You Should Have Been There! This was Great Orienteering! Monster long courses. Wickedly warm weather at about 90F. And a torrential downpour with 30 mph wind gusts late in the day to "refresh" everyone, and blow over both tents. It would seem that most every characteristic of Florida Orienteering was well represented except that only 67 people showed. Pretty disappointing turnout for Ray Bruneau's courses through this top-notch forest.
Thanks to Ray for setting it all up as both EC and CS for the event. My first thought is that maybe next time we'll advertise more the fact that medals are being awarded, but then I immediately think perhaps that's exactly why some did not show up. If you haven't noticed, those of us who compete individually in FLO are a distinct minority. All you folks who come out for the hike with your family or friends are the vast majority of this club. We don't mean to push you aside when we award medals to individual competitors and I really hope I'm wrong about this fact scaring some of you away. I think we just want to take something home now and then, in return for working up such a sweat. And work up a sweat we did at Woodpecker West.
I spent over 109 minutes on the red course and still came in first. While I was out there though, in my mind, I barely expected to finish. It was really tough. Ray set a relatively long 7.7 km red course I suppose just because so many in the last few months urged FLO course designers not to go easy during the summer months. People said: Retain the red course through the hot season; it's no big deal. Ray also set long Green and Brown courses and their finish times of 83 and 97 minutes respectively, suggest they worked hard, too. I haven't been so tired in a long time. I haven't spent that much time out on the course in a long time. I heard the Green and Brown course controls were all spot on, but a couple of red course controls caused us all extra time. In fact, Arild Orsleie, Toby Henson and Artur Intson all DNF'ed, so you know it was tough.
The medals that were up for grabs, in this Malcolm Adams Memorial, were of a brand new design and everyone thought they looked terrific. Congratulations and a big Thank You to Toby Henson for spearheading this new medal design and saving FLO a bundle of money in the process. FLO now has those medals available for sale, at $4 each, as key chain bobs or as necklaces. Just ask at the Registration table at the next event.
The Medal Winners were:
  | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
Orange Men | Walenty Prytulo | John Meyer | T. LeClaire |
Brown Men | Bret Barker |   |   |
Green Men | Joe Maliszewski | M. Jarvis |   |
Green Women | Debbie Gottschalk |   |   |
Red Men | Bob Putnam | Dave Gottschalk |   |
Red Women | Andy Holman |   |   |
Awards will be mailed to each.
The forest has recovered in its own way from recent controlled burns. But "its own way" involves a thriving population of ground vines and catbriar; more than ever it seemed. Where the forest floor is clean, its fun and easy to run through, but where the vines & briars grow it's as aggravating as any venue we have. Maybe it was because I spent more time than usual on the course, but constantly dragging feet through such stuff became wearying.
The usual thanks go to Jonathan Linforth for map printing/registration and to Russ Steinke for registration/start/finish/control retrieval help and to Joe Maliszewski for control retrieval. I also saw Derek Bohn and Andy Holman lending helping hands several times. New thanks go to first-time helpers The Hemness's for registration/start/finish duties. Since they also did both orange and green courses, they'll be sharing their impressions of the day's experience in an upcoming newsletter, thereby encouraging others to volunteer.
One of the things I forgot that day was to bring the new color-coded control cards intended to match card to course color. Come see that at future events.
Bob Putnam
Name | Time | |
TROOP 498 # 1 | 52:09 | |
TROOP 560 | 71:45 | |
TROOP 498 # 2 | 73:50 |
Name | Time |
McGOLDRICK/HORN | 56:38 |
MIDDLEBROOK, C | 79:40 |
GATLIN, D/A | 92:30 |
Name | Time |
PRYTULO, W | 53:32 |
MEYER, J | 57:20 |
HEMNESS, G/E | 60:00 |
MICHAELS, J/C | 74:40 |
MOWRY, K/S | 100:12 |
CHIZLETT/TRIPP | 105:25 |
LECLAIRE, T | 129:11 |
STEINKE, R | DNF |
Name | Time |
RICHMOND, K | 97:05 |
BARKER, B | 150:00 |
HOOD, D | DNF |
FAIRALL, M | DNF |
Name | Time |
HEMNESS, G/E | 83:04 |
GOTTSCHALK, D | 84:30 |
MALISZEWSKI, J | 98:53 |
JARVIS, M | 135:00 |
PADRICK, A | DNF |
SECOSH , C | DNF |
Name | Time |
PUTNAM, B | 109:13 |
GOTTSCHALK, D | 114:52 |
SCHULTZ, B | 116:29 |
HOLMAN, A | 159:50 |
PRIMAL | 162:20 |
TEAM 'GO' | 207:04 |
BOHN, D | DNF |
ORSLEIE, A | DNF |
HENSON, T | DNF |
SHEPPARD, L | DNF |
INTSON, A | DNF |
TALLENT, K | DNF |
DNF | Did Not Finish |
DQ | Disqualified (Missed Controls) |
OT | Over 3 Hour Time Limit |