Discussion: Dude

111 - 7 = 104. Just sayin'.

I also blew 5+ minutes on one control this weekend. More supporting evidence for my theory that you and I are actually East/West evil twins. We've been known to tie major races, and if I may paraphrase (unable to locate the actual quotes) you claim to be "too pretty to die" and "dead sexy," or something to that effect. I have these problems as well.

Man... that feeling... Still cudos for not giving up! In your defence though, looking at K's GPS, that turn before #10 is not as sharp as it is shown on the map, so there is that... However, you had it going really well up to this point! Nice to see the hard work pay off, it is time to convert quantity into quality though... Looking towards racing with you later in the year.

Sigh. My usual strategy for these races is get out to an early lead, then blow it all on one control. One of these days, I will figure out how to orienteer. We've all really got to get it together. Thanks for the encouragement.

By the way, "too pretty to die" is a Firefly reference.

That curve was … interesting. I was looking for it (and thinking that maybe the concurrent change from a big trail to a littler trail would be more abrupt) and the whole thing was quite gradual; it might be mapped a bit too curved. I'm pretty used to running in to thick woods and stumbling around for the control so it felt natural to me, but it was pretty icky in there. I don't aspire to arson, though.

Getting close!

I might have skipped #10.

Ian, great initiative and a great skip. It takes guts to skip #1, and I think it was absolutely the right call here. You are not far off from being able to hold it all together for the entire race. Well done! It's fun to watch you get better. Ready for Long Night at Jukola 2016?

Go for it!

Long Night is a relative expression: Long is correct but it´s usually not very dark in mid-June...

Very well done, Ian. One control from winning a BG is better than I'd ever done a decade ago - and better than I did even on Sunday in that regard.

I almost missed #10 too - only saved by you & Will crashing out of the woods there.

Keep up the orienteering practice, incl. knowing when to focus, that I, too, struggled with more than usual on Sunday (was the heat getting to us?)

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. I'll figure this out one day. I think I just need to practice lots more controls; my error probability is unacceptably high. Maybe I need to race against AliC to invoke the abject terror that motivates maximum concentration.

Neil, when are you going to run a Billygoat again? We can have a bake sale to bring you back.

Ari - I actually never noticed that the trail to 10 transitions from major trail to minor trail. Oops.

The transition is gradual, and your opinion of where it changes may be different than the mapper's. Not something to ever rely on, nor are vegetation changes unless they're really abrupt (dark green to white). PG's note about the topography on the side of the trail is the best way to do it, with the most likely alternatives probably being to pace count from the previous trail junction, or to just intentionally overshoot to the boulder and back up from there for your attack.

With ten percent of the cake sold going to me, I'd definitely come.

I'm trying to parse that. I think it means that somebody has to pay for 10% of the cake and let Neil eat it.

It's also unclear if Neil's statement imposes some contraints on the volume of cake sold. Does the total amount of cake sold have to equal the price of bringing him, with 10% going to him? Or do we just have to sell a (non-zero, I guess) quantity of cake and tithe from everyone's purchase to guarantee his attendance?

The raises an interesting proposition: as a competitor, there are races (e.g. the Billygoat) at which I would pay more to enter if the extra fee was used to increase the depth of the field, say by subsidizing attendance. I would prefer a $50 Billygoat with 150 competitors to a $25 Billygoat with 75 competitors (numbers arbitrary), especially if competitors like AliC, ndobbs, BorisGr, Rosstopher, Giacomo, LaBaguette, and various Canadians were selected.

How much would you pay to have the increased field include TA?