Third Thursday Adventure Series

6/21/07 Carondolet Park

Results

Sprint 1:

Sprint 2 (Farsta):

The first sprint was a typical urban park sprint set by Rick Armstrong. Click the clip to the left for the full course. The course featured a nice mix of quick direction changes and longer route choice legs. Rob Wagnon had fast time by a pretty good margin. Twelve- year-old Kyle Winkeler completed the course to earn his Boy Scout merit badge in orienteering.

The second course was a Farsta (click on map clip at top of page). This format, also known as the "1-man relay" involves running two or more laps around a loop course. The loop contains two or more "forked" controls, that is, controls where you go to one of multiple options and then come back to a common control. Each competitor's map is different for the first loop depending on which side of the fork they are assigned. Their second loop map shows the opposing fork. After completing both loops, every competitor will have run every leg (both sides of the forks plus all the common legs), but they will have run them all in a different order. That makes following a risky proposition, but still preserves the head-to-head format.

The Farsta was set so that the time difference between forks would be small and runners would have a good sense of how they stood overall throughout the event. Rob Wagnon was the first one back at the end of loop one, but misread the last control and while he was figuring it out, Bill Langton took the lead. Mark Geldemeier and Rick Armstrong were close behind. As the second loop started the top four were all in contact. It looked like we might have a repeat of the tight finish at Tower Grove.

Mark and Rob picked up the pace and got some separation from the other two. Mark had what appeared to be a comfortable lead going into the final control, but Rob surged up the hill to the finish and forced Mark into a big sprint to hold the lead. Unfortunately for Marc, it was all for naught - he had misread the control circle at #4 on the first loop and punched the wrong control. Rob was awarded the win.

Next month, we get not only a new course setter, but a new mapper as well. Anna Shafer-Skelton will be setting the first course on her new Tilles Park map. The second course will be set by Eric Buckley and will again feature a unique twist.