The past couple of years OK has had great summer training camps in the weeks leading up to the relays. I think it helps out from a map-reading perspective at the relays themselves and is also a fun thing to do. This year, if the rumors are to be believed, the relays will be early, in mid-April by NEOC. That means that if we are to hold a training camp before the relays then the planning should be this winter.

It won't escape any OKers attention, I'm sure, that we are talking about the same time of year as the NCAA tournament. That's not a big problem for most cases since we can find a TV, but in the early rounds there are simultaneous games. The proper games might not be televised in the boondocks.

It is nice to have the camp hosted, and is less expensive. We might find a host, but who? Where could the camp be? It might be good to go to Massachusetts to get to the actual terrain, but I don't know of an OKer there, and, as I said, the TV coverage could be inadequate. We would also have to get maps somehow. A Homeland camp is another possibility. There are others too.

I'm sure many OKers are already thinking about the next camp, but there wasn't a whole lot of attention given to it over the last weekend given the high stakes and upcoming Late Night. We do need to think about the camp eventually, however, and the OK Forum might be a place to explore ideas.

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), December 08, 1999

Answers

I think a training camp based in Lawrence/KC would be good. We could use both PTOC and OK maps. March would probably be the best time. PTOC is hosting two local events in March -- a training camp could coincide with one of those events. We'd have to be sure not to conflict with the St Louis A-meet (March 11-12?).

-- Michael Eglinski (meglin@juno.com), December 15, 1999.

I guess a 2000 training camp just wasn't meant to be.

Its absence and OK's failure to organize it will ultimately be judged at the relays. Will we do better without it? That would be interesting food for thought. Much like college basketball teams seem to be judged entirely on how they perform in the post season (where it's one shot and out), club reputations these days seem to hinge on the relay. It's sort of sad in some ways.

-- Mook (everett@psi.edu), April 03, 2000.

I spring training camp just didn't work out. We didn't really have enough time to get the camp organized in a way that lots of people would be able to attend.

Maybe we can set something up for the fall? One possibility would be to get together in the Harriman (New York) area.

-- Michael (mike_eglinski@kcmo.org), April 03, 2000.