We had a fantastic day for orienteering on Sunday.

When I arrived at Grant Park shortly after 10 am to get everything set for the Spring-O, I noticed a Junior ROTC school bus already in the parking lot. Kind of early I was thinking. The event doesn’t start until noon. Maybe they thought it was an 11 am start? It turns out that the instructor of Hamilton High School assumed it was a 9 am start. They arrived at the park just a litttttle bit early. Well when he realized his mistake he first took the kids to McDonalds for breakfast, then with full bellies made them run around the park doing typical ROTC stuff: pushups, sit ups, marching, etc. I feel ill just thinking about it!

While that was going on I had plenty of things to do to get the event ready. Luckily I placed most of the markers in the woods the previous day and previous weekend. With only seven markers remaining, mostly white course markers, it was a short hike to complete the task. It took me longer to unload and setup all the equipment at the Normandy School picnic shelter. When I finished I could see Matt Bond way out yonder carrying the computer and course maps. I couldn’t make out his face at that distance, but it was unmistakably him. Not too many giants go orienteering in Dayton…running hunchback through honeysuckle is not fun!

Other JROTC groups and orienteer’s started to trickle in before noon. Once Matt and I got the computer equipment up and running it was time to get the hoards of ROTC kids on their course. This didn’t take too long. The instructors just barked a few orders, the kid’s quickly organized themselves and formed up to start. The registration also went very smoothly, due to the quick efficiency of Matt and Sharon Bond. You would think they’ve done this before!

Other orienteer’s such as Tom Svobodny and his daughter Caterina arrived. Tom mentioned that he couldn’t run very well due to some aliment he received while lifting weights. Of course none of us believed it after seeing him warm up behind the shelter. Maybe he was trying psyche out his competitors??? I think his biggest problem is the amount of money he spends on duck tape to keep his shoes together. One of these days he’ll get new shoes, extending his lead times another ten minutes. Maybe that’s his secret! Don’t be surprised if you don’t see a few orienteer’s duck tape their bare feet at the next event. It might work?! Well the hoards of JROTC kids took us by surprise and we didn’t have enough Brown course maps. We went old school and made people copy maps using those little circle templates. I always hated those things! No one complained or least didn’t grumble too loud, so it wasn’t that bad of a situation. Nothing too much exciting happened after that. I don’t have the finish times in front of me, but Tom Svobodny did win first place for the Brown course…and the Yellow course. He didn’t run the White course…to the relief of the White course winner. Meet Director: Steve Barnhart Registration: Matt & Sharon Bond Marker Pickup: Tom & Caterina Svobodny, and the teenage girl wearing glasses with help of her father (sorry I don’t remember your names!!!)

Results

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