Big Blues Ramble

Maybe it's the thick vegetation, maybe it's scheduling, maybe it's something else, but Chicago never seems to get good attendance at A-meets. I've never understood this because I think the orienteering is really good. The terrain is subtle with limited visibility, but you can still move through most of it pretty quickly. That puts a huge premium on map contact since you can get turned around in a hurry. At any rate, between the lack of "pack fillers" and difficulty of the navigation, I've never even been able to crack the top half of the elite field in a Chicago A-meet. As I traveled north for this year's version with Rick Armstrong, I was hoping that this year's extra emphasis on speed in the terrain would result in a breakthrough.

Friday's model event is not particularly encouraging. As is my custom for model events, I spend most of my time moving at a leisurely pace, trying to take in as much of the terrain as possible. But when I try to run a couple legs hard to get a feel for competition speed, my nav gets sloppy. I have to keep telling myself to stay in contact.

Saturday dawns with sunny skies and temperatures predicted to reach the high 70's, which is quite warm for this time of year. The first event is middle distance (winning time around 35 minutes) on the Busse Woods map. This map has given me fits in the past. It's not completely flat, but the contour features are very subtle. The best bet is to read the vegetation, but this time of year, it's all pretty open, except for the bigger marshes.

I take it easy to the first control, and am stunned to find Maricel Olaru there. He started a couple minutes ahead of me. It's tempting to just bolt myself to his hip as finishing 2 minutes faster than him would pretty much guarantee a top spot. But, that's not the way the game is supposed to be played, so I take my own line to the next couple controls. I bobble #4 and by the time I recover, he's out of sight.

Leg 5 seems so easy that my first reaction is, "what's this leg doing on an advanced course?" I mean, run to the edge of the lake, what could go wrong? I must be missing something because it seems like half the field messes this one up. Included in that group is Maricel, who is coming back to the control as I come in. We run together for another couple legs, but he's just plain faster than me and by 9 he's gone.

At 10, I make my worst decision of the race. I had planned on going around but, knowing that I have a pretty solid run going, I decide to risk the direct route, hoping the trails through the light medium green will be easy to read. They're not. I hit a maze of man- made trails and deer tracks and shortly find myself down along the edge of the marsh with nowhere to go but push through 100m of thick stuff. The error sets me back a couple of minutes.

I often make big mistakes after a mishap like that, so I take the next leg slowly, then start ramping up the pace again. Aside from a small bobble at 13, the rest of the course is clean and I finish up with a respectable 5th place. Rick misses the top time in M55 by a mere 3 seconds.

The afternoon event is a sprint. While not part of the A-meet, I'd still like to run it well. Unfortunately, it seems that I'm still unable to put together a decent run at this distance. I overrun several of the early controls and although I do run the second half well, the damage is done and I finish well off the pace. Rick has a good run, smoking all of the over-50 crowd except for the legendary Peter Gagarin.

The evening is spent at an Irish pub and features good food, better beer, heated debates over trivial matters, and (at least in my case), a parting shot of whiskey.

Sunday's race is long course, which is usually my best event. The venue is Country Lane Woods, a forest preserve that features a bit more relief and a lot more thick vegetation than Busse. With one good run in already, I'm liking my chances.

As with the previous day, I take it out slowly and start building speed. Some of my early routes are too conservative and I'm a bit off the pace. By #7 I'm 10 minutes behind the leaders, despite running fairly clean.

The long leg to 8 has three obvious routes: straight, left, and right. Left looks like too much extra distance for not much gained in trails. Right, however, is appealing. I decide to go straight because I've seen the woods in that area on the way to 4 and they didn't seem that bad. What I miss is the fact that there's a road running along the edge of the map! While I execute the straight route well, I give away another three minutes to those who saw the road on the right.

Still, I'm in fairly good shape at this point, comfortably in 6th place. The next section of the course is truly scary. Very thick vegetation, lots of indistinct trails, and practically no contour relief. A recipe for disaster in my book. I run the leg to 10 hard, figuring the indistinct trail will either lead me right in or I'll relocate off the bigger trail after getting through the dark green. Fortunately, it's the former and I spike it. 11 is the scariest control of all, so I go really slow, attacking from the mixed open 150m WNW of the control. I miss it by about 20m, but spot the bag just as I'm about to pass it. I feel like I've won the lottery and hammer back out to the road, figuring the worst is behind me.

That's never a good thing to think. 12 goes smoothly enough, but I bobble 13 and then make a complete hash of 14 when I misread the depression on the spur for a depression in a reentrant. It takes me three approaches to get it right and I dump nearly 10 minutes on the control. I've made mistakes like that before on Chicago's terrain, but it was pretty disappointing to get all the way to the penultimate control and then blow it. As it was a long and tough course, the field is very spread out, so I only slip one place to seventh. That still puts me (barely) in the top half, so by my history, it's a strong run, even if it is a bit less than I had hoped for. Rick runs well; again placing second in M55.

All-in-all, a very fine meet and fun weekend. I really don't know why more people don't show up for these things.

Eric, Rick, Mark Voit (Southern Michigan OC), and Michael Collins of Chicago.