Discussion: Highlander 2012

It's never too early to start thinking about next year's Highlander. I see that on AP's events page, it is listed as planned for October 7. I wonder if it is possible to convince the powers that be (JJ? Bernie? Alan? Neil? Paul B?) to move it to the following weekend.

There are a couple of reasons for this.

(1) Team USA, with help from DVOA, is organizing an open training camp the week before and after NAOC (October 14-26 or so). The aim is to provide quality training opportunities in great terrain and attract some Scandinavian clubs to make a club trip out of it. Since Harriman is legendary in the Scandi orienteering circles, I think the Highlander would be a major draw for potential European visitors. Having it the week before NAOC would make this an irresistible package and could result in record attendance for the Highlander.

(2) The Ontario Orienteering Champs are also the weekend of October 7, so moving the Highlander would make for a great schedule of orienteering events in the Northeast in October 2012.

Is it a good idea to run an ultralong course one week before a Regional Championship? I think holding the Highlander two weeks before NAOC would give athletes a much more appropriate time period to recover.

Agree with T/D. Especially important to the demographic with long HH streaks who'd like to be competitive in their age group at NAOC. Perhaps a club in the Northeast (or the US Team) could be convinced to fill the intervening weekend with an A-meet.

You can't please everybody but would holding the Highlander the weekend after NAOC be out of the question? Probably there are vegetation reasons against that but it can't hurt to ask and it would presumably achieve Boris' goals just as well as holding it the weekend before.

Otherwise, it's no help to the Scandis but maybe the older HH streakers should get three weeks to recover.

What is QOC doing in the fall of 2012? Y'all should join in the fun and get something on the calendar in DC around then.

Talk to Brautigam. Or Bennett. One of them is probably setting the course. But the date I picked made sense to me when I picked it, and it still does. (If the Scandis want to run the course for training later, we could probably arrange a way for that to happen. And record attendance for the Highlander is not necessarily something we're shooting for.)

Hmm, I was expecting that this suggestion would be met with at least some amount of enthusiasm, but instead I get the complete opposite. Fine, never mind.

Clem, the point isn't just to have some event hosted by some club in the Northeast US, but something specifically on Harriman, because it is by far the biggest draw and the only place with real orienteering name recognition for European orienteers.

I like boris' idea. Myself and a few others were contacted by one the world's best orienteers in the summer because the individual wanted to race the highlander. Harriman is a huge draw and if there was a sprint or middle on the Saturday it would be an even bigger draw. Two weekends in the US (with a camp and races in harriman) and another in Ontario in the middle could become a great autumn draw for Europeans! It just takes planning like Boris suggested.

Adding a saturday event to the HH would be easy. We could put the rec courses out the day before and HH runners could do them. Come to think of it, we could have done that this year.

Just to be clear, I'm not intending to sound like I'm in opposition to the idea, I'm just saying that I'm not the guy to talk to about the 2012 event (despite the fact that I'm the guy who posted it on the calendar).

QOC is due to hold an A meet sometime soon but for various reasons (vegetation, NAOC potentially blotting out the sun so other October 2012 events wither in its shadow, etc.) I think spring 2013 is more likely than fall 2012.

Maybe this paper (thanks for the pointers, Neil) holds a solution to this USA Orienteering Tour problem.

Yeah, using a little Lagrangean relaxation would do the trick... (not that I know what it is, but it sounds like it could).

If someone were serious about the NAOC but didn't want to expend themselves on the HH they could opt for the LL

@jtorranc: I think we should extend the metaphor further. Should QOC (or any other enterprising, ambitious club) put on an event around the time of NAOC (and not conflicting with WCOC on the following weekend) they will join a coruscating binary star system with such mass that it will shift the axis of the earth. And with all that candlepower working together, everyone will bask in the warmth.

@j-man: It would be great if the axis shifted so as to make Magnetic North = True North.

Not an option for me Carl.

Having a possible link between HH and NAOC would be super fun and awesome- before? after? Clashing with Ontario stuff is not perfect, they're good meets not that far away. Those most focused on NAOCs might opt for LL, but those who have done the HH forever might judge that that is more important than their NAOC performance?

There are a few people I can think of who have long-running Highlander streaks, and who are also strong contenders for the North American championship in their respective categories. Which should not be surprising. Joe is certainly among them.