We had a perfect day for orienteering with 105 orienteers in 40 starts.

Weather was perfect with temps in the 50's and 60's.  Little rain had fallen prior to the event so dry conditions prevailed underfood.  Even so, one Hamilton runner, Tristian Cord, came back covered head to toe in mud.  It seems he took the hard route through the dark green on the map between two ponds and had to crawl in the mud to get through.

Social distancing was observed even with the good turnout, as people arrived, registered, and went out on the courses with the groups they arrived with.  Starts were staggered to also maintain separation.

Everyone seemed to enjoy running in the new area.  The newly mapped area below the dam provided an extra 100 feet of vertical challenge for the advanced courses to play with.  The overflow fossil hunting area provided an desolately errie backdrop to the courses as well.

All courses above the easy white course crossed Clarksville Rd. twice.  At each crossing a control was located on both sides of the road, and the time taken to travel between them was removed from the overall course time.  That's what the "Voided legs" statement means in the results.  Their purpose was to avoid running headlong across the road in front of approaching traffic while under pressure of the clock -- remove the time pressure and take the time to cross the road safely.  However, I wonder if any competitors took advantage of a new strategy due to the crossing time-out.  That is, sprint the course to the first crossing, recover & cross the road, sprint the middle section, recover & cross the road again, then sprint on to the finish.  Physically the two mid-course recoveries can allow for a faster overall course time.  The split results show how much time people took to cross the road, which ranged from 12 seconds (Curtis Mackey) to over 4½ minutes (Gracelyn Eberwine).  Gracelyn won the orange course.  Hmmm...  I'll still wonder about it, but in the end it's a safety measure so is appropriate.

Living up to their team name, Beavercreek Team #1 came in first place on the advanced green course.  Great job!

I am impressed with the overall results of everyone.  The two most populous courses, yellow and orange, didn't have any mis-punches and all the times are closely competitive.  Well done!

Many thanks to the volunteers who helped:
Shelter Stake-out: Ben Bond
Registration: Sharon Bond
Control Pick-up: Lynn Johnson
Control Pick-up: Katrina Young
Control Pick-up: Tom Svobodny

Matt Bond
Meet Director

Results

Splits