Peter Gagarin Possum Trot Report

From: Peter Gagarin

Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 23:13:58 -0500

Subject: The First Possum Trot

When I wrote to Dick Neuburger (race director) mentioning that I had a free plane ticket that had to be used before the end of the year and asking for some info about the Possum Trot, his response, in addition to sending me the info, was: "You must really be hard up thinking of places to go with your ticket!"

Sunny California? Warm Florida? Missouri? The choice was clear. While there would hopefully be many Possum Trots in the future, there would only be one FIRST Possum Trot. In addition, there was the opportunity to be the first to complete the Grand Slam (the Billygoat, Hudson Highlander, and Blue Hills Traverse being the first three legs). California and Florida would have to wait.

And so it was that while virtually everyone else in Kansas City was either in Arrowhead Stadium or glued to the tube watching their beloved Chiefs play foot-football, a much more sensible even dozen of us took off on 16.1 km journey through Longview Lake Park. Mike Shifman had set out 38 controls. There was no time limit, but with the start taking place just after 1 pm, getting in before dark was a not-so-simple task. The other problem was staying warm, as the temperature at the start was 30 degrees and falling, there were intermittent snow flurries, and the trees were covered with a layer of frost from the morning fog. A fine day for a long Foot-O!

It was a strong field including a mix of former U.S., Kansas, and Missouri champions and a couple of eco-challengers, including Rich Ruid, whose team had been second in New Zealand's Southern Traverse just a couple of weeks earlier. Takeshi Iwakura got the award for coming from the farthest away (Japan). Notable by their absence, which they will forever regret, were JJ Cote and Sharon Crawford, both of whom thought about coming, but didn't. Granted, foot-orienteering is the "thinking" sport, but sometimes it takes some doing, not just thinking about. And you would have thought Mikell Platt would have been there; after all, the market is closed on Sunday and the race had no rules. Even Charlie DeWeese almost made it, but the forecast for cold weather and snow put doubts in his mind as to the possibility for a foot-orienteering/foot-golf doublerheader (make that foot-golf/foot-orienteering to get the priorities right). As it turned out, the conditions for foot-golf were quite poor; on the other hand, the conditions inside the riverboat casinos, at least the two that I can vouch for, were rather balmy.

The race was off and ... well, as they say in other big-time sports, let's go to the video tape. Mary Jones (Mary Eglinski?) was filming and the tape clearly shows PG in the lead for about 10 meters before being overtaken by Meenehan and Eglinski. Next on the tape were several lengthy shots of frolicking deer -- Betsy Betros had taken over filming duties and apparently had different priorities -- followed by a short bit of action at control 5, where Rich was in the lead. Next some nice pavement shots, then a few more deer, then some lengthy footage of a car seat (as once again the "off" switch was ignored), at which point the battery gave out and that was it for the day's film. But, trust me, it was an exciting and very photogenic event. Eglinski ran a decent race for someone who is getting on in years a bit; but for his spending 6 extra minutes wandering around looking for #25, the finish could have been quite close and possibly in a different order.

Actually, the only really dumb thing he did was screwing up his watch. With 38 controls, and my Casio only capable of remembering 30 splits, my plan was to hang with Mike for at least 10 controls and use his record of those splits, since his watch could remember 100. We were together for about the first 15, but then he took a bad fall and managed to erase all his splits up to then. So both the video and the splits are somewhat less than 100% complete.

Nevertheless, it was a fine event, certainly one of the finest foot-O's of the season, and hopefully only the first of many fine Possum Trots to come.

Peter Gagarin [email protected]

THE POSSUM TROT RESULTS Longview Lake Park South (Kansas City, Missouri) December 7, 1997

16.1 km 240 m climb 38 controls Weather: Overcast, light wind, 30 degrees F. Course Setter: Mike Shifman Meet Director: Dick Neuburger Hosted by: Possum Trot Foot Orienteering Club

NAME 2 km (place) 8.5 km (place) Total 1. Peter Gagarin (NEFOC) 13:30(3) 55:52(1) 1:53:55 2. Michael Eglinski (FOK) 13:21(2) 57:00(2) 2:02:15 3. Richard Ruid (SLFOC) 13:11(1) 1:06:00(3) 2:12:20 4. Dan Meenehan (SLFOC) 14:45(4) 1:08:50(5) 2:18:25 5. Fritz Menninger (OK) 15:20(5) 1:11:00(6) 2:48:25 6. Eric Buckley (SLFOC) 18:43(7) 1:15:14(7) 2:55:51 7. Gene Wee (FOK) 17:34(6) 1:15:45(8) 3:01:06 Takeshi Iwakura (JPN) 19:05(8) 1:07:45(4) DNF David Coziahr (PTFOC) 21:12(10) 1:41:00(9) DNF Mark Maher (FOK) 21:10(9) 1:54:15(10) DNF Paul Hoffman (?) 25:12(11) 1:58:45(11) DNF George Semb (PTFOC) 26:30(12) 2:22:00(12) DNF

NEFOC - New England Foot-Orienteering Club, FOK - Foot-Orienteering Kansas, SLFOC - St. Louis Foot-Orienteering Club, PTFOC - Possum Trot Foot-Orienteering Club