Here are my splits from the SMP Meet today Leg Time Elapsed Avg HR

leg 1 5:44 5:44 167 leg 2 5:19 11:04 176 leg 3 9:42 20:46 176 leg 4 1:30 22:16 172 leg 5 1:52 24:09 172 leg 6 2:29 26:39 173 leg 7&8 8:11 34:50 175 leg 9 5:14 40:05 174 finish 3:42 43:47 176 43:47 total, avg hr 174, max hr 182. I made a mistake and missed the huge reentrant that 1 was in and ran about 50 meters in the wrong direction (1min). I took the trail way around to 2 because I didn't feel like running in the crappy woods. (45s-1min). To 3 I ran down to the lake and along the lake which was slow going instead of staying on the trail and cutting up to the road (1min). To 4 came out to the right when I should have gone straight (15secs). To 5 ran right by it and went down the ditch a little ways (45s-1min). Then no problems with the rest of the course.

-- Snorkel (danielmeenehan@aol.com), October 07, 2000

Answers

A meet report from Mark Roodhouse (meet director) arrived in my email box. By publishing the report here on the OK forum, I figure we've scooped the Possum's Tale. I didn't include the results, but here are the "notes and quotes"

"while concentrating on my map I tripped and found myself to be at the fence remnant I was looking for"

Dan Meenehan missed Michael Eglinski's pace by 88 seconds on the red course. As a matter of fact you would have to go down to the yellow level to find the only lower time than Michaels. It was logged in by a new speedster Kevin Paladino, who after his first ever orienteering course went out again and took first place at the orange level also.

Mary Jones had over a ten minute lead on some serious competition at the Green level.

We missed one person at check in and a call to there home found them to be back safely.

Nick Hockerman our course setter ran across a bit of a puzzle while setting out the control bags. Someone or some group had set out orienteering bags in the same areas we were using. They were new bags and had numerical designations. Some even shared control features with our bags. We never did figure out who's they were by the close of the meet. If anyone solves the mystery let the rest of us know.

The open area on the northeastern section of the park hosted a high school cross country meet that started about the same time as our meet. Shawnee Mission North West High School had a big group of ROTC people running orienteering courses that Nick set up especially for there program.

Thanks go to Kevin Shipley and Nick Hockerman for all the work they put into the meet to make it such a success. We are also grateful that Harry Rice (Our Webmaster) had such good news about his surgery last week.

Dick Luckerman is setting the course for the Laundal meet in a couple of weeks. This is only the second time we have had a meet in this park.

See you in the woods.

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), October 09, 2000.

I scanned the red course map. Take a look:

http://www.geocities.com/okansas.geo/smpred.html

The file is pretty big (about 159K, I think).

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), October 10, 2000.

I finally got around to downloading my split times. So, here goes...I'll follow Snorkel's format (leg, split time, total elapsed time, average h.r.)

1. 5:35, 5:35, 159.

2. 4:49, 10:24, 160. I was a bit sloppy on this leg. I went straight (Dan ran a long way around on a trail). But, I drifted around a bit and was hesitant. Then, I was unsure at the ring. The marker was further down the reentrant than I'd expected -- I might have mis-drawn the control circle.

3. 8:38, 19:02, 166. Going through the "off leash dog area" was a bit scary (my fear of dogs, you know). I slowed down a bit in the dog area and was looking around to see if there were any vicious beasts charging at me. By three I was about 1:45 ahead of Snorkel.

4. 1:25, 20:27, 167.

5. 1:49, 22:16, 167. The marker was hard to see -- it was low in an area of waist high brush.

6. 2:40, 24:55, 166. Snorkel beat me by ten seconds on this leg. This was another control that was a bit hard to see and unpleasant to get to.

7. 1:45, 26:40, 163. Something strange is going on in the control circle for this marker. I ran right by the marker -- but then saw it behind me. As I left seven, I looked for the ditch bend, but I didn't see it. I'll have to go back there sometime and see what's up.

8. 6:11, 32:51, 171. A road running leg. My h.r. is a bit higher than on other legs. I probably pushed myself a bit more because there was another orienteer ahead of me on the leg. I caught and passed him in the first quarter of the leg.

9. 5:49, 38:40, 168. The stream at the control was a bit deeper than I felt like crossing. So, I looked around and found a place I could cross without getting the water over my ankles. Dan smoked my on this leg -- he had 5:14.

Finish 3:38, 42:18, 169. I just tried to hold a steady pace to the finish.

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), October 10, 2000.

Something strange is going on in the control circle for this marker.

I ran at SMP tonight and took a look at the area around the seventh control. The map shows a small stream. I couldn't find it (certainly not as far up on the hill as is shown). The map also shows a sharp bend in the small ditch. I didn't see the bend. But, I did see the ditch. I didn't spend much time in the area. So, I'm not exactly sure what is going on in the circle. But, I'm sure the map is a bit out-of-date and/or rough at that spot.

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