Park2 - Raymond Terrace
Looks like 2010 Clubman of the Year, Greg Bacon is not about to slow down this year. He's drawn us a new park map (with a little a little help from Russell Rigby) and provide us with a great afternoons entertainment at Raymond Terrace, running in and around the ponds and sporting field that make up King Park.
I'm amazed at how we competitors can still manage to add so many mistakes into these park events that on paper, actually look very easy. Many people overshot controls or tackled them out of order, creating automatic time penalties for themselves.
Heres a few words from Greg......
Thankfully the weather held out for the event and it turned out to be a good day for a fast sprint around the course. The comments from competitors were very positive, my biggest concern was losing controls as the area is fairly open and there were a few children eyeing off the controls. The long course was a little on the short side with around 4.6 k being the average distance. The times ended up very close. There is still more area that can be used but it would mean having two maps for the long course, maybe next time!
Russell Rigby fine tuned the map for me, it’s amazing how accurate the maps are once he has played around with it, thanks again Russell!
Thanks to Cheryl Todkill for the help at registration with assistance from Diane Charlton and Kerry and Sarah Bacon for the finish desk. Once again Mick Kavour was a great help on the set up. A big thanks to Peter Newton, Malcolm Roberts and the Orr Family for control collection after the event.
Park1 - Maitland Park
The 5th Park tour commenced on Wednesday at Maitland Park. Course setter and series co-ordinator Malcolm Roberts offered up 2.3 km and 5.5 km courses.
Josh Blatchford took out the Long course with overseas visitor Malin Anderson being the quickest of the women. Luke Robertson was triumphant in the short course with Danielle Fowler fastest woman.
The series continues next Wednesday 2nd March at Raymond Terrace.
Here is a report from Malcolm.....
February 2008 was the last time this map had been used for a Park Series event. Since then the bridge spanning the main highway had been knocked down and replaced. Unfortunately, the new bridge was higher than the part of the bridge spanning the northern railway line and we are still waiting for that half of the bridge to be put into place. As a result the northern part of the map became “out and back the same way” for the long course competitors. To make this situation even worse, crossing the road and the railway was the only climb on the entire course.
I would like to give a huge thank you to Cheryl Todkill for looking after the registration table and to Viola O’Conner who did a magnificent job on the finish table (on very short notice). Also thanks to Steven Todkill, Josh Blatchford, Steve Roberts, Peter Newton and Damian Welbourne for control collection.
Park3 King Edward Park & Gradings
The last of the park series qualifiers was contested on the beautiful slopes of King Edward Park. Thanks to the two junior Alex's for a fantastic event and a fantatic new map.
Next week is the final so check your grading. Those that haven't qualified can still run but wont have a grade result against their name. See you all at HRH next week.
From organiser/mapper Alex Massey.
I've always wanted to have an Orienteering race in King Edward Park. Every time i would run through, i would eye off control features and even think of legs that would be interesting and fun (i.e. the long leg on the long course!). So when Alex Orr asked if i would like to set a park orienteering event with him i was very keen and the location was decided straight away. Getting carried away with my enthusiasm i agreed to create the brand new map as well! Russell Rigby supplied me with the contours and a satellite image background to work with and i was away. However being a novice to OCAD i struggled and the first months were filled with frustration as i couldn't conquer the required mapping skills. Admittedly i put off the majority of the mapping until February, when i had to put the pedal down and get to it. However i gained confidence and made progress and the map was born.
Alex Orr and I met one day in February and decided on all the control locations and took note of control descriptions, then went away to plan our respective courses (Short course for Alex O and Long Course for Alex M). I had an idea of some legs i wanted to include and i built my course around that. With some help and tips from both Russell Rigby and Geoff Todkill i was able to conquer OCAD and everything was done and dusted, and sent away to be printed just in time.
There were some challenges leading up to the event, the council closed one of the paths near the Rose Garden for resealing which i was worried would affect route choice, but was reopened just in time. The correct boulder at the Bogey Hole was moved and the control had to be placed on the next boulder in the row. Plus i noticed that the map was missing a few minor features, which i realised when it was too late because the maps were already printed. But it didn't seem to affect competitors greatly, something i was worried about. Plus on the day we were missing a table which lead to a little panic and the original start location was invading on the booked out grass for the personal training session, which is why the start location was moved further west then planned.
However despite these set backs the response was generally positive which was pleasing. Most people seemed to enjoy the courses and the map, although many commented that they would prefer less hills! Also some people had trouble adjusting to the 1:3000 scale, something i had expected, but it was needed to show enough detail. Apologies are due however for the dodgy control description at Control 11 on the Long Course, and the circle invading on the bridge causing some confusion. And for some later runners, Control 28 was not on the feature, I think that was moved by the people using the BBQ's and I didn't realise this until control collection.
A massive thankyou to everyone that helped out and everyone that came and attempted to help out, it was much appreciated. I apologise if i have left anyone's name off, but thankyou. I'm looking forward to setting future events, although perhaps on maps that already exist!
Set up: Maria and Peter Orr, Dave Messenger, Mick Kavur, Carolyn Rigby
Registration: Carolyn Rigby, Pam Montgomery, Cheryle Todkill
Start: Maria Orr
Finish: Peter Orr, Alex Massey, Alex Orr
Control Collection: Peter Newton, Malcolm Roberts, Damian Welbourne, Maria Orr, Peter Orr, Alex Massey, Geoff Todkill
Park Final - results/report
From setter Karen Blatchford.....
It was great to be able to set the courses for our final ParkO for 2011. I love this map and find it tricky, especially in the intricate buildings, so I was looking forward to setting some challenging legs. With some construction in the school grounds the need to make careful route choices was most apparent. The long course had a straight line distance of about 4.0 km and most seemed to run around a km further ( about half as far as last year !! haha). The short course was a very busy 2.4 km straight line.
From the start triangle both courses had a mix of short sharp legs with lots of direction changes in the buildings before heading out to the streets and agric paddock. Then the long course had a map change and returned for some more busy building work. With the Finish area in the main quadrangle I had numerous sightings of people running about. Was great.
We had grades based on the last three Park events, and our winners for the 2011 park final were:
- A Grade: Josh Blatchford, with a convincing win over "headcamSteve", and Alex Massey took out third. Malin Andersson was our only female in A grade and had yet another convincing run.
- B Grade: won by Bjorn Mella (great to have him back after some absence during the street season)
- C Grade: won by Carolyn Matthews
- D grade: won by Russell Rigby
- Short Course was won by Luke Robertson who has had some dominating runs over the shorter distance.
Some things worth sharing are:
- A lot of people rushed off at the start and some headed to the finish area looking for the first control.
- Competitors were certainly pleased to only have to visit the street area once!!
- Unfortunately one of the "text descriptions" for the short course had the wrong clue. Luckily the circle was in the right spot and the clue on the map was right. Apologies if people got confused there.
- Steven Roberts had such a late start time it was almost dark before he returned and he found it hard to read the map in some corridors.
- 2010 O'shea champ Peter Berkholz decided to take his new pup for a run. Haha at one stage the pup refused to jump up the ledge to the control and Peter had to lift her up!!!! Although the dog did win, reaching the finish with a bit of a lead over Peter. (note from editor: dogs are not allowed at bush events!)
- Malcolm Roberts just had trouble reading the map full stop!!!! ;)
- Yes Steveo wore a headcam for his run. Can't wait to see this uploaded somewhere.
- Terrific to see competitors make the trip from the Central coast for the event. Thanks Nick and Hilary :)
- Some staff members from HRHS hung around after work and had a run as well. Adam Trace - hope you can come to some bush events with that sort of time.
- Didn't lose any controls, although when I went to collect the one near the motel it had been moved to the motel grounds where a very social BBQ was in progress. As I was searching for it I heard: "It's over here!!! Thought we'd move it cause it could of gotten stolen!!" haha
- A huge thankyou to Russell, Malin and Nicola who worked so hard to get set up before the first 5.00 start time. With school finishing at 3.30 I couldn't have done it without them.
- Also thanks to Sally, Josh, Malcolm, Mick, Cheryle, Alex, Geoff T, Margaret, Arthur, Bob, .... and I'm sorry if I've missed anyone :)
I appreciate everyone's comments following the event. I enjoyed setting but would have enjoyed running as well. I also appreciate the Club giving me the chance to use SportIdent. It was nice to see so many competitors comparing splits at the end and commenting on the joy of not having to punch the squares and write up a control card. I had planned to use software to upload splits but after trying everything, I think we have a brummy master station. Ahh well; next time.
Now for the start of the Bush season. Look forward to seeing everyone at Brush Creek on Saturday.
Cheers, Karen