US Night and Relay Champs

October 28-30, 2011

Three days of A-sanctioned orienteering on new maps! Held in conjunction with the St. Louis Orienteering Club.

Planned updates

All information on this site is FINAL as of 10/27.

2/1: Activities and schedule; relay rules; directions, food, lodging
8/10: Fees finalized; registration opens
8/10: Map notes
10/1: Course notes, Registered competitors (opens in new window): HTML, Excel.
10/14: Important updates to relay rules, course notes, map notes, and registration list. Also, Sprint and Corn Maze are confirmed on their scheduled dates/times.
10/24: Start times (see registration list above); Model event info (see below).
10/26: Last-minute information updates, Cuivre River map sample (1988), final notes.

US Night Championships

Friday, October 28, first start 7PM. This is half an hour past civil twilight, two days after the new moon, and 40 miles from the nearest city. It will be dark. New map of Cuivre River State Park near Troy, MO (1 hour drive from STL airport). Scale 1:10,000 with 5m contours. Typical Midwestern ridge and valley terrain. Predominantly open hardwood forest with some thick areas. Course distances will target slightly faster than Classic winning times. Mapper: Eric Buckley (2010); course setter: Bill Langton.

Middle Distance - Sanctioned A event

Saturday, October 29, first start 9AM. New map of Cuivre River State Park. Scale 1:10,000 with 5m contours. Minimal overlap with section used for Night Champs. Mapper: Eric Buckley (2010); course setter: Rick Armstrong.

Relay Model Event (unsanctioned)

If you've never orienteered on a flood plain, you are strongly encouraged to check out the terrain at the model event. Model event will be a self-serve affair on an unused portion of the Creve Coeur Lake map. (This is a change of venue - check the directions page for location). You can download a copy of the map here or pick one up at check-in. Two important notes on the model map:

The rest of the park is embargoed! Don't wander off the model map.
This portion of the map was field checked in the spring and not rechecked for fall conditions. It should give you a good idea of what to expect with respect to mapping of vegetation and water features, but don't be surprised if a couple things seem a bit odd. Also note that while the model area is mostly really unpleasant fields, the actual competition area is predominantly white woods.

US Relay Championships

Sunday, October 30, mass start at 10AM. New map of Creve Coeur Lake Park between St. Louis and St. Charles. Scale 1:10,000. Contour interval is irrelevant, but nominally 5m. Mix of open woods and fields on the Missouri River flood plain. Marshes, small streams, varying vegetation, and zero climb. OK, that last part may not be entirely true because there is a 5m "hill" that some legs may go over, but you get the idea - it's really flat. Mapper: Eric Buckley (2011), course setter: Eric Buckley.

Details of the points system for forming teams will be posted here soon; for now just know that there will be no changes from the standard that has been used for the last few years. Championships will again be offered for 4-, 8-, and 12-point teams. All team members must be eligible for US Champs for a team to be eligible for a championship. A team does not have to be eligible to enter in a championship division, but they do have to meet the points requirements. We will offer a non-championship open category (that will run the same course as 4-point teams) for any teams that have less than 4 points. There will be a 2-person non-championship White/Yellow relay for kids that will mass start at 9AM. We will also have a solo division for those without a team which runs a single leg (Red). This will mass start with the relay at 10AM, but will diverge immediately because no relay teams run Red for leg 1.

Electronic punching

SI punching will be used for all events. SI sticks will be available for rental at time of registration. The corn maze will use clipper punching.

Embargoed areas

Competitors are forbidden from scouting the following areas prior to the meet:

Cuivre River State Park south of Highway KK and north of the Visitor Center. Training in the Northwoods section north of KK is permitted.
Creve Coeur Lake County Park below the bluff (i.e., the flood plain section). Training in the upper park is permitted. Also, use of the athletic fields, picnic areas, boathouse, main lake (but NOT the inlet or Mallard Lake), and paved bike path (but NOT the gravel walking path) is permitted.

Corn Maze O, unsanctioned

Saturday, October 29, Afternoon. The highly popular unofficial US Corn Maze Champs returns! Followed by picnic lunch and awards for the first two days. South of Troy, MO, on the way back to St. Charles, but not so far as to be inconvenient for those staying in Troy or camping at Cuivre River Saturday night.

Sprint

Friday, October 28. Unsanctioned sprint at Cuivre River midday Friday.

Snacks and meals

The usual assortment of post-race refreshments will be provided at the finish of each event on Friday and Saturday. For those wanting something more substantial between the sprint and night-O, we will offer some food for sale late afternoon at Cuivre River. You can bring your own picnic to the Corn Maze O or purchase it there from the owners. The relay exchange is right in front of the restaurant at Creve Coeur Lake Park which has a nice patio where you can watch the action and enjoy a full menu.

Weather

It is reasonable to expect slightly cool, but otherwise pleasant weather this time of year. That said, it will do what it does. Be prepared.

Floods

It is highly unlikely that we would experience flood conditions in late October, but it has happened. Creve Coeur Lake Park is protected by a substantial levee and the flooding has to be fairly severe to make running there a problem. However, even moderate flooding can back up the small streams to where they become impassible marshes. If conditions are deemed too dangerous or unfair due to unmapped impassible water features, the relay will be held at Cuivre River.

Childcare

We haven't had any demand for this in the past, but we expect more families to show up for relay champs. If you are interested, let us know. At a minimum, we will try to coordinate start times to minimize the time both parents are on course.

Awards

Awards for championship events will be the standard USOF medals for the top 3 eligible in each class. We will also have prizes for overall results. Details will depend on the number of entrants but you can expect them to be fewer, nicer, and more functional than what you typically see given out at US A-meets.