From: "Bryan Teahan" <BCT@ak.dosli.govt.nz>
Date: 10 Aug 94 07:26:40 GMT-1200
Subject: O Article #27
Message-Id: <MAILQUEUE-101.940810072640.480@ak.dosli.govt.nz>
O Article #27
THE ORIENTEERING POCKET COMPUTER HORROR STORY
---------------------------------------------
By Bryan Teahan
Have you ever been siezed by a certainty - halfway through an event, say,
when you try to cross an uncrossable ravine by jumping down to a tree
halfway down a cliff and it starts to break apart when you are stranded
in the middle - that you've seen it all before?
Or fallen prey to an overwelming sense of deja-vu when stradling an
electric fence with legs on either side and you are slowly sinking into
the mud?
Or had an odd premonition when you cross a large river which is suddenly
over your head and your map starts floating away from you?
But if you are the sort of person who ends up going Orienteering in the
first place, then chances area that overriding all will be the brute
compulsion to finish a course, find that next flag, a compulsion to stick
with it to the bitter end, to find where the sadistic course setter is
going to hide the next control, and to get to the top of the next hill to
see what's around the corner. Let's face it, you have to complete the
course if it kills you.
Now however, thanks to me, you can do just that, and without wasting
another moment, by employing my remarkable Orienteering Horror Story
Pocket Computer, a copy of which you will find reproduced here. Properly
used, the Pocket Computer (PC) can save you hours of unhealthy exposure
to the rigours and dangers of an Orienteering course and cut short your
course times by at least half. How does it work? Well, take it through
a test run and see...
(NB - This looks better when the boxes are drawn in solid lines)
The Orienteering Horror Story Pocket Computer
---------------------------------------------
+---------------+
| The Orienteer |
+---------------+
|
+-------------------+------------+--------+-----------------+-------+
+------|----------+ +------|---------+ +---------|-----------+ +---|---+ |
| has an accident | | arrives at an | | misses start due to | | misses| |
| on the way to an| | event only to | | injuries from prev- | | start | |
| event (DNS) | |find it has been| | vious events (DNS) | | (DNS) | |
+-----------------+ +------|---------+ +---------------------+ +-------+ |
+-----------+-----+---+ +--------------------+
+----|----+ +----|----+ +--|--------+ |
|cancelled| |postponed| |transferred| +--+--+
| (DNS) | | (DNS) | | (DNS) | | has |
+---------+ +---------+ +-----------+ +--|--+
+--------------------------------+------------+-----------+
+-------|-----------+ +----------------|--------------+ +-------|--------+
| to contend with a | | the misfortune to pick up the | | been given the |
+-------|-----------+ +--------------------------|----+ +-------|--------+
+---+---------+------------+-----------+ +-------+------+
+---|---+ +-------|-----+ +----|-----+ +---|---+ +---|---+
| cruel | | incompetent | | sadistic | | bingo | | wrong |
+---|---+ +-------|-----+ +----|-----+ +---|---+ +---|---+
+-------------+------+-----+-----------+ |
| +---------+----+ +--+--+
+---------+---+ | control | | map.|
+---|----+ +-----|---------+ | descriptions.| |(DNF)|
| mapper | | course setter | | (DNF) | +-----+
+---|----+ +-----|---------+ +--------------+
| +------------+
| | +----|---+
| | | with a |
| | +----|---+
| | +---------------------+
| | +--------|---------+ +---------|----------+
| | | "let's hide them | | "let's place every |
| | | where they can't | | second control on |
| | | find them" | | the wrong feature" |
| | +--------|---------+ +---------|----------+
| | +----------+----------+
| | +-----|-----+
| | | mentality |
| | +-----|-----+
+-------------+-----------------------+
+-----|--------+
| and the area |
+-----|--------+
+----------------------+--------------------------+
+-----|-----+ +------------|------+ +---------------|----------------+
| is poorly | | should never have | | is only fit for mountain goats |
| mapped | | been mapped | | and wild bushmen |
+-----|-----+ +------------|------+ +---------------|----------------+
+----------------------+--------------------------+
+-----------|----------+
+------->--------| and during the event |---------------<----------------+
| +-----------|----------+ |
| +--------------+-----+--------+-------------------+----------+ | |
| +-----|------+ +-----|------+ +-----|--------+ +--------|-------+ | |
| | encounters | | gets stuck | | goes through | | gets zapped | | |
| | man-eating | | in gorse | | a smelly | | by an electric | | |
| | blackberry | +-----|------+ | swamp | | fence | | |
| +-----|------+ | +-----|--------+ +--------|-------+ | |
| +-----+--------------+--------------+-------------------+ | |
| | +----------------+----------------+-----------------+------+ |
| | +-----|-----+ +--------|------+ +-------|-------+ +-------|--------+ |
| | | is shot at| | the map | | gets attacked | | nearly drowned | |
| | |by an irate| | disintegrates | | by a swarm of | | in a flooded | |
| | | landowner | | in rain | | bees | | river | |
| | +-----|-----+ +--------|------+ +-------|-------+ +-------|--------+ |
| | +----------------+-------+--------+-----------------+ |
| +-------------->-----------------+ |
+----------------<-----------------+ |
+----------------|--------------------+ |
| and get totally and completely lost | |
+----------------|--------------------+ |
+--+--+ |
| and | |
+--|--+ |
+--------------------------+-------------+------------------+ |
+--|---+ +--------|-----+ | |
| runs | | falls down a | | |
+--|---+ +--------|-----+ | |
+---+--------+---------+ +---------+-----------+ | |
+---|-----+ +----|---+ +---|----+ +--|--+ +----|-----+ +---|---+ | |
| off the | | into a | | out of | | pit | | crevasse | | cliff | | |
| map | | tree | | steam | +--|--+ +----|-----+ +---|---+ | |
+---|-----+ +----|---+ +---|----+ | | | | |
+-+------------+---------+-----------+---------+-----------+ | |
| +------------------------------------+----------------+ |
| +-------|--------+ +----|----+ |
| | is chased by a | | suffers | |
| +-------|--------+ +----|----+ |
| +----+---------+----------+ +--+------------+ |
| +----|------+ +----|---+ +---|---+ +-----|-------+ +-----|------+ |
| | ravishing | | raging | | randy | | hypothermia | | heatstroke | |
| | W21E | | bull | | M35A | +-----|-------+ +-----|------+ |
| +----|------+ +----|---+ +---|---+ | | |
| +--------------+----------+ | | |
| +--------|---------+ | | |
| | who is catching! | | | |
| +--------|---------+ | | |
| +---------------+-------+---------------+ |
+---------------->--------------------+-------------------------->-----+
+--|--+
| and |
+--|--+
+------------+----------+---------+-+------------+
+-----|------+ +---|----+ +---|----+ +----|----+ +-----|----------------+
| demolishes | | breaks | | twists | | strains | |suffers a heart attack|
| a shoe | +---|----+ +---|----+ +----|----+ +-----|----------------+
+--|---------+ +---+----+-----+--+--------+ |
| +---------|-+ +----|---+ +--|--+ +---|--+ +-------+------+ +---------+
| |the compass| |an ankle| |a leg| |an arm| |but carries on| |and dies.|
| +---------|-+ +----|---+ +--|--+ +---|--+ +-------|------+ |(THE END)|
+-----------+--------+----+---+--------+------------+ +---------+
|
+---------------+----------+
+--|--+ +--|--+
| but | | and |
+--|--+ +--|--+
+-------+----------+ +-------+----+-----------------+----------+
| soldiers on, and | +----|-----+ +----|--------+ +------|------+ |
+-------|----------+ |decides to| |has to retire| |is found by | |
+---------+-----------+ |give up. | |hurt. (DNF) | |search party.| |
| finishes the course | | (DNF) | +-------------+ | (DNF) | |
| (THE END?) | +----------+ +-------------+ |
+---------|-----------+ +---------------------+----------+
+--|--+ +-------------|----------+ +--------|-----------+
| but | | has to blow on whistle.| | found wandering in |
+--|--+ | (DNF) | | a daze. (DNF) |
| +------------------------+ +--------------------+
+---------+--+----------+-------------+------------+-------------+
+--|-----+ +----|---+ +----|-----+ +-----|-----+ +----|------+ +----|-------+
|missed | |punched | |gets found| |has indeci-| |team member| | course |
|out a | |wrong | | out for | | pherable | |gets disqu-| | gets |
|control.| |control.| |cheating. | | clips. | |alified. | |invalidated.|
| (DISQ) | | (DISQ) | | (DISQ) | | (DISQ) | | (DISQ) | | (THE END) |
+--------+ +--------+ +----------+ +-----------+ +-----------+ +------------+
From: "James A. Plant" <71165.2412@compuserve.com>
Date: 09 Aug 94 14:21:06 EDT
Subject: the o-net
Message-Id: <940809182106_71165.2412_DHQ85-2@CompuServe.COM>
-------- Forwarded Message --------
FROM: Stan Wagon&JoanHutchinson, 71043,3326
TO: James A. Plant, 71165,2412
DATE: 08-Aug-94 at 20:26:24
SUBJECT: the o-net
Here is a version that you could put on the O-net. But please read it over
first and see if you think it is suitable.
Thanks.
stan
***********************
The Drummond Island Rogaine, Aug 6-7, 1994,
Drummond Island, Michigan
Stan Wagon (Editor emeritus, Ultrarunning magazine)
71043,3326 or
wagon@macalstr.edu
This is a very low-key event, one that is primarily meant for Michiganders. In
fact, I believe that our team (Gordon Hardman of Boulder and I) were the first
to fly to this event in its 5-year history.
LOCALE: Drummond Island is on the eastern edge of Michigan's Upper
Peninsula, and a short ferry ride is needed to get there. The island is rugged
and not highly populated, making it, in some ways, an ideal spot for a
rogaine. The elevation ranges from 580 feet at the Lake Huron shore, to a high
point of 745 feet. That's flat!
ACCESS: Most people drive. We took a plane to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan,
about 40 miles away from the staging area.
AMENITIES: The staging area is a tremendously nice resort called The Woodmore.
Very comfortable sleeping quarters were available for $15 per night.
SCENERY: Really quite spectacular. The lake shore is stunning, but the
interior is very pretty and has a nice feeling of remoteness. We saw
innumerable deer, some very large birds (herons, cranes), and some definite
wolf tracks in the mud that were impressive. The night sky was also amazing.
We had great weather (cool and clear) and the stars were better than here at
my home in Colorado at 9500'.
THE ORGANIZERS: Al Newman and Roddy Wares of Ann Arbor (313-761-6980). They
are experienced orienteers and have a good sense of humor. For example, Al
asked the assembled at registration whether the phone message left on his
machine was a joke or not. He said that someone called and, in a big deep
voice, said: "This is Big Jake. Thank you, thank you, thank you." Big Jake is
one of the larger bears who lives on the island!
THE COMPETITION: Most of the competitors are repeaters. Steve Fraser, an
Olympic gold medalist in wrestling, has won three times (he was second this
year). The folks love to come back, and it is easy to see why. However, this
does put newcomers at a definite, if slight disadvantage. I say slight because
even the repeaters tended to dive right into the nastiest areas!
THE MAP: Four USGS 7.5 minute topos. Unfortunately, they are very old, and
parts of them are horribly inaccurate as regards vegetation and trails. Some
map corrections were provided, but only in the immediate vicinity of the
controls.
QUIRKS: Bonus points were given as follows:
135 points for carrying an egg throughout and returning it unbroken
sprint points for the first 6 teams to control #26
125 points for eating a can of Spam (one per team) at a locale called "Corn
Beef Junction"
240 points for carrying a FunNoodle, a 6-ft long piece of plastic, throughout
the day. The egg could be left in one's pack, which could be dropped off for
out-and-back sections, but the FunNoodle had to sign in at each control.
I can't complain about these quirky things, since our team got the maximum
bonus points, including the 66 for the sprint win. But it does seem unfair to
penalize vegetarians or observant Jews!
COMPETITIVE HIGHLIGHT FOR US: The sprint to the first control. Three teams
were in contention, and some careful map-reading as we neared the control
brought us in first. Unfortunately, we got our feek soaked in the race to it,
which caused me problems later.
SOME STATISTICS: We covered 63 miles in 21.25 hours. We were tired and sore
and so could not make use of the 3 hours remaining. Too bad for us! Winners
estimated they covered 70 miles. We were in third place, behind the Steve
Fraser team, who took second (2800+), and Walt and Roy (sorry, I do not have
surnames) who took first (3035 pts). Fraser is an interesting fellow. I do not
think he does much competitive orienteering or running, but he likes this
rogaine stuff and he is very persistent. He does not "take bearings"; rather,
he "shoots an azimuth".
CONTROL ACCURACY AND PLACEMENT: Excellent! They were often on pretty features
that force the teams to take a grand tour of the island. Unlike the other two
rogaines I have been to, where the controls were spread pretty uniformly over
the terrain, these were in groups, with long distances between the groups. But
that is ok.
Many of the controls were placed by Al in his canoe. This means that he does
not necessarily know what the terrain leading into the control is like. Makes
for interesting navigational problems (swimming or crossing the giant swamps
is disallowed).
MOST AMUSING STORY: Two guys in the 12-hour showed up just before the start,
and so they did not hear the rules; in particular, they did not hear the rules
about No Swimming. They had never been to a rogaine. Well, they headed out in
the direction of some controls that are very close to each other but on
opposite sides of the major river/swamp. They crossed this swamp 4 times I
think in order to crisscross and get some high-value controls. The muck was
very deep in places, and crossing is forbidden because if someone did develop
a leg cramp, say, drowning is a real possibility. Well, they did say it was
horrible but, they just figured that was what rogaining was about! Anyway,
they ended up at #32 (the control from hell) without a map (lost in the
swamp). They did in fact find their way back and had more points than the
others, so they were rewarded for their efforts by not being disqualified.
SOME SUGGESTIONS: Why not number the controls in groups (1-9, 10-19, etc),
rather than from 1 to 33. That way the value of the control is immediately
identifiable from the digits. This is somewhat standard in rogaines and their
scheme (1-8 are worth 25 points, 9-16 are worth 50 points, and so on without a
definite pattern) gives less information than is possible.
Substantial map corrections may be impossible, but do try to warn the field
about massive inaccuracies. Because a few corrections were given, we thought
that perhaps the trails not mentioned in the corrections would all be there.
Carry dry socks. We did not. We did carry a water filter which we used twice.
SUMMARY: Yes, I do recommend this event to anyone interested in rogaining. We
had a fine weekend. It was my first 24-hour rogaine (I had done two 12s) and
my first attempt at night orienteering. My partner is an experienced orienteer
(including night-O) but had never tried a rogane. We gained valuable
experience and enjoyed ourselves. But keep in mind the peculiarites of this
meet:
1. Quirky and amusing bonus points.
2. The map quality.
3. Big Jake might be hungry.
From: ab401@freenet3.carleton.ca (Paul Tomblin)
Date: Tue, 9 Aug 1994 17:00:57 GMT
Subject: Akron?
Message-Id: <CuA1xL.E4n@freenet.carleton.ca>
I've just been offered a job in Akron (well, Fairlawn, I suppose). I
remember going to a North Americans in Metropark Brecksville in '79 which I
guess is fairly close. Can anybody tell me what the orienteering, mountain
biking and cross country skiing is like there?
Paul
From: Mitch Collinsworth <mkc@graphics.cornell.edu>
Date: Tue, 09 Aug 94 12:47:02 -0400
Subject: Re: Rogaining: Re: reply to Rod Phillips
Message-Id: <9408091647.AA14036@skigo.graphics.cornell.edu>
I suppose then this calls into question the practice of a competitive
team handing in their score card and then driving to a motel to catch
a few hours sleep before returning and resuming the race. Not (yet)
a widespread practice, but one I've heard has happened.
-Mitch
From: matekm@ce.kth.se (Mats Ekman)
Date: Tue, 9 Aug 1994 17:49:57 +0200
Subject: Re: Help on Events (Stockholm)
Message-Id: <199408091549.RAA03875@vertex.ce.kth.se>
A. Watson wrote:
>I have a friend who will be in Stockholm over the weekend 3/4 September.
>Can anyone let me know if there are any events close to the city at that
>weekend?
Sorry, not so many competion in 100 km from Stockholm that weekend.
But, there are some small events:
Fr 2/9 Alvsjo-Orby, Night-short-orienteering, HD10 up to HD65
Vasterangs IP, 10 km SV Stockholm
Registration before 23/8 to: OK Alvsjo-Orby, Snackstigen 1,
S-141 39 Huddinge, Sweden.
Sa 3/9 Stockholmsloppet, only running. 21 km in the city of Stockholm.
Registration to late...(I think)
Su 4/9 Taby OK, club champ (eg only members but some runners-no problem).
Place: ???, max 30 km from Stockholm (Taby).
Registration one week before, to matekm@ce.kth.se.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mats Ekman | Tele: +46 8 790 79 57
Royal institute of technology | Fax: +46 8 21 69 49
Department of structural engineering | Home: +46 8 511 756 42
S-100 44 STOCKHOLM | E-mail: matekm@ce.kth.se
Visiting: Teknikringen 78, Stockholm | All misspellings (c)Mats Ekman 1994
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: cai@cryptic.rch.unimelb.edu.au
Date: Tue, 9 Aug 1994 11:56:36 +1000
Subject: Rogaining: Re: reply to Rod Phillips
Message-Id: <9408091050.AA16648@cryptic.rch.unimelb.edu.au>
>>Hi Everyone,
>>
Someone (maybe Bob Reddick) wrote about an rogaine where the second team
had a member hospitalised briefly during the event before returning to
compete.
>>Rod Phillips asked,
>>
>>
>>"This intigued me. Can you still be in the placings if you've been to
>>hospital (presumably by car) in the middle of an event."
>>
>And Peter Taylor replied:
>There isn't anything in the rules of rogaining that says teams have to
>remain in the hash-house area after having checked in at the hash-house
>during the event, although Rule 6 expressly forbids leaving the area
>between map handout and the start of the event. So going to hospital is
>OK, even in a car, provided you have checked in at the Hash House
>first, and check in again before going out on the course.
I suspect you'd have trouble convincing me of that if I was the rogaine
coordinator. I think you have problems on several fronts.
Firstly, you must compete entirely on foot and not travel by any other
means. This is not limited by any criteria about checking in or out.
Secondly, a team shall not accept assistance from, or collaborate with,
other people. Again, this applies irrespective of whether you have checked
in for a break.
Thirdly, a team which breaches any of the rules because of an emergency is
deemed to have withdrawn.
Each of the first two rules above would have been breached under the
circumstances described. Consequently, the competitor and her/his team
would be deemed to have finished competitively when they last checked in to
the base camp before receiving assistance from any other person.
Mind you, this is somewhat academic. I'm all for keeping the emphasis of
rogaining on its strengths, namely that enjoyable participation beats
competition hands down any day. I would happily oblige any team wanting to
continue competing after a hospital visit and would allow their score to be
recorded, even give them a paragraph of praise in the newsletter. But they
probably shouldn't get an official placing.
-----------------------------------
Rod Phillips
Department of Paediatrics
Royal Children's Hospital
Melbourne 3052 AUSTRALIA
Voice 61-3-3455522
Fax 61-3-3456000