I went to the Monkey Mountain meet earlier today. I didn't stay long, but it looked like a pretty good turn-out. The Junior ROTC group from Clinton, MO, was at the meet.

The map is a bit rough. I got confused when I'd get near a control and start seeing things that didn't fit with what I'd expected (usually it was contour detail). I'm not very good at adjusting to maps with rough contours. But, I am getting better at it.

Gary Thompson and I had a very close race on the 5.9 Km red course. I managed to beat Gary by 38 seconds (I'm glad I pushed hard on the last few legs!).

I didn't look at the other courses, but the red course was interesting. Tom H. did the course setting.

The big news was the debut of the first new OK O' suit. Jeannie Walsh's first OK suit arrived yesterday and got its first test today. It performed well. The blue is slightly different that the old suits (better if you ask me).

Jeannie's suits have a couple of modifications. There is a thin white trim along the collar and sleeves. There is also a white stripe on the top that is under the arm (basically the stripe on the leg continues up the top). The club name is embroidered on the back and you can get your name embroidered on the front. The text on the back says -- Orienteer Kansas. The text is white, except for the K which is black and sits on top of a red and white O' marker (much like the old OK logo). Mary and I have been trying to decide if we like the black K or if all white text would look better. (Gary and Dick N. both liked the black-K, I'm favoring all white).

Jeanie also has her business logo (basically a little O' marker) on one of the sleeves. It is a patch, so it can easily be removed. I plan to remove mine.

The suit has a different "look" than the old suits. The baggy pants give the suits a bit more of an X-games/skateboarder/hip-hop-look. Some will probably find this odd. Some will find it cool. Of course, a true OKer will recognize that ANY OK suit is cool.

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), February 12, 2000

Answers

I finally put in my O-suit order. Will people mistake me for Damon with the new X-gen pants (if people ignore the 7 inch waist size difference)? Looking forward to the new look!

-- Mean Gene (gmw@ukans.edu), February 12, 2000.

I've got to go back and find out where the info on ordering was. Pink and blue for me...

But, getting back on track.

I didn't go to Monkey Mountain, opting to represent OK in the Kansas Indoor Rowing Championships. With a mighty effort, I managed third in the senior catagory (40-49) with a time of 6:57.5 over 2000 meters. (To get an idea of the work involved it was an average of 300 Watts -- I couldn't stand without wobbling for the next few minutes.)

I then ran the blue course of Rockcrusher '90, practicing going to an attack point then slowing down into the control. I found that I have quite some difficulty looking at the map whilst running as it seems that whenever I do this, the trees conspire against me and small branches whip into my face (often eliciting an oath of defiance). Also, I noticed that I have a hard time keeping up a good pace in the woods, especially when the route choice had lead me into a 'slow run' area. So I took about 130 minutes for the 7.8K course. There were a couple of features that I just couldn't find and gave up looking for, knowing that I was in the right area. So now I'm up to over 50 controls for 2000. And hey, I set a pretty good course.

-- Fritz Menninger (fpmenninger@hotmail.com), February 13, 2000.

I've got to go back and find out where the info on ordering was. Pink and blue for me...

Found it in the January O'Read...

ORIENTEER KANSAS ORIENTEERING SUITS

We are arranging to order O' suits from Compass Needle. Jeannie Walsh (an orienteer from Up North Orienteers in New Hampshire) runs Compass Needle. Jeannie has made suits for a number of O' clubs.

The suits will be in blue-black-white and have the same design as our last order. The suits will be made out of a supplex-type material.

Each piece (short sleeve top, long sleeve top, or pants) will cost $35. The prices will go up later this spring. So, you can save a few bucks by placing an order soon.

Here is how it will work...Compass Needle will have the OK design on file. Anyone who wants a suit will order directly from CN. To order, you need to send CN a number of measurements. For directions on what measurements to send and where to send your payment, contact Orienteer Kansas' club president, Mary Jones (at maprunner@juno.com).

So I need to write Mary to get the address, eh? OK

-- Fritz Menninger (fpmenninger@hotmail.com), February 13, 2000.

Wow, Fritz, an impressive day of training. The rowing time looks good (I think). Wasn't your goal to get under 7 minutes.

-- Michael (mike_eglinski@kcmo.org), February 13, 2000.

Yes, my goal was sub 7. I was shocked as I'd done little in the way of training on the ergometer I got for Christmas, but I guess the weight workouts helped. According to the 1999 world rankings, I've moved up four places from 234th to 230th in my age category.

-- Fritz Menninger (fpmenninger@hotmail.com), February 14, 2000.