlight and causes blisters and itching. I had a blister almost an inch long and 1/2 an inch high once. I still have the scar. Less contact leads to smaller blisters and brown spots which fade in 1-2 years. Wild parsnip grows along roads and in fields, not in the forest. Prevention includes wearing clothes that covers your skin or washing up within 1 hour of contact. It takes time for the reaction to occur. If you aren't in sunlight, you won't get burned the the chemical.
I haven't heard many complaints about any of these three natural problems, ticks, poison ivy or wild parsnip. I've had them all. But simple preventative measures should reduce the chances of having any major problems with any of these.
You do need park vehicle stickers for most of our events. Don't forget to buy one or they may charge you an additional $5 fee. Annual stickers are currently $25 and a day pass is $7 for in-state licenses. Out of state fees are slightly higher.
I'm recruiting some helpers for our next event. It would be nice if 2 of you would help with registration for roughly 2 hours(11am-1pm). It would also be great if we could get a few helpers for control retrieval. Even helping pick up 2 or 3 controls can really be great! Email me at kevin@chorus.net and I will put you to work. Then you'll be part of the team which puts on these fun orienteering events. Helpers will be able to participate, as well.
The Cat's Meow and the end of the spring orienteering season is upon us. That was fast! We'll meet at the same location as last time for this event. In case you hadn't heard, I have expanded the map to about double it's former size. Ioana S. will be setting the courses. Expect another tough course, like the Ottawa Trails event. Beginner's Clinic at 11:15am or after registration rush.
The Elver event on Saturday will be a score event for everyone. A score event has a time limit, and you find as many markers as possible in the time alloted. It will be a 1 hour score event with 20 markers.
Elver Park is a big city park with many trails and open areas. If you are new to orienteering it will be a fun event. If you are looking for very technical orienteering, you will be disappointed.
If you wish a brief introduction to orienteering before going out, show up at 11:15am. I will give a beginner's clinic at that time.
One more change this year will be a $3/person charge for additional people on a map. This is a $1 increase from the previous $2 charge.
In just 2 weeks we'll have our first club event. For those of you who are new I'll explain the way the event works. Our first event of the season is our annual scout event. The scouts do a Score O event at 10am(usually). In score orienteering you find as many markers as you can in a given time limit(usually 1 hour for the scout event). For this event, we request that you preregister with johnstolzenberg@charter.net. He will give you all the details you need regarding the scout event in the morning.
We then have a regular club event at Noon. All are welcome and it is suitable for beginners. In fact, Elver park is a great place for your first orienteering experience. It is hard to get hopelessly lost here, as it is surrounded by the city of Madison. Starts are staggered, so you don't have to show up exactly at noon. You can show up a little early or a little later. But we pick up controls at 3pm no matter what. You can join the club($15fam/$10ind) or renew at any event. You can participate as a non member at a higher cost $10/nonmember, $7/member. If you need a little instruction, show up early and ask for assistance. We will give a short clinic prior to the event. If you have any more questions or concerns email me at kevin@chorus.net
I just returned from a two week trip in Portugal this past Sunday. I went to Portugal in particular because they were offering orienteering training sessions there. The way they set up the training was to book you in an aparthotel(with refrigerator, stove, dishes, etc.), give you a set of maps and let you train as you pleased. This was very convenient for me, since I planned to do sightseeing at the same time. I would do some orienteering in the mornings and afternoons were for checking out nearby attractions.
The terrain for the training camp was good for orienteering. It was along the coast and therefore was sandy ground throughout. Some areas had very intricate detail, others were less interesting. The best way to think of it is as overgrown sand dunes. Most hills were in lines and they weren't very high. It was easy on your knees, but you were always running in sand. Trails were bad that way, but off the trails the vegetation made running quite nice with soft ground held together by mossy, lichen vegetation. There were quite a few trails, but a couple times they had maps without trails or vegetation on the map.
Each day I put in about 10K worth of orienteering. I took off one day mid week due to exhaustion. Markers were sometimes difficult to see, as they were low wooden posts with a small orienteering sign hanging on one side(like a small for sale sign looks). Overall, it was very good training, though by the end of the week I was getting tired of seeing the exact type of terrain each day. It worked out perfectly, as by then it was time to move on to the international event.
Maps were within a short drive each day, and even the aparthotel was on one of the maps. My first day I went to an area with mixed vegetation(different shades of green). I found darker greens to be passable, but not pleasant. This area also had tricky subtle areas with small hills and mounds. It took a while to get used to reading the detail. And as it turns out, I forgot my compass and decided to navigate without it. This made things even tougher. But it was excellent work on my map reading skills. I finished day one doing a line O course. This map had no trails or vegetation, just contours. It was pretty tough.
A couple days had loops, so you could do 3, 6 or 10K depending on how many loops you did. I used this to work on speed. I would run the 3K courses as fast as I could read the map and hope to keep track of where I was. I made a few mistakes, but was happy with the practice.
One day there was an area of extreme detail with 19 markers and about 3K. This day seemed almost impossible. It forced me to really go slow, and even then I had difficulty. Back at the hotel, a swedish coach told me that he also thought it was quite hard. Once again it was a great learning day.
That pretty much wrapped up the training for me. I had left over courses that I didn't get to. But I had accomplished what I had come for, 40K of orienteering and over 100 markers found.
Next up was the actually event. After a week of training, I was exhausted. I tried to take it easy the couple days prior to the event, but 10K is 10K and I wasn't fresh. My back hurt after each day, too. But fortunately, during the POM(Portugal Orienteering Meeting) it didn't effect my runs much. It would just hurt afterwards.
The terrain for the event was quite different from the training. The event was in central Portugal where the ground is rocky and uneven, just what my back didn't need! The areas were also covered with trails and other linear features which made the orienteering very easy. It was really a runner's event.
Day 1 of the 4 day event was a middle distance(4K) race. I had a late start which gave me a little extra time to rest and the race was shorter which helped, too. The late start also meant trails to follow and plenty of people. Middle distances have shorter distance, but more controls where quick thinking is needed to have a good race. Often times, controls were only 100 or 200 meters away. There were 23 markers in all.
In one case, I looked up from one control and could see guys punching the next one. Other times I could see a trail leaving the control I was at going straight towards the next marker. I just tried to keep going fast and not mess up. Well, I finally made a mistake a couple markers before the end. The clue sheet was so long, I couldn't fit it all in my wrist holder. While messing around with that, I didn't read the map well and made about a 1.5 minute mistake. That's quite a lot of time in a race like this. But still I went under 8 minutes/K and was very happy with my 13th place finish(out of 55).
Day 2 was the day I was dreading, a 10K classic course. I was too tired to really enjoy this. I just had to gut it out and hope I was alive at the end. Classic courses have fewer markers and more route choice. I got going and really hit a rhythm. Physically, I was tired, but still okay. I just kept pounding out the miles. There were only two controls of concern. On #7 I misread the map and just missed it. But I didn't lose any time, since when I got close there was a guy heading to the marker and I saw it. But on #10 I was having trouble reading the map again. I was rushing or maybe I would have figured it out better. But I had already planned on bailing out to a trail past the marker and coming back to it in the event I didn't find it right away. That cost me a minute or 2. But once again, overall I was happy with my time(under 8 min/K again).
Day 3 was a 6K course. I was happy to be past the longest day, and this was the last real day of orienteering. It was very similar to the terrain of the first two day and there weren't any surprises(under 8min/K again).
Day 4 was my first Park Event. Park orienteering is done in town or in a developed park with paved trails, roads, etc. The idea is to have a really fast event that is spectator friendly. I think the idea for it was developed in order to market the sport for TV and advertisers.
This event was on a map of the old city and castle of the city of Abrantes. Like many Portuguese cities this one has cobblestone, narrow streets(a little wider than a car or two), a castle and steep stairways(where roads aren't possible). They ran us into the castle and all around the old part of town. The race was 3K, which meant fast, fast, fast. It was a lot of fun and I managed to get under 7min/K to end my Portugal orienteering experience. It was fun watching all the people running all over the place. This event was Portugal's largest ever orienteering event with over 1000 people. Imagine them all running around in the small old city area at the same time, but on different streets taking different routes. There were runners everywhere you looked. It was great!
So, my finishing places fell off as the event went along. I was usually around 20th or so. But my final placement was 15th overall(out of 55). This was better than I thought I would do. When the event ended I was relieved and satisfied with how I'd done. My back held on just long enough to complete the journey. I had gotten in more orienteering than I will the rest of this year. And I had orienteered consistently 4 days in a row. Now, I can sit back, sip my Portuguese wine, listen to my fado CD and rest up for the Badger Orienteering Club season! Obrigado i Adios
Last spring we had aerials flown of part of the Black River State Forest. These aerials were sent to Norway to have a basemap made. However, they were not able to work on them until this November. This past week I recieved the basemap for 16.6 square K. I will begin fieldchecking this area in 2006 with the hope of finishing enough for us to use the map either next fall or spring of 2007. Because of this work, I will probably not hold a rogaine in the spring, as previously planned. Instead, I will use the time I would have spent setting up that event to complete more of the new map.
This new area is not technically super challenging. Rather it should be fast and fun orienteering. There are quite a few trails and also quite a few pine stands. The part I plan to fieldcheck first has some nice open oak forest with ridge and valley type terrain, though the features are much smaller than what you'd find in Missouri(SLOC). I think it will be a nice contrast to what we have on our other maps.
There are also areas where pine has been harvested and the terrain is flat with lumpy footing(tree stumps and fallen trees). So, it's not all perfect. But I think there will be some enjoyable orienteering done here in the not too distant future! : )
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