You know, one cannot predict the weather anywhere, but in Florida in January it's normally cool, not cold, just cool. Since the effect of El Nino or El Nina [?] is dominate this year, the winter is for the most part, 'DIFFERENT'. This event was to be hosted by 80F weather and the likes of fall. Just plain unusual. Oh, yeh!, hunting season had just ended, so there were still loose dogs in the woods.
I was assisted in control setting by a member of WeCeFar (Kip Koelsch), who most graciously drove up from St. Pete on Friday to help. I divided up the close-in ones for Kip and bagged up the rest for myself. We seemed to finish together after 2 hours in the woods - EXCELLENT TIMING!! This event had great courses designed by a member of the British Royal Air Force (Bob Hill) who had been on temporary duty at McDill AFB in Tampa but had to return to his homeland before Christmas so we could not pat him on the back for his excellent routes, given the details of the map. We will send thanks to him, as well as Gord Hunter from Canada who vetted the courses as part of his annual Christmas vacation. Also, we had a visitor from the Finnish Defense Force (Jari Vaara) who is now staying in Tampa. He came and took pictures for his upcoming FLO newsletter article. Some had talked a bit of the terrain and weather differences, ya think?? He gave me a flyer from his home club which is holding the Finnish 5-day 'A' event in July, 5 days of O' with a days break. You can go to the website: http://fin5.kansu.fi/eng and check it out. Good Luck!! I think he will be at future events, so come and talk to him, if you're interested in going.
The rest of setting up for the day was taken care of by the other members of WeCeFar (Kip's wife, Jessica and Scott Deit) who came out to assist, not knowing what to expect. I think at some point, they were saying "how easy is this", for I am sure that Adventure Racing is 'mucho complexico' compared to our format. I also had Brett Barker on hand to give instructions to newbies (in layman terms) and to handle some other duties, as needed. Janet Putnam spent her usual 2 hours assisting at the registration desk. John Ide returned from running the Green and took over at the finish table, relieving John & Judy Coffman. They were asked to volunteer and I best utilized them at the Start/Finish table since they were willing to just help out, not having done any of this before. I cannot say enough for the volunteers whom come out and gracefully apply their time to make events like this happen, from the ones you see to the many that work within.
Tami Leonard, WSF Ranger, amazed by our numbers of participants and told us that we had done a good job, visited us. A great turnout and training day for the AR enthusiasts.
Ray Bruneau
| Name | Time |
| Christopher | 66:12 |
| Troop 236 Polonco | 77:13 |
| McLaughlin | 86:37 |
| Butterick | 92:35 |
| Murphy | 93:37 |
| Reiland | 99:00 |
| Troop 236 Berger | 98:13 |
| Plant/Milburn | 106:55 |
| Name | Time |
| Troop 236 CMJJ | 54:00 |
| Holley | 67:00 |
| Sadie/Kerri | 67:22 |
| BCHS #3 | 75:03 |
| Bodoh | 113:24 |
| BCHS #4 | 114:11 |
| Name | Time |
| Smith | 57:00 |
| Vitiello/Wilson | 59:46 |
| Robeck/Scott | 66:23 |
| Auburndale #7 | 70:28 |
| Hamilton | 78:25 |
| Godber/Brewster/Crook | 82:01 |
| Cadwell/Brian | 90:59 |
| Kaler/Reed | 91:10 |
| Osburn | 92:26 |
| Auburndale #8 | 93:20 |
| Strong/Landers | 99:09 |
| BCHS #5 | 99:24 |
| Gilbert | 99:43 |
| Igor V. | 103:56 |
| BCHS #2 | 103:57 |
| Auburndale #2 | 104:30 |
| Vincent/Cadwell | 107:50 |
| Auburndale #1 | 108:10 |
| Wilroy | 122:48 |
| Auburndale #5 | 123:10 |
| Montemayor | 138:54 |
| Auburndale #6 | 126:04 |
| Capone | DNF |
| Toro/Salazar | DNF |
| SMA Perez | DNF |
| Auburndale #3 | DNF |
| Cadwell Girls | DNF |
| Name | Time |
| Bruneau | 56:50 |
| Vaara | 70:44 |
| Smith | 77:02 |
| Viane | 81:52 |
| Martin | 86:57 |
| Schwieterman | 88:56 |
| Ide | 89:36 |
| Royer | 89:51 |
| Dempsey | 93:50 |
| Barker | 106:54 |
| Counts | 108:48 |
| Bryant/Bennett | 110:10 |
| BCHS #6 | 111:27 |
| Lawson | 111:53 |
| Dennis/Carolyn | 122:45 |
| BCHS #1 | 137:47 |
| Grogan | DNF |
| Hurley | DNF |
| McKinley | DNF |
| Name | Time |
| Putnam | 63:13 |
| Makris | 97:15 |
| Shuman/Figjam | 104:00 |
| Bohn | 105:00 |
| Godber | 123:36 |
| Bennett | 130:00 |
| Brown | 131:20 |
| Andy Capp | 133:25 |
| Hauff | 146:37 |
| Smith/Perschl | 169:14 |
| Couture/Rice | DNF |
| Laura/Leslie/Chuck | DNF |
| DNF | Did Not Finish |
| DQ | Disqualified (Missed Controls) |
| OT | Over 3 Hour Time Limit |