"Of Gator Wallows, Heavy Rains and Casual Summer Events"
Time:9:45 a.m. - The orange course control setter emerged from the woods, happily relating a water crossing up to her chest...
My outward reaction was to laugh it off and congratulate her for coming back alive. Inwardly, my heart stopped and my brain exploded. A riot of images merged to mush in my head in those first few seconds as I frantically tried to visualize where in heaven's name I'd sent the orange course that they would encounter chest deep water! An artesian well seep? Was it quicksand-like? A 'gator wallow? Oh, the joy of being an event coordinator. I didn't press it, what with most orange course entrants standing nearby waiting to start, and mercifully no one else found it, or drowned in it, during the day. Perhaps Andy Holman, after reading this, will explain just how she managed to get into, and out of, a water hole that big.
Otherwise, we were surprised and pleased that, given the weather, 79 of you actually showed up. The usual combination of factors serve to retard event attendance in June: vacations, heat, humidity, heat, humidity, and the heat. And the humidity. But this event also followed nearly a week of un-Florida-like gray rainy days, rising river levels, and my dire warnings. Beside all that, the forecast, which turned out to be largely correct, was for more rain all day. Still, Mike Dempsey and Ron Eaglin each brought a popup shelter and everyone else brought their sunny dispositions. So the ranger on duty will have reported that FLO folks were all well behaved, all accounted for at the end of the day and well within their permitted numbers. I hope you all had fun. It really did stop raining for a few hours here and there, although everyone was still soaked from the grass and bushes being plenty wet.
Because a low turnout was expected, the beginner's courses, White and Yellow, were combined into a single Whiteyellow course, and the Brown course was not used. I set deliberately difficult courses, expecting mostly the (fool)hardy to show, and besides, any LBE course is half in the open fields anyway, so a compensatory level of difficulty in the forested sections is in order. I took a little extra care to ensure that at least someone finished the green course, as opposed to last year's 100% wipeout. All of this is reflected in the results: about half the entries on red & orange courses finished while four of the five greens finished. The water level in the river was not an issue, but when I retrieved the orange control from the 'saddle' by the river yesterday, the punch was already submerged and the control soon would have been.
I think the notable results here are not just from the usual fastest veterans, like Artur Inston and Joe Maliszewski, but from the newcomers such as Jason and Maureen Cooper who were so excited after blowing away the field on Whiteyellow, they went out again on orange and did very well. And Jeanne Ryba, although she does not show up on the results list because she went out unofficially after helping all day, turned in a Whiteyellow time of under 60 minutes that would have been quite respectable. Note also Laura Vedral and Sara Moorehouse, adventure racers orienteering for the first time finished close on the heels of the Coopers, and they also went out again. Laura & Sara's time on orange looks terrific, but they, along with Patty Lanier actually ran the orange course with Ron Eaglin as Trainer/Guide. This was a great idea for training and should be done more.
Artur Inston's adventure bears relating. He started early, in the rain, and even though he had a plastic bag it was a used bag with punch holes and it was raining hard anyway, so his map was soaked by control 3. The black ink is waterproof but all other colors virtually disappeared. So Artur followed the black trails still shown on his map, all the way to the finish at Barr Street, asked for another map and bummed a ride back to GWA to re-start. We figured any advantage of his now knowing where 1, 2 and 3 were on this second run was more than offset by his having run the whole 6 km just to get to the finish the first time to ask for the re-start. He turned in a fabulous time with that fresh dry map.
Thanks to everyone who pitched in. Andy Holman and Ron Eaglin showed up early to set controls and then Andy ran start at Geneva Wilderness all day. Mike Dempsey brought the maps and a shelter and helped out everywhere and then didn't even run a course. John Ide helped run start/finish but still ran green. Jeanne Ryba helped at registration the whole day and only went out on Whiteyellow after I badgered her. Patty Lanier was on hand and did everything from shuttle driver to control retriever and even volunteered to stay late to close up Finish and account for everyone - and call me if they didn't come back by 4:00. As it happened, within the space of a few minutes Patty had called me to report Jerry Sirmans had not returned; I told her don't worry it's Jerry, he knows what he's doing; she dropped off the supplies at my house; then Jerry called to say he was out of the woods. (whew) The remote start at GWA for green and red was a nuisance I know, but everyone took it good spirits, once again. Thank you all for that. We muddled through with some taking shuttles to start and some driving to GWA then being shuttled back there afterward.
We believe we're making progress in getting back into the good graces of the park management in terms of permissible attendees and now we will begin working on accessing those old staging areas on Snow Hill Road once again. Have a great summer. Mark your calendars now for the next event: Labor Day at Rock Springs Run State Reserve.
Bob Putnam
| Name | Time |
| Jason Cooper | 30:40 |
| Vedral / Moorehouse | 37:00 |
| Bob Beaman | 46:04 |
| Gusrafson / Thomas | 46:46 |
| Lonker / Uhley | 51:40 |
| McEnis / Murr | 52:15 |
| Conrad | 61:30 |
| Greissler | 61:40 |
| BSA Troop 223 | 68:20 |
| Debbie Penrose | 69:49 |
| Brinkley Family | 79:50 |
| David Hall | 96:28 |
| Hill | 104:13 |
| James Innes | 108:20 |
| BSA Troop 252 | 110:40 |
| Kevin Innes | DNF |
| Anne Marie Delahunty | DNF |
| Sherriff / Munier | DNF |
| Name | Time |
| Panosso | 83:14 |
| Laura Vedral | 84:50 |
| Patty Lanier | 85:05 |
| Tim Ziegler | 108:56 |
| Missy Kaler | 124:17 |
| Walenty Prytulo | 124:55 |
| Maureen & Jason | 133:30 |
| Koualy | 188:30 |
| Liegh & Isaac | DNF |
| Team Price | DNF |
| Bob Leaman | DNF |
| Charlene Akers | DNF |
| Phillip Wyckoff | DNF |
| The Gatlins | DNF |
| Conrad | DNF |
| Name | Time |
| Joe Maliszewski | 109:20 |
| John Ide | 117:12 |
| Bret Barker | 142:56 |
| Petschauer | 188:30 |
| Johnson | DNF |
| Name | Time |
| Artur Intson | 88:44 |
| Crane / Hollingsworth | 134:56 |
| Jenkins / Schmidt | 160:23 |
| Jerry Sirmans | 188:00 |
| Derek Bohn | DNF |
| Pete & Eric Schmid | DNF |
| Trung / Lively | DNF |
| Wright | DNF |
| DNF | Did Not Finish |
| DQ | Disqualified (Missed Controls) |
| OT | Over 3 Hour Time Limit |