Spring Has Returned to Deer Grove
May 2, 2004
Spring is finally here!! What a beautiful day in the woods—we
can take this kind of rain at any event during the year (the forecast
was calling for fairly nasty weather).
We had as usual a great turnout
to the Deer Grove area with more than 300 people starting on the
five courses.
We had an abnormal high percentage of DNF and MSP
for the orange/green/red courses. The Deer Grove area is a technically
challenging area
and there were several people that were struggling with the more
difficult level of orienteering offered. For future events, do
review the course setters' recommendations to get the most
enjoyment out of your day!
Our green and red courses had a special map where all the paths,
streams and marshes where omitted so the runners were forced to
use the contour lines as their main orienteering feature. We definitely
had several people struggling a bit with the concept—but
the most amazing story was probably our new Finnish addition to
the club.
Petro Ketola moved into the Chicago area about a month
ago and Deer Grove was his first orienteering meet on this side
of the pond. Being new to the CAOC meets, he did not pay too much
attention to the written guide lines and did not understand that
the paths, streams and marshes were deliberately removed as a technique
training—he just thought our map pretty much sucked and
decided quickly to just rely on his ability to read the contours.
And he did this very proficiently—running the 4.7 km course in
an impressing 42 minutes – ten minutes ahead of the next
competitor!! We all better watch out for this guy in the future…
The red course winner Michael Elgin ran the 6.8 km challenging
course in 55 minutes—which gives just above 8 minutes/km
with less than a minute ahead of Kevin Teschendorf who has recovered
nicely from all his hard work at the A-meet last weekend.
We would also like to thank everyone for helping out during the
event and making it a success. Kyle, Bob, Lisa, Rich at registration,
Jim at beginners clinic, Marie at start, Chuck at finish, and
(last
but not least) Victor, Charlie, and Rob for picking up controls.
Thanks for coming out!
Kathy Bullard and Carl Larsson
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