Occassional thoughts about orienteering
|
|
| okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering |
|
|
Friday, December 06, 2002 Tomorrow's race...Tomorrow is the Kansas (and Missouri) State O' Champs. I set the course, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes.We've got a strong field for the men's race: Brian May (winner of the last 2 US Champs), Mikell Platt (many time US Champ), and Mark Everett (no US Champs, but he's been on the US WOC team). An interesting entry is Dave Dunham from New Hampshire. Dave is a very strong runner. Here are Dave's running PRs: 5K – 14:08; 8K – 23:27; 10K – 29:17; 12K – 36:59; 10M – 49:36; 20K – 60:53; ½ Marathon – 65:02; Marathon - 2:19:28; 50K – 2:57:36; 100K – 6:46:39. I think Mitch Bentley is the only US Orienteer who has that sort of running speed (and Mitch hasn't been seen in orienteering for quite a while). The women's field isn't as strong, but still looks interesting. Yvonne Deyo from St Louis is expected. Suzanne Armstrong (St Louis and CSU) may show up. Head to head racing The race will use a mass start and I look for some head-to-head racing. From the start, runners will have to find any two of the first four controls before going on to the rest of the course. I hope this splits up the field just a bit. The course -- about 4.5 km -- is designed for head-to-head racing (I'll try to post the course tomorrow). Runners will have two good chances to see how they are doing compared to the rest of the field. The leaders should get a sense of how far ahead they are. The chasing pack should have a good idea of how far back they are. There aren't any tricky controls (it isn't easy to make technically difficult navigation in Kansas). I don't expect any large booms. But, small booms could decide the race. The terrain is fast. Much of the course will be crossing open fields. Some of it will be on single track trails. The runners won't spend much time in the thick/thorny forest. The high speed might cause some problems. Easy legs can sometimes be quite hard if you're moving fast. I think the race will feel a bit like a park O' race. There are a couple of legs with some route choice options. I'm hoping the route choice will give people some chance to think about strategies. If you're chasing someone, will you take a different route with the hope that you'll be able to make up ground? If you're running with someone, will you ease off a bit forcing them to take the lead and make the decision? posted by Michael | 6:04 PM 
Comments:
Post a Comment
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
||||
|
|||||
