Discussion: Comments and Critiques

We hope everyone had a pleasant time at the first CSU A-meet in 24 years despite the intensity of the heat. We would greatly appreciate any feedback you have about your experiences, especially components we executed well and ways we can improve. Thanks!

I really liked the Middle/Middle for the F/M21s. That was a nice change and an interesting challenge, and it suited the map and the terrain quite well.

Things I appreciated:
1. New/updated map
2. Close/clustered starts/finish/parking

Things I particularly appreciated with the unseasonably hot weather:
1. Large cups (12 oz/.33L) and lots of water. Not yet used to the heat, I drank like a camel all weekend and the large cups made that quick and easy.
2. Porto-pots sited in the shade (Saturday)...am I easy to please, or what?

Things my four-year-old appreciated:
1. Jelly beans & animal cookies at the finish.
2. String-O with punches and stickers, and not just stickers, but stickers with starfish and clownfish.
Easy-to-please, and we know where she gets that from :)

I also liked the middle-middle on Saturday. I know it might have been difficult to do logistically, but it would have been cool if the second race had started earlier. That was a long day.

Also suggest controlled burns before the next meet. ;-)

I enjoyed the weekend very much, thanks for all of your hard work, CSU!

I suggest indian burns for Cristina before the next meet :)

I thought the Saturday events were really fun. I agree with Christina though it would have been nice if all M/F 21 could have started a little earlier in the morning so the afternoon race could have started earlier and then more people may have stuck around to watch. The radio control and announcer really made the event fun to watch and similar to being at European races! Thanks for all your hardwork.

I know for some people with red/green color blindness, seeing the circles on the dark green map was difficult. Not sure if the color of the course can be altered......or we could go with the controlled burns idea for next time.
We used about twice as much food on Saturday than Sunday, due to the later finals I guess.

I didnt have a problem with where the starts were located, but I did feel like the start triangle should be located at the start, rather than running down the trail the 100 meters to the bag without a punch.

Also, I didnt care much for the "Go" control placement, but that's just a gripe from someone who ran right past/mispunched the Go control.


I really did like the 2.5 meter contours; I found the mapping was very accurate and I was able to navigate pretty well with the map. Overall, great course.

Keith---As a course setter, I've had way more complaints when the triangle is on top of the map distribution area. I have come to agree with them that it is best to have a corridor long enough to run and read the first leg a little, and then leave the corridor at the triangle. I really like it when there is an actual 1-3m triangle on the ground in survey tape at the end of the corridor. (The triangle is especially good for people who didn't read the course notes---They see the triangle, and they think, "Hey, this must be the triangle!")

{Edit: If I remember correctly, one of the many good reasons for this is to allow people some amount of time to find the triangle on the map. If they're forced to stand there, the people who luck on seeing the triangle first have that many seconds headstart. If they're running and the corridor is long enough, the person who finds it first has longer to read the leg, but not a second-for-second advantage on the course.}

Just one little nitpick:

With all the turns involved on the route to Sunday's event center, O-signs would have been helpful. I had to stop in the hospital parking lot to pull out the directions (printed from the website) and memorize the street names and turns.

It won't be a valid CSU meet if there were O-signs...that's part of the allure.

I enjoyed Sunday's course, didn't mind the flagged start at all - it worked well. I second the comment about the purple being hard to read on top of the green.

Definitely wouldn't want to run through these woods later in the spring!

Have to say, and this is no fault of the organizers, that I thought it would be great to have an A meet so close to home, but in fact it wasn't as fun for me as a normal A meet ... the kids did their usual weekend stuff and I didn't have enough time to hang out and chat with other orienteers because I got dragged off to do 'normal' things. Orienteering is more fun than watching 9 year olds play soccer!

Please keep the remote start triangles. Things always seem to go more smoothly with those, especially with flow and fairness at the start area.

Has anyone got some photos of the Pine Hill terrain? I've been admiring the map on RG, would be nice to compare with reality.

The official name is the "Middlesex Fells" reservation; then Google is your friend.

eg:
http://images.google.com/images?q=middlesex+fells+...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eaf/sets/721575944941...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/banerjee/3393685659/

People tend not to take photos of the mapped green, but you can get a sense of the rock types.