[roc-info] Saturday - O at Mendon Ponds!

Tue May 3 13:34:51 EDT 2011

From: William Hawkins <willhawk at gmail.com>
ate: Tue, May 3, 2011 at 8:23 AM
ubject: Re: Saturday
On Saturday (May 7) ROC will hold the second race in the 2011 Club
eries at Mendon. The start is at Cavalry Lodge, off Douglas Rd in the
outheast part of the park. This is the area of the park with the most
omplex glaciated detail, and I have taken advantage of the terrain to
rovide some complex navigational challenges for you. There are 44
ontrols all located in an area 750m * 600m in size. That means the
pportunity for many controls and for plenty of difficult navigation
or the advanced courses. It also means that there are many close
ontrols, and we are stretching to the limit the rules on how close
ontrols can be to each other. No controls are closer than 30m apart,
nd controls on similar features (for example, two controls both on
eentrants or both on depressions) are never less than 60m apart - but
till, please check your control codes to make sure you are punching
he control you are supposed to be punching!
***** Advanced courses (brown, green, and red) work differently from
sual. Those runners should make sure to read the notes below
arefully. *****
Before I explain that, first, note that the easier courses (white,
ellow, and orange) take the usual format. The orange course in
articular takes a very snaky route around the area, with many rapid
hanges of direction. Make sure to keep yourself oriented, and
emember that you have to visit the controls in the order the course
ndicates. On the white course, I have used orange flagging tape to
elp you navigate one leg where there is no trail: make sure to follow
he orange flagging tape all the way to the following control. Runners
n other courses (including yellow) may encounter this marked route,
ut it is not shown on your maps so you will not know where it goes
nd should be careful if you follow it!
Advanced courses (brown, green, and red) will work differently at this
eet from usual. There are four shorter loops, which I have creatively
amed L1, L2, L3, and L4. You are welcome to do as many or as few of
hese loops as you like - they stand alone as independent courses. L1,
2, and L3 are each around 2.5km in length, while L4 is shorter,
round 1.0km.
After doing a loop, you can take a break, refuel, and compare notes
ith other orienteers about how you did, for as long as you like - you
re not on the clock in between courses. You can also do the loops in
ny order that you feel like. However, please make sure to download
our SI e-punch finger stick after each loop, and then reclear it
efore going out on a second, third, or fourth loop.
This is a club series meet, so when you register for the meet at the
eginning of the day, if you are interested in competing in the club
eries or comparing your results with others, you should select your
ntended course, brown, green, or red. (You can only sign up for one
f the three.) If you sign up for red, then you have to do loops L1,
2, and L3. Your time for red is just the sum of your times for L1,
2, and L3 (which you can do in any order, and you can also do L4 as
ell if you feel like it - it just won't be counted as part of your
esult on 'red'). If you sign up for green, then you have to do loops
1 and L2. Your time for green is just the sum of your times on these
wo loops, which you can again do in either order. For brown, you must
o loops L3 and L4.
Club series scoring for advanced courses is based on the combined time
or the required two or three loops. That is, to get a score for a red
ourse, we will look at all the people who sign up for red, and
alculate their median time for the L1+L2+L3 combination. Similarly
or green and brown. To make sure we get the right groups for scoring
urposes, if you do more than the basic set of loops required for your
ourse (for example, suppose you choose to run green, so you do L1 and
2, but then you decide at the end of the day that it was so much fun
hat you want to go out on L3 as well for fun), make sure that the
esults staff know which 'color' you want to be entered for (in the
xample, if you don't say anything we might assume you want a result
or red rather than green, since doing L1. L2, and L3 qualifies you
or a result in either green or red, whichever you prefer).
The terrain in this area of Mendon is glaciated and complex, full of
andom depressions, knolls, ridges, and reentrants. The map shows
uite a lot of green 'difficult to run' vegetated areas; however, at
his season of the year, these are not as bad as they look, and you
an probably think of most of the green as 'one level less severe'
han the map shows it. The boundaries of the green are no longer
articularly accurate; it is much safer to use other features for
avigation. Some clearings are now mostly overgrown. The 'white woods'
re really nice to run through.
A few of the smaller trails are becoming less distinct over time,
articularly early in the spring. Do not rely too much on the
ndistinct trails.
Water features are extremely wet, after the record April rainfall
ollowed by more rain in the week preceding the meet. You shouldn't
eed to get wet feet, but you may find a couple of depressions filled
ith more water than you are expecting. (This applies particularly to
ne control on the orange course, which is mapped as a reentrant but
s in fact the edge of a large seasonal pond!)
I enjoyed setting these courses a lot: hopefully you will have a lot
f fun running them and comparing notes with other orienteers on how
ou did. With everyone never leaving an area of only a quarter of a
quare mile in size, you should see plenty of other orienteers out
here! Don't follow someone who's not going to the same control as
ou...
Course lengths:
hite: 1.8km, 85m climb, 12 controls
ellow: 2.2km, 105m climb, 11 controls
range: 3.3km, 195m climb, 13 controls
1: 2.4km, 145m climb, 9 controls
2: 2.5km, 145m climb, 12 controls
3: 2.5km, 150m climb, 12 controls
4: 1.0km, 50m climb, 6 controls
rown = L3 + L4: 3.5km, 200m climb, 18 controls
reen = L1 + L2: 4.9km, 290m climb, 21 controls
ed = L1 + L2 + L3: 7.4km, 440m climb, 33 controls
William

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