"I don't care where the weathervane points,
when the weathervane points to gloomy,
it's got to be sunny to me..."
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Gosh all git up! How'd we get so many die-hard orienteers to show up and brave the cold rain and the terrain of Twin Creek. Even before the rain started, the ground was wetter than it had been for days. The terminal area forecast at Dayton said rain at 1000EST and at precisely 10AM, the rain began to fall, and continued, at varying intensity, throughout the day. Despite, this we had 61 starts. Since most of these were groups of 2, 3, or 4, it is a safe estimate to say that we had about 100 competitors. We quickly ran out of pre-printed maps on the red and yellow courses.
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Twin Creek MetroPark is known to archaeologists and old-timers as Fort Carlisle, because of the 2000 year-old Hopewell earthworks that ring the edge of the high ground just north of our starting area. Competitors probably didn't notice that one can see the Miamisburg mound from the Twin Creek woods. Because the terrain rises quickly from the valley floor, the open hardwood forests are typically in very steep re-entrants. While setting the last few controls (in the re-entrant just north of the starting/finishing meadow), I realized that the rain would make at least one of them a mud bath.
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For the most part, people enjoyed the courses. There was one direct complaint about the control in the last steep re-entrant on Brown and Red, and probably more than a few competitors silently cursed wondered if they weren't competing in X-O. If navigational skills should be the determining factor and not physical ability, then this control was out of place. Unfortunately, the control placement did not give rise to the route choice problems that I had expected. The optimal route that I had envisioned on Red 15-16-17 was: from 15 contour to the fence line, and use the deer stands as attack points; from the second deer stand, one had an unobstructed view of 16, which was not visible from the stream just below it, because of the profile of that re-entrant, which is steep at the bottom and shallower at the top. The re-entrant where 17 lay had the opposite profile, and I expected some people to choose to drop back down the earth bank of 16 and move up the stream. Although the center of 17 showed it low, and the description was "lower part", I don't think anyone chose this route. Having climbed the earth bank to 16, seeing the top just above, it would have been hard to think of dropping back down. As it was, the re-entrant of 17 was too easy to see from above, so that even though 17 was not visible from above, no other re-entrants presented itself there.
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Control 2 on Brown and Red was not placed exactly where mapped. I didn't get any complaints about this. It was placed in an easy to find spot and so it probably didn't annoy anyone.
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After the meet ended, we took all of the punch cards back to the forensics lab, and did the best we could at deciphering what was left of the cards. If there are any mistakes, please let us know.
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All of the colors were hotly contested, and the top 2 juniors on a long orange were separated by 3 seconds (.07%).
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The meet had been cancelled at one point, and I took over with about 1 month notice. I spent most of the time I could in updating the map. I paid most attention to updating vegetation, and didn't get in all of the changes to the trail system. The most interesting re-entrant in the park was not used because I just didn't have time to correct the contours.
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Although I was the official meet director, several people did as much work as I did, for which I am grateful. Gabe Svobodny assisted with the mapping and course setting, as well as being the OCAD and CLUE jockey, and worked the whole time on meet day. Matt Bond showed us the ropes of meet direction, as well as spending a day with us on the map printup process; on meet day, he worked the starts and registration, picked up signs, and helped with control pickup. Sharon Bond worked the registration on meet day (out of the back of her van). Thanks also to the cadets of Colonel White High School for setting up signs, and to Gayle Pille and Bill Donnelly for control pickup.
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Tom Svobodny
Meet Director
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