Orienteering 1:30:00 [3] *** 6.0 mi (15:00 / mi)
38c shoes: Brooks Running 20
Setting controls for the UC Berkeley meet with Sam and Presto! Sam was an excellent pack mammal for me, carrying stands and flags while I navigated to the control sites and dealt with the epunch units. Presto was just along for the fun.
We started around 7:30 and set 10 controls starting from Oxford Circle. Then we moved the car around to North Gate and set another 14. Then we moved the car around to Barrow's Hall to drop off the maps/start/finish/etc. and set the last 14 controls. This worked well. We got all the controls set and the start/finish set up by 9:40 (for a 10am meet start). I was just settling down for a relaxing 4 hours before control pick up when...
Orienteering 10:00 [3] 1.0 mi (10:00 / mi)
shoes: Brooks Running 20
...the first group on the beginners course came back and said that one of the controls was missing. I was absolutely sure I'd set it, so I wasn't sure if they just couldn't find it or what, but I headed out with another bag and epunch, and sure enough, someone had stollen it. Ugh.
I set the new control, then ran back to the start to get something to label the new control with the old control's number, then ran back to the control to fix that, and then ran back to the start to make sure epunch had the correct new control number in their system.
By this point the first advanced runner was also back, and said everything seemed fine to him, so I was settling in once again for a relaxing 3.5h when...
Orienteering 7:00 [3] *** 0.5 mi (14:00 / mi)
1c shoes: Brooks Running 20
...Matei came back to tell me that one of the controls was mis-set. Ugh.
I went out to check it out, and sure enough it was. Basically what had happened was that I'd chosen and vetted the control location where I'd hung the bag and written the control description. But then when finalizing the courses, realized that while in reality the control was easily punchable, the map didn't deal well with the levels in that location and it appeared that there was no legal way to approach the control (out-of-bounds garden in one direction and uncrossable wall that was actually the wall on the upstairs area in the other), so I moved the control on the map a little ways to a location with a way to legally access it. So, when I was setting, I went the location I'd vetted, and said voila, control!
In the end I decided to move the control to the center of the circle because most people hadn't gotten to it yet.
Orienteering 20:00 [3] *** 2.0 mi (10:00 / mi)
6c shoes: Brooks Running 20
Picking up 4 controls and then going out and looking for the stolen control and a second control that had the epunch unit stolen after everyone had finished the course. We never found any of the stolen equipment. My knee was starting to remind me that it recently ran into a tree by the end of this.
Thanks to Sam, Carlo, Gemma, and Daniel (and Presto, of course!) for help in control pickup!
Stretching 10:00 [3]
Normal stretching after an excellent lunch of dumplings and pho with Sam, Carlo, and Presto!