Tio-Mila (Men)

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The race should be starting in about 17 minutes, if I have the time difference figured out right.

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), April 27, 2002

Answers

Very early bad news for the (notional) OK team--Snorkel ingested too many chocolate rocks in too short a time, and had to be air-lifted from the Race Venue to have his snoofus pumped. Wow! What a tough break for the pre-race favorites!

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), April 27, 2002.

It looks like something has gone wrong with the internet connection to Tio-Mila and the web site is acting very funky.

From another report I read, the EMIT system ran into problems as soon as the first race (for youth) got underway, something about mis- registered EMIT cards and some problem with reading the bar-coded maps. And from that point on, it has been utter chaos in the behind- the-scenes Results area. Good thing it's a relay, where the only thing that really matters is that you record the order of the runners as they finish.

You would think by now that folks would realize that if you're trying to do something big and important--and in the O' world, if 10-Mila isn't important, nothing is--you don't do "first use" technology! I can't tell if the problems are stemming from the ELWIS stuff or it's a problem in the way the basic EMIT system itself, but if in fact it was from the ELWIS, it's their own fault. What they had was a Beta version, and even if that implies a lot of testing and that the functionality is pretty good, it's no great surprise that when it *had* to work, it crashed and burned.

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), April 27, 2002.


It still looks like something bad has happened with the internet connection to 10-Mila.

But anyway, some reports are still getting out, probably by mobile phone. The first leg has gone out into the night, with about 350 teams lined up. If I understand it right, it's not just dark, but *really* dark, because it's raining. There were 10 teams in the lead at the first radio, including Baekkalaget and Halden. But I don't know what other teams were up with the leading group.

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), April 27, 2002.


They say it's getting muddy around the race venue, but nothing like the 1981 10-Mila; the race that year is nicknamed Mud-Mila, and around the Finish area it was just a sea of mud. From some of the Finish areas I've seen, it must have been really bad.

A Finish team--Raisti Saimaa--was leading the group at the first radio. America gets accused of hogging all the world's oil consumption. But that's nothing compared to what the Finnish language does with vowels. A good Finnish word probably has about 45 or 53 vowels in it.

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), April 27, 2002.


Well, it could only happen in Sweden. A moose got scared up and ran through the generator area providing the juice to the web servers, and knocked out the entire operation. So, they eventually had to shoot the moose, and then when they got the power and lights back up, they saw there had been *two* moose, and that the other one had busted the T-1 landline. They have a satellite transmitter/receiver in reserve (they weren't counting on the moose, but they thought something could happen), but it has to be connected in to the system, and it's raining real hard now, plus it's cold and muddy, and none of the organizers want to be the one to go outside and make the connections....Who can blame them!

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), April 27, 2002.


One of the Swedish pre-race favorites, IFK Goteborg (that's the club that James Scarborough has run with) was already 15 minutes behind at the radio. They say that already lots of teams have had some big mistakes. Ahhhh, the Night!

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), April 27, 2002.

Hey, I just was able to get connected back up to the 10-Mila sound! Yeah! 14:47 Laramie Time. They're getting a report from a radio; I can't tell if they're waiting for the lead or if teams have already passed, but it sounds like they're talking softly in the forest so that runners can't hear them....right now they're saying they can't see anything at all.

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), April 27, 2002.

The first leg has a very tricky last section they're saying...14:49 LT...I think they're still waiting for the first teams at the 2nd radio...they can't see even a glimmer...wait...no...14:50..they're saying it's rather flat terrain there, and easy to run right by the control because there's not much to see...now they're 3 minutes past the course setter's calculated time for teams to show up at this radio control...14:52..they're saying it's dead silent, they can't hear a thing

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), April 27, 2002.

Back at the Finish they're saying it's *really, really* tricky out there in the night because of the flat nature of a lot of the terrain...still waiting in the forest...wait, now they're seeing a faint light...14:54...now they can see lights in the distance...they're talking more softly again...

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), April 27, 2002.

There aren't many lights...14:54.30...2 teams, 3 teams on the way in, looking for the control, it's very hard to find the control, ...they've punched, Baekkalaget and Sundsvall are in the lead together, and there isn't a 3rd team...14:56...now they're saying another team is there, nope a few other teams--they're just giving the team numbers not the names, wait, IKHP, and they said a big group is on the way in...

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), April 27, 2002.


Now it's just a string of teams punching, no way to keep up!

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), April 27, 2002.

There were 3 teams together in the lead, and the other team they missed was Gavle. Now they'll be waiting for the teams to start coming in to change over to the second leg.

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), April 27, 2002.

Here in Laramie, even though it's rained today, it's not so muddy and the cars are making their way around town pretty well.

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), April 27, 2002.

Last year's 10-Mila winner, Halden, has come through the radio, 7 minutes back. Now a Finnish dude is talking and you can't tell if he's speaking Finnish or possible Martian. But I'm sure a lot of vowels just got used. 5 minutes until the first teams are warned for the change over. 15:03 LT, and it's still daylight here.

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), April 27, 2002.

I wonder who is out for IKHP right now? Hmmm, let's see, it's Ingvar Akesson, who comes originally from Vastgotaland, I think from Skene, which was Marita Skogum's old club too, I believe. Ingvar will send out Matti Envall. Matti, besides being Anna's husband, was good enough to nose around the Swedish "B" team for a number of years. He's not quite as good this year as he has been earlier, and he probably was never able to reach his absolute potential because of many problems with injuries.

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), April 27, 2002.


The warning control is *right* before the last control, so once runners are announced at the warning control, they'll be in view immediately. 15:09. I wonder how Snorkel is doing now? I hope he's not going to try to sneak off and eat more chocolate rocks before it's time for him to run! 15:10 LT

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), April 27, 2002.

The leading runners' head lamps are in sight now! 15:11 LT, so the changeover will be soon...whoa--false alarm!

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), April 27, 2002.

I'm just checking in from Chicago. The first day of the Chicago A- meet was wet, thorny and fun. But, we're all wondering what's up with TioMila. I'm glad to see the OK forum reporting.

We'll be heading out for a meal, then back at the computer in an hour or two.

-- Michael (mike_eglinski@kcmo.org), April 27, 2002.


15:12...the runners are already 7 minutes over the course setter's calculated time, which is a whole lot...

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), April 27, 2002.

Now they're really there, and it is...lights are really in sight now, and it's team 45, which is some Finnish Team...15:14..runners are on the way in, one runner in front by himself, it's Turuun S., from Finland in the lead, Linkoping is 2nd, and they're having real problems seeing the runners in the complete darkness... 15:15

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), April 27, 2002.

Now the teams are starting to stream in, I think I'll wait till they go over the list of noteworthy teams because it's hard to listen and type fast enough!

-- Swampfox (wmikell@earthlink.net), April 27, 2002.

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