Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Call for nominations for top US orienteer!

Orienteering USA Competitive Awards

The newly-established Orienteering USA Annual Competitive Awards Program is looking for nominations! The Program’s goals are to recognize and reward outstanding competitive accomplishments by US orienteers at the end of every year.

The Program has created a subcommittee that will solicit nominations from Orienteering USA membership for several different awards, listed below and will select a deserving winner of each award by the end of the year. The winners will be announced and receive prizes. Commemorative plaques will be awarded to the winners at a public ceremony at a major US orienteering event.

The awards are:

(a) Orienteer of the Year is awarded to the best USA orienteer in 2010, based on results at national and international events.


(b) Junior Orienteer of the Year is awarded to the best USA orienteer no older than 20 in 2010, based on results at national and international events.


(c) Comet of the Year is awarded to the most improved USA orienteer in 2010, based on results at national and international events.


(d) Orienteering Team of the Year is awarded to the best USA national or club orienteering team in 2010, based on results at national and international events.

Eligibility rules:

To be awarded any of the individual awards a nominee has to be a USA citizen and must be a member of Orienteering USA in good standing during the current calendar year. Additionally, for the Junior Orienteer of the Year award, the nominee must be no older than 20 at the end of 2010. To be selected to the Orienteering Team of the Year award, all team members have to be Orienteering USA members and represent the US or an Orienteering USA member club in competition.
Competitors in any forms of orienteering are eligible, including Foot-O, Ski-O, Mt.Bike-O, Trail-O, and ROGAINE.


The subcommittee making final selections from among those who were nominated consists of:
Michael Eglinski (former US Team member, widely-read orienteering blogger),
Peter Gagarin (former US Team member, coach, ESC chairman),
Boris Granovskiy (US team member, frequent US JWOC team leader),
Linda Kohn (ESC chairwoman, former US Team member),

Peter Goodwin (Orienteering USA VP Competition), committee chair.

Please send nominations (due December 22nd) for any or all of the awards, along with a brief discussion of why the nominee deserves to win, to the subcommittee chair, presently Peter Goodwin at pgwolfe66 at gmail.com.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Samantha Saeger and Ross Smith win Classic Champs!

Samantha Saeger and Ross Smith dominated the Classic Champs this weekend, both winning decisively on Saturday and Sunday. Final two-day results are here, top three men and women:

Women:
Samantha Saeger
Alison Crocker
Pavlina Brautigam

Men:
Ross Smith
Sergei Zhyk
William Hawkins

Congratulations to all the medalists!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Classic Champs Day 1: Sam and Ross in the lead

This weekend is the US Classic Champs at Moreau Lake State Park, New York. The terrain is glacial and fantastic and the weather has held up, despite early predictions of rain.

The Classic Champs is a two-day combined time event, so the winner will not be determined until tomorrow. Leading the women after the first day is Samantha Saeger, who ran the 6.8km in about 62 minutes, with Ali Crocker just 2.5 minutes back. The men's course was dominated by Ross Smith, who ran the 9.6km course in just under 69 minutes. Sergei Zhyk was just over 3 minutes behind.


Sunday, August 8, 2010

WOC Sprint Qualifiers

WOC 2010 got off to a great start for the US women, with Samantha Saeger and Alison Crocker taking places in this afternoon's sprint final after great races in the morning's qualifier. Samantha was 14th in her heat and had to push hard in the end to qualify - she had the fastest time in her heat from the pre-warning to the finish and made the final with just 4 seconds to spare! Alison made the final in her first WOC race ever, coming 13th in her heat. Sandra Zurcher also had a solid race and finished just three places outside the final.

The maps from the sprint qualifying races are available here.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Interview with Keith after the Long

Wicked tough long at JWOC...

The US Juniors all survived a very tough Long distance race yesterday at Svinkløv. The terrain was more or less what we expected - very thick, with lots of trails and lots of small contour details. Throw in some brutal climbs and you get a tough course! Top US runners for the day were Greg Ahlswede and Alison Campbell:

Women:
1. Ida Bobach (Denmark) 1:01:55
91. Alison Campbell (USA) 1:38:21
97. Holly Kuestner (USA) 1:42:39
102. Hannah Burgess (USA) 1:46:40

Men:
1. Pavel Kubat (Czech Republic) 1:18:48
92. Greg Ahlswede (USA) 1:46:56
109. Andrew Childs (USA) 1:54:59
114. Nate Lyons (USA) 1:57:02
115. John Williams (USA) 1:57:02
128. Keith Andersen (USA) 2:04:03
132. Carl Underwood (USA) 2:08:11

Full results here, and a map of the men's course (with top-3 routes) below:

Monday, July 5, 2010

Bjorn in the USA



For the first time since 1982, the Bjorn Kjellstrom Cup is heading south to the US from the North American Championships. The Cup is a trophy that is awarded to the more successful nation at the bi-annual North American Champs, this year held in Cranbook, British Columbia. After three days of hotly contested battles, the USA came out on top by a score of 327-301.

The scoring is calculated by using the three best placings from each country in each of the three races, middle, long, and sprint. First place gets 25 points, second 22, then 19-16-13-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. The scorers for team USA were Samantha Saeger, Sandra Zurcher, Ali Crocker, Angelica Riley, Kat Orekhova, Jonas Kjall, Eric Bone, Ross Smith, and Boris Granovskiy.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Conquering the land of the Vikings

The JWOC team has been working hard to learn how to orienteer in the unique terrain of North Jutland. The middle and long take place near the coast and have many areas of intricate dune contours.

This map is from Vester Torup, about 60km from Aalborg and relevant to both the middle and long. The team trained here on Tuesday and Thursday, and the course you see here is a practice middle run by the women on Thursday - the men ran a few extra controls to the north. The terrain is quite physical, and often it is quite slow to run off the trails, though even the trails can be slow if sandy!

Here's Andrew on the way to the first control, showing us how it's done. This is what much of the open terrain looks like. The wooded terrain varies from moderately thick forest to very thick forest and to extremely thick forest with cuttings all over the ground.


Everyone has learned a lot running in the training areas and all are starting to get really excited for the sprint on Monday. Greg really wants you to know how excited he his:


Stay tuned for more updates from Aalborg!

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

JWOC team training in Aalborg!



Okay USA orienteering fans, here's your first update from Aalborg, site of the 2010 Junior World Orienteering Championships. It'll be quick because we're all tired from a long day of training today at Vester Torup.

The entire team of 6 men and 3 women has been here in Aalborg since Sunday evening, moving into our accommodations in the Aalborg barracks on Monday. It's a bit tight with all 12 of us (runners + 3 coaches) in one room, but it's a great bonding experience. We had our first training on Monday afternoon on a map of terrain that is adjacent to the barracks and quite convenient, though not the most relevant for JWOC this year. On Tuesday we headed out to a relay relevant area, and of course today on a middle/long area. The terrain is interesting and unlike what most of us have experience with back home, which makes for a great training experience and hopefully some interesting racing!

That's it for today, short update. Tomorrow is a rest day for the training week and the opening ceremony is on Sunday afternoon, but stay tuned for more updates before then!

Monday, May 17, 2010

Team for WOC 2010!

The Team Trials were held this past weekend at Harriman State Park in New York, and as a result the following were named to represent the USA at the World Championships in Trondheim, Norway, in August:

Women
Samantha Saeger, New England OC
Alison Crocker, Cambridge Sports Union
Erin Nielsen, Up North Orienteers
Pavlina Brautigam, Western Connecticut OC
Sandra Zürcher, Up North Orienteers

Cristina Luis, Tucson OC, 1st alternate
Kat Orekhova, Cambridge Sports Union, 2nd alternate

Men
Ross Smith, Cambridge Sports Union
Eric Bone, Cascade OC
Boris Granovskiy, Cambridge Sports Union (declined)
Ken Walker, Cambridge Sports Union (declined)
Eddie Bergeron, Susquahanna Valley Orienteering
Wyatt Riley, Delaware Valley OA (declined)
Nikolay Nachev, Cascade OC
Matt Scott, Delaware Valley OA

Jordan Laughlin, US Military Academy OC, 1st alternate
Clem McGrath, Delaware Valley OA, 2nd alternate

Cristina Luis will serve as Team Leader.

This will be the first World Championships for Alison, Nikolay, and Matt.

Many thanks are due to the small but highly skilled group of organizers of the Trials, especially event director Vadim Masalkov, course setters Greg Balter and Sergei Zhyk, and e-punch guru Sandy Fillebrown. The event was sponsored by the Delaware Valley Orienteering Association and Amino Vital.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

US Team to WUOC Announced!

From Linda Kohn:

I am very proud to announce the selection of the World University Orienteering Championships Team to go to Borlänge, Sweden in July:

Men
Leif Anderson, RMOC
Nick Lewis-Walls, USMAOC (declined)
John Hensley-Williams, GAOC
Brendan Shields, CSU
Keith Andersen, USMAOC
Jordan Laughlin, USMAOC
Kevin Culberg (alt.) USMAOC

Women
Hannah Burgess, USMAOC
Holly Kuestner, BOK
Tori Borish, COC
Alison Campbell, DVOA
Lori Huberman (1st alt.) BOK
Siobhan Fleming (2nd alt.) NEOC

I hope that you will support the WUOC team as they prepare for the Championships. We have a start in raising the $7000 needed to pay entry/room/board expenses (athletes pay their own airfare) thanks to the generousity of BOK who donated the procedes from the Sycamore Scramble to the team. We still have a ways to go!

Moral support is as important as financial so please be encouraging to our athletes as they continue to prepare to represent the US at WUOC.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Chase The Sun Trail Run




On January 23, the small contingent of US Team members currently in Tucson, AZ for a winter training camp organized a trail run to benefit the Team. The run took place just before sunset at Ironwood, the site of a Tucson Orienteering Club event earlier in the day, and was called the Chase The Sun Trail Run.

Eric Bone designed and marked the course for the small, but enthusiastic group of 13 runners who showed up at the start line. The race went well, and the competitors appeared to enjoy the race, as well as the snacks and hot chocolate available at the finish.

We are hoping to make this race an annual fundraiser for the US Team, and hope that the positive reports from the race (here and here) help draw a bigger crowd next year!


Eric Bone giving the pre-race instructions


Just before the finish


Paul, the race winner


Kristen, the first woman


Chia-Chi is clearly enjoying the race


Everyone is having a good time!


The best part of a trail race: the snacks and chatting afterwards!


Saguaro at sunset

Monday, January 18, 2010

Western Regional Ultimate String-O Champs

This past weekend, US Team members organized a creative fundraiser at the event at Anza-Borrego State Park near San Diego, CA. We would like to present to you the Western Regional Ultimate String-O Championships:

Approximately 40 gutsy orienteering runners came out to challenge Marc Lauenstein and Daniel Hubmann in the Sonoran Desert Ultimate String-O Championships. The demanding .176km, 20 control course had a grueling 4m of climb and an exciting variety of terrain. Top runs of the day:

Daniel Hubmann (SUI): 49s (5th attempt)
Jonas Kjall (SWE): 54s (2nd attempt)
Marc Lauenstein (SUI): 55s (3rd attempt)
Raffael Huber (SUI): 55s (1st attempt)
Eric Bone (USA): 58s (2nd attempt)
Mark Everett (USA): 59s (1st attempt)
Greg Walker (USA): 59s (2nd attempt)
Highlights from the Ultimate String-O event at Anza-Borrego.

A promising Junior-Junior by the name of Beau wowed spectators with his determination and punching ability on all four of his sub-2:00 runs. Fans were also impressed by the smooth punching and speed of multiple World Champion Daniel "Punchmaster" Hubmann. But the style points go to Marc "Flashpants" Lauenstein, whose triple muntz jump over a particularly large creosote bush drew gasps from the crowd.

Competitors and spectators alike all agree that Ultimate String-O is here to stay.


Jonas Kjäll


Greg "Biggins" Walker


Eric Bone - fastest North American


"Flashpants"


Beau!


Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Course Analysis: Wyatt Riley at Camp Horseshoe

It's time for our weekly (sort-of) course analysis, and this week we have a write-up by Wyatt Riley from Delaware Valley Orienteering Association (DVOA)'s local race on December 6, 2009 at Horseshoe Camp. Follow along as Wyatt does his best to try to capture DVOA's annual rankings crown at the final race of the season.

Here is Wyatt:


The race map is available on RouteGadget: http://www.dvoa.org/cgi/gadget/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=102&kieli=en
Select the Red course to see the course without any routes, and then choose "Wyatt Riley" and click "View routes" to see what Wyatt did.
The splits from this race are available here.

S-1:
Before the race: - I was well behind Clem in the DVOA rankings, but not impossibly out of reach - theoretically a 115 point run - 16% faster than my average run relative to the rest of the field - could have gotten me past Clem, to take the 2009 DVOA Ranking Championships. This was also my first orienteering race since a foot injury at the US Champs - I had been running road races on the foot, and had tried some terrain, so I was hoping it would handle the run. An Active Ankle was added protection. And with an attitude that I needed a perfect run, I set off. See http://www.dvoa.org/cgi/gadget/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=102&kieli=en Upon flipping the map over, I saw that the control was through the 'maze' of trails and briar that I had seen on the map before, and talked to Vadim & Angelica about - I had never been there though. I aimed in the general direction and followed the paths of least resistance - keeping track of where I was going, and how far off the compass bearing I was leaning, and I eventually corrected back to the left, through a bit too much briar, whereupon I read the map enough to see I could get to a trail, then take that basically the rest of the way. Looked for the reentrant with respect to a small building or two, and knew I had the end of the hill and pool behind it as solid catching and relocation features so didn't slow down. Angelica found a better route out of the start going first left, then basically straight down a trail and won this split - ahead of both Clem & I.

1-2: A whole bunch of green on the line, and left around was the only real option, so I did that, with a bit of trail up front, the roughly following the edge of the green and the base of the hill, and looking for the relatively large reentrant to cross then look for the bag. Clem really flew on this - perhaps I was slowish along the edge of the green?

2-3: Decided that around left looked reasonable, and a lot easier than finding a way through the trails and briar on any straighter route. Exit climbed a bit to cut the corner - too far to try to avoid the climb. Read ahead on the flat along the water to note the various ditches, and the unique north pointing one to use as references on the way into the control, intentionally going in a bit high along the indistinct trail, partly to be sure, and partly because of unmapped veg. thickness. Clem again was quite fast - perhaps I could have run more aggressive, esp. in the flats - it was bumpy and perhaps I was being cautious due to the foot?

3-4: Followed the obvious exit route through the green to the large trail, then contoured in from there, intentionally doing the needed climb earlier to be closer to the building reference points.

4-5: Could have contoured, but didn't want to risk more green than necessary, so the hard bail up to the road, then fast road run was the way to go. Used tower on right to just distance on road, saw reentrant, and went in a bit late as the veg looked a bit better.

5-6: Bailed to the road, then pushed hard up the road. Decided to attack from the road as it began to curve, hard across spur, then contour in. Looking now, I probably could have used the power pole on the other side of the road as a more specific attack point, for a straighter attack in, while would've saved 5+ seconds.

6-7: Bailing to the road works, as the road is fast vs. the forest here. Trail crossing made for easy attack.

7-8: After some road running - where I knew I wasn't going to beat people by enough to get 115 points, I tried to push this one hard too on a bearing, but was too vague on the bearing, missing the large trail somehow and then turning left because I was getting too far. Suspected (correctly) that I was in the forest 'spur' - the veg being vague enough that the suspicious wasn't totally confident. Green near the end was bad to had to drop south, and wasn't super confident as I kept going east and eventually saw the bag as I turned the corner.

8-9: West to aim for the slot, which didn't exist, but fortunately I'd come in quite near there so backed out w/o too much loss.

9-10: Diagonal down - not super fast as it wasn't smooth enough, then a hard push across and up the hill, aiming for 'near the top of the spur' from where I'd contour in.

10-11: Considered going left to avoid the potentially green forest, but the attack from there was terrible, so straight in it was. Mostly rough compass and then contouring to the sharper spur, then rough direction down in and nailed it. Clem appparenetly nailed it too with exactly the same plan. Odd, as it would seem that plan might more easily miss by 10's of meters...

11-12: Running in medium green didn't seem like a fun option, and the L option seems like neutral on climb/distance vs. curving R, but with much more certainty, so L it was. Attack was easy past the pile of rocks.

12-13: Straight, using hill-slope and fence.

13-14: Contouring straight, climbing when needed to get around thick stuff in order to ascend the needed contour. Adjusted elevation of contouring based on wall bend.

14-15: Strongly considering diagonaling down the hill to the ruin and running back up the road, but the green near 11 hadn't been that bad, and the terrain was bumpy enough that I wouldn't get that much value out of the somewhat steep drop down to the ruin, vs. a more gentle contour/slight-drop toward the green. Keep my eyes scouting ahead, and managed to find a way through the clumpy green that wasn't too bad, only costing a bit of climb at the end to get around some thick stuff.

15-16: Decided to climb on the dirt road for better footing. Road was badly gouged and rocky, but I could still place my feet on solid rocks with almost every step, ensuring little loss of effort. Looked out toward the spur, and realized I'd need to contour in early to avoid the deeper part of the ditch, so did so then climbed.

16-17: Even the non-rocky slopes weren't esp. great downhill, so the left option was looking bad. Right wasn't good either, due to the 4 contours of climb you weren't going to get back, but that seemed the lesser of two evils, so right it was. Keeping in the relative flats away from the steep slope was useful for better footing, and the descent was reasonably fast. I had just passed Angelica (and apparently Alison too) at 16, so was pushing up the hill. Angelica was quick though, and a little hesitation checking my elevation as I went around the spur toward 17 was all it took for her to reel me back in a bit.

17-18: Pretty straight. Seemed to go over a slightly broader spur than the map suggest, but the compass was good, and eventually the hill pointed down. Note that some e-punch units between 13 and 18 probably weren't perfectly synced, as the splits in here don't make that much sense.

18-19: Hard as I could diagonal down to the road - bumpy but running aggressively as I knew I was near the end. Really hammered the road once I got there. And yet I was third on this split, behind Clem in 2nd, and Angelica (chasing me) in 1st...

19-20: Hammered down the road knowing there was nothing but physical effort needed here to get me a few more points, and to possible break 50... Eventually noticed that the end of the leg would require some eyes-open as the drop from the road to the field started quite steep, was much thornier than mapped.

20-21: Used the white & yellow - pretty pattern here... Ran straight to the pole, and was about to be alarmed at no bag on it when I was surprised to see the bag in the ditch to the side - oh.

21-22: One final hard climb as the possibility of sub 50 was hearilty destroyed by a bit of thick at the beginning, but mostly by the 35m of climb in this 'finish chute'. Navigated first perpendicular to contours, then along the paved road, which was good, because some buildings had changed, which threw off Clem. Overall, I was actually surprised to learn after I finished that Clem had shown up, and pleasantly surprised that I had nipped him by 2 minutes on the day. It wasn't quite enough however, so the DVOA rankings cup http://www.dvoa.org/rank/show_champs.php will go to Clem for 2009. For 2010, we'll both have our hands full, as Angelica & Karen have imported an apparently fast Swedish couple into our neighborhood...

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Course Analysis: Boris Granovskiy at Tiomila

Happy New Year to all US Team fans!
This week's course review brings us back to spring 2008 and Tiomila, the legendary Swedish 10-person relay, which was held next to the Rosersberg Castle north of Stockholm. Boris ran the 4th leg, the famous "Long Night" leg, for Team CSU (Cambridge Sports Union), the first ever North American team to race Tiomila.

Boris:
The weather this week-end was very un-Tiomila-like: 15-20C during the day and well above freezing even at night. We watched the women's relay in the afternoon, getting to cheer for Sandra Zurcher as she ran away from Simone Niggli on her leg.
After Ross Smith's start on leg 1 I went back to the military tent and crawled into my sleeping bag outside under the stars, relaxing and listening to the reports from the forest. I dozed off for about the half-hour it took the leaders to get from the spectator control to the finish, and that was all the sleep I got.
After Ross and Matthias Mahr ran the first two legs, Brendan Shields did a solid job in his first-ever Swedish orienteering experience and exchanged to me in 293rd place and 88 minutes behind the lead, just a couple of minutes behind Jesus Orienteering Klubb from England's Oxford University, catching which became my first goal.
Somehow, right from the start of my Long Night, I felt great. My legs felt light, and it took very little effort to focus on the orienteering. The constant pain in my glute was the only reminder of my less-than-impressive orienteering season 2008. The brand-new lamp battery I bought two weeks ago gave me confidence that I wouldn't run out of light, but I turned it to low power on all the trail and road sections anyway.

Here is the map with just the course:



And here it is with the routes:
[On this map, Boris' routes are marked in red, and the alternatives he considered in magenta.]



S-1: Leaving the start triangle, I saw a bunch of lamps heading left across the field, taking the around route choice on trails. I went right instead, running by myself, and stuck closer to the line, taking the small trail north from the first aid station. There was a moment of self-doubt when I cut into the green forest heading to the northwest and towards he control, but that was replaced with a boost of confidence when I saw the reflector and JOK's Ian Cumpstey punching just ahead of me. In retrospect, this was a pretty risky approach, with no clear attackpoint in the night, but I had done a lot of night training that winter, and this was practically home terrain for me, so I was confident.


1-2: On the looong leg to 2, I didn't really see any route choice and went pretty straight. I felt like I needed to break this leg up into shorter pieces, and my first goal was to hit the road near the aid station, which I did almost perfectly. The next aim was to hit the second road at the bend, where the trail comes off to the NE. I just missed it, but checked the direction of the road and knew I was off to the right. I then drifted off line trying to catch the road to the southwest of 2, but recovered fairly quickly, knowing that I just needed to run hard to the road and not attempt to relocate in the vague flat woods.

2-3: Careful here, still all alone. Over the top of the hill to be safe, past the obvious cairn, and down.

3-4: Aimed a bit left to hit the top of the small ridge and then followed it down to the control.

4-5: Saw the two route choices to 5 and went left, on the roads and trails, rather than risking going through the fields to the north that could, for all I knew, contain waist-high grass. [From talking to other runners later and looking at splits, it turned out that the field route would have been at least a minute faster!] Passed one more guy shortly after getting on the road, but was then alone in complete darkness, just running along and enjoying the feeling. As I was contouring along from the trail towards 5, I suddenly looked right and saw a sea of lamps (10-15 of them) coming in from my right. Wasn't sure if I caught them or they me (probably the former), but it didn't matter.

5-6: I decided to shake them. Saw that they went more-or-less straight to 6, contouring along the steep slope, and so I took off on the trail route around, through the small field on top of the hill. I liked the road approach to the control and did not want to contour. A couple of guys went with me. Spiked 6 and saw the group of lamps coming in as we were on the way out. Excellent. Very happy with this leg.

6-7: Another route choice to 7: northern road past the shooting ranges or southern one with the indistinct trail as an attack. The guys I was with tried to convince me (in Norwegian!) to go south. I went north, not wanting to risk the indistinct trail not being there, and never saw them again. All alone the whole way to 7, through the empty spooky shooting ranges and along the hillside. Hit the long nose north of the circle, then climbed up to the top of the ridge to be sure of dropping down at the right spot.

7-8: Careful again on the short legs to 8-11, not losing any time, but hitting my knee hard on a rock on the way to 8 and having to walk for a bit. Annoying. Climbed the hill, which loomed gigantic out of the darkness, and aimed a bit left to make sure to hit the ridge leading me right to the control. (My thinking this whole night was to make my targets bigger - instead of aiming for a single feature with the control on it, I tried finding bigger or longer features that would lead me right to the flag, like the ridge here.)

8-9: Back up again, then down, keep the smaller hill to my left, then climb up, over the top again to be sure, and drop down.

9-10: Again wanted to stay high here, so left the control aiming a bit left to make sure I hit the hill. Up and down over the first three hilltops, then to the top of the third one.

10-11: Flying down the ridge. Almost got distracted by a control on a rock to my right, but checked the map and saw the clear spur I should be following. No problem.

11-12: Feeling great running through the meadow down to 12, trampling the occasional flower and spiking another control.

12-13-14-15: Just running, listening to the announcers and admiring the masses of lamps running in and out of the exchange area.

15-16: Finally, climbing the hill on the way to 16, I realized I was very tired. Lost focus twice on this leg and drifted north of the line for a total of nearly 2 minutes lost. I definitely did not have a plan for this leg and paid for it. Stopped when I found the control and regrouped, forcing myself to concentrate harder in this tricky area - would be a shame to ruin a good race towards the end!

16-17: Orienteered well to 17, but moving slowly, and staying with a small pack of a couple of guys I caught. A pretty easy leg: run down the indistinct trail, cut SW toward the steep hill, run around the hill, and attack into the group of small knolls on the other side.

17-18: Skirting the top of the big reentrant and trying not to drop down too low. Spotted the reflector from above.

18-19: Slow climb back up the hill, cursing the course setters for the unnecessary leg.

19-20: Picked a route that avoided climb, but did not have a safe attack - another sign that I was rapidly fading. Managed to contour ok, but was definitely relieved to find the flag.

20-21: Screwed up 21, going too far right and not being sure of myself. Relocated on the trail. About 50 seconds gone.

21-22: Went past the building and was momentarily confused by the steep earth bank / reentrant in front of me, which I had not seen on the map.

22-23: From there, all that was left was to slog along through the mud down to 23 and then leave it all on the run-in. As I was finishing, I realized that it was starting to get light.

I had been out for 114 minutes and exchanged to Greg Walker in 254th place. I was very happy with my run, even though my time was not particularly impressive (177th on my leg is nothing to write home about.) Still, I survived, orienteered well and ran mostly by myself. More importantly, I had a blast - long night at Tiomila truly is something special, and I am really thankful to CSU for giving me the opportunity to run it!