Thursday, December 24, 2009

Dent in Awesome Form at Balmoral

Australian elite orienteer, Julian Dent, completed a clean sweep of controls last night to post 600 points in 42.31 minutes - 40 points clear of his nearest rival. A fantastic result given the steep nature of the course. Julian is reported to have gone for a 30 minute warm up run before he started, and then jogged off afterwards to warm down! Pork Pie is lost in admiration.

So, event 12 last night had us beginning up the top at Georges Heights - in contrast to previous outings on this map - and without a single control point on the beach. At first glance, course setter Rob 'The Queens Pictures' Spry seemed to be offering a tight bunching that looked too compact, and well under Larry's 'hand print' optimal spread. That was before the penny dropped however, and you noticed the brown contour lines. Lots of upsey/downsey, with any decent score needing at least one significant slog home. As it turned out, most pre race attention was on just how to work a loop and minimise the climb. A very difficult conundrum - as the large crowd (180/190 or so it seems) failing to make quick starts attested.

Rob had used the new bits of the map to good effect, with a tempting 50 point fall to the south before a skirt along this magnificent harbour dress circle via 28 (what a view!) to 13, 12, 20 and some sort of plunge to 'parking meter heaven' and a home route uphill via the west. Many started this way, and were already buggered by #28! Oh dear. There was also some fun here for a few runners trying to find #30 - loosing time in not reading the detail correctly. Others saw a flatter route, beginning west via 1, 14, 27, 11, 21 etc before a northern flog and return. The way back for these nags was then either a circle that took in 23, dropping to 22, 7, 18 and the elevator ride home, or a flatter run via 23, 25, 5 etc. Both had their fans.

The lonely pot looked like #24 at first glance, but in all probability was #10. This would have a complete pain to include for the 'all pots' runners, as it was up high for the 22/7 runners and too low for the 25/5's. Maybe a way was to run 22, in/out 18, back to 7, up to 10 and then on to 25 and 5 (or visa versa). Mmmmm, dodgy stuff for all but the best.

So the, a good roll up, great weather, an intriguing course with lots of options and a fantastic new location. The first 1:5,000 map sprint series race here should be a cracker (January 4). And great to see so many orienteering stars out for a run. Grant Bluett and Shannon Jones (510/500) up from Canberra for Chrissie, as were Julian and Felicity (a great run for 510 from the 'Flicker'). Lets run the bloodshot eye over some of the other runners.

Powering up the Vets, Michael Burton carded an impressive 560, finding #8 where Glenn Horrocks (560 or is that 550) might cop ten here because he couldn't find it (reported a little away from the corner). Glenn, of course, collects all the butterflies, whereas MB dropped #9 and 10 and a couple of minutes. Both still amazing runs. Richard Green was a late starter and may have podiumed, but the perfumed lure of the Beuna had your reporter off before pack up, and the 'Grass' will have to be revealed at results posting time. I'd guess he'd be a 560/570 or so. Something nice and comfortable!

Other impressive results noted by The Piester were; Steve Ryan with 540 (whoo hoo - go the Private!), Mary Fein (MW) in a top outing for 530, Anthony Peterson, Pete 'The Bonfire' Fallows, Tim Rogers and Gill Fowler rolling out 520 (great run from Gill) and Richard Morris powering round for a strong 510. 500 points also had friends, with Michael Free and Tracy enjoying the half K. Lisa Grant was a half head back for 490, in front of Wazza for the Super Vets and Shane Henry (both 480 men), Chris 'Picture' Frane (470), Steve Flick (no pram for a great 460), Peter 'Wyatt Earp' Marshall and Mark Robbo (450's) and some nice tidy 440 yard work from Peter Annetts and Graeme McLeod.

The Prudhoe family were out with the picnic hamper, dad managing to upstage Julia (420/310) with the girls somewhere in between (The 'EP' record posting a tidy 370). Dale Thompson looked to be running better (340), Anne Powell 'Street Cable Car' pocketed 400 in front of Carolyn Haupt's 390. The Doc, Ian Cameron, was below par for 370, whereas Gordy nursed the fetlock round for 450 - and no worse for the experience we hope. In the Legends, Heiko was discombobulated at #14, losing valuable time and letting Ron slip through (390/360). The map at this point was not that well defined with several runners going past the fence corner before twigging. Mal Gledhill took home 350 to keep his LM credentials intact.

Janet Morris will cop the 100 for her 270 point LW run, well in front of Beverly 'Hills' Johnson's modest 90. Bev might have become transfixed by the view at #28 and decided to stay there. I'll certainly be back for another look. In the juniors, 14 year old Rachel Noble ran with the wind for 340 odd, and is looking a worthy successor to sister Deb (390) who is soon off to Spain for a year (but will no doubt still have the odd dreamy moment about the summer series amongst all the tapas, cervesas and hot chocolates). Aidan Dawson posted an impressive 340 in the JM's, with sister Michele going one hurdle better for 350. Young Sammy Rogers was also amongst the pots for 210, ahead of that most impressive group - Siobhan, Anna and Uncle David - with 170. Go Uncle! I should also mention a couple of first timers. Stephanie 'I'm a' Manning belted 320 on debut (and back 5" early!) in MW, with partner D. Stead going a couple better for 340. Excellent stuff from Steph and Mister D.

A couple of others before Pork Pie retires to the members bar. Good to see Mike 'Hula' Hooppell on the paddock (280), Greg 'My' Nibbs 'Broken' going one better for 290 (same as for Lee 'At' Lowe) and Neil Hawthorns daughter Lucy going the nibble for 270. Sue T had the Penguin Classic flapping nicely for 250, but probably will have to be content with silver behind Carol Jacobson in the super vets. Carol is in training for a touch of sandfly (Routeburn Track) and was seen going 'all out' in last nights dash for cash. Finally, the 350 club. Yes this is a worry, with Stuart the bike, Ian '100 years of IBM' Miller and superstar, Michael 'The Corgi' Roylance all taking home this nice well rounded number. Good running boys, 450 next year?

And so Christmas takes hold, and the Christmas 5 Days to many orienteers. For those staying in, Stuart McWilliam has a top course lined up for event 13 at South Turramurra next Wednesday. Expect a bit of bush track work in what will be for many, a new area (not been used for 8/10 years or so). Will be a goodie, and a great way to expunge the Christmas pud overhang!

Finally, a couple of small items about fair play. Please confine warm up running to the immediate start location, avoiding going near, or giving the appearance of going near, any close in control pots. Also, could runners wanting to run in a group or with a partner, but entering individually, consider not running together, or at least not starting together. There Summer Series rules require a distinction between the individual (scored) competition, and the group (non scored) categories. For the sake of fair play, if wanting to run with others, please enter as a group.

That's it for the (almost) first half. Best wishes for Christmas and the holiday period from all involved in the Summer Series. A great second half awaits. Cheers!

3 comments:

Fly on the Wall said...

Hey Rosscoe - might have found the optimum route for plodders.
Okay, there's a big chunk of up and down but it's only 5.6km and yields 420 points.
Pity I didn't see it at the time - and made some nav errors on my course anyway - but 1-14-27-11-21-6-25-10-22-7-18-5-26-3-20-12-13-28-30-19-2 is the go. If you are faster you could add 15-23 and skip 10 for 460 all up. Great course, some tricky pot 'hiding' - and barely a single one with the letters facing you as you approached - sneaky!

Chris and Al said...

Hi Fly on the Wall and Roscoe - you might have already seen it, but there is a variation of optimal path (for all levels, including plodders!) at www.summerseriessolutions.blogspot.com, which has a variation on your route for 420.

Do you use a GPS to get your distances, or plot online afterwards? It would be interesting to know as summer series solutions uses the scale on the map to determine distance and it has come out a bit longer than your proposed course.

Fly on the Wall said...

Thanks Chris and Al, I go to mapmyrun.com afterwards to work out elevation and distance. The 'solutions' website seems to show much more climb than mapmyrun (which would be welcome news to this plodder as it means I;ve done more work than I thought I had). I usually spend an hour each Wed night trying to find a shorter / more lucrative route than the one I had just spent 40 minutes plotting. Still can't believe at Brown's that I started with #5 and not 10-7! And if I hadn't bush bashed to 3 I would have had time for #15 - cd have had 410 sted 380 and into 90% territory for the first time! Too much like golf this SSS - which is why I enjoy it so much.

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