Toronto Mob Match
Sunnybrook Park
Another spectacular spring day! Jan Havlas designed a devious 90-minute Score-O with a twist. Eight medium-high value controls would only be in place for 10 minutes each, e.g. control M30 was put out by a volunteer exactly 30 minutes after the start and removed 10 minutes later. It was designed so that even the best runner couldn't get to all the migrating controls - and it would be crazy to try anyway.
Because Sunnybrook is such a fun, risk-free place to try navigating for the first time, I'd posted the event info on my Facebook and in the Run Trails Ontario group. The speedy ultrarunner Boultbee twins, Melanie and April, took up the challenge and ran the course with WandAR as their guide. Sounds like they enjoyed it enough that they're now interested in Toronto's Wednesday Park Series!
I got held up and arrived late so I didn't spend much time making a plan. Early on, I made a long, futile run from M05 to M10, as if it could ever have been possible for me. After that failure, I stopped getting distracted by shiny things and focused on higher value controls while planning around the right time periods to visit M30 and M50, which were close together. It was a fantastic day to run - warm but not as overwhelmingly hot as yesterday seemed. Maybe I'm heat acclimated now - NOT. There were lots of the short, steep hills that Sunnybrook is known for, and I had to make a big dash to the finish. I was a minute late but it looks like the timing system gave us all an extra minute so I didn't get penalized.
Chuffed to tie with Yoko Bamba (former top orienteer in Japan) on points for 1st woman but she finished a minute faster. This crazy kind of race is much more in my wheelhouse than hers. She can totally kick my butt in a regular orienteering race.
Huge congrats to the overall winner, Double_Downon11! Big thank you to Jan and Amber for hosting the event.
Afterward, Wilberto and Eva generously hosted the Orienteering Ontario AGM. Great lunch and a nice opportunity to chat with people in person instead of on a conference call. I'm now the Past President but I'm back on the board for another year.