okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Can you predict a boom?
I once spent some time trying to see if I could predict booms. I wanted to see if I could look at a course and predict the legs where orienteers would boom.
I looked at maps. I looked at split times. I looked at races I'd run. I tested a few ideas. I thought about it.
I eventually came up with two broad rules for predicting booms:
1. Booms are relatively rare in the first 1/4 of the course and relatively common in the last 1/4 of the course.
2. Booms are relatively common where the map is sketchy.
Both of those rules make sense. They help in predicting booms, but there are a lot of booms that don't fit the rules.
Randy's guessing game
Randy posted his map (which I've posted below) and wrote:
For those who like to play guessing games, you can try to guess the two controls I boomed and I'll post the answers next week sometime.
Use the comment to post your guesses
Don't look at the comments until you've studied the course.
Study the course below (click on the image for higher resolution). Figure out which two controls you think Randy boomed. Add your guesses as a comment.
Feel free to explain why you think Randy boomed those controls.
posted by Michael |
7:42 PM
