January 31, 2009
What a wonderful day by the lake on Saturday. Temps were unbelievably
warm; cresting at 65 F. The ground was firmly frozen overnight but
thawed as the temps warmed throughout the day, with athletes
complaining of mud caked feet. The winds picked up as the day went
along and tested the clubs new pop-up shelter. I think it came through
with flying colors while staying firmly planted on the ground. Huge
thanks go out to all of our volunteers who make these meets happen.
Dick Neuburger and Dick Luckerman took on the start/finish tasks. Nick
Hockman and Reta Roe manned the registration table. Nick also brought
the refreshments, brewed coffee and made hot chocolate.
My son Matt and my adventure racing partner John Clausen helped pick up
controls after the meet. John, always a glutton for punishment,
actually ran both the red and orange course before going back out to
pick up controls.
We didn't have a permanent shelter so Dick bought a easy-up shelter and
it seemed that everyone brought a table. It is amazing to see how this
club comes together to make a meet come together.
My 22 year old son Matt was somewhat traumatized by the Barrett clan
as they wore their blue shirts. He was beaten by little Joe Barrett
in the last meet he did so his goal for the day was to beat his 11 year
old nemesis. Joe didn't run red at Longview but Matt kept seeing blue
shirts everywhere as the Barretts attacked separate courses from white
to green. Every time a blue shirt would pop up, Matt would pour on the
speed trying to catch up, only to find it wasn't Joe. Matt took first
on the red course, thanks in part to the Barrett's awesome blue
shirts.
I started planning the course back in December. We had five courses;
white, yellow, orange, green and red. The shorter course came together
quite well and I was pleased with their distance and difficulty. This
being my 2nd PTOC meet to set a course, I didn't want to repeat my
mistakes of last year's Landahl meet where the white and yellow course
saw teams out for 2+ hours. The longer courses were more difficult for
me to set as the course area is crisscrossed with impassable water and
a matrix of trails. I finally settled on green and red courses that,
while not difficult to navigate, were a mixture of long and short legs,
on and off trail that took athletes to known crossing points for the
creek. I knew it would be fast but it had a good distance to it.
The fair weather brought out a good number of athletes for the meet. I
think Reta said we had 38 teams and 28 individuals toe the line. We
also sold 24 extra maps so we only had 10 maps left from the 100 I
printed. I did four different short training clinics for those new to
orienteering, including one group of scouts who finished white and then
went back out on red.
Thanks again to all the volunteers.
Kelly Sumner