200 control Mega-course

[Spookster]

There's an event in the US next weekend (Pawtuckaway, New Hampshire, World Cup 1992) at which the world record for number of controls on a course will get broken - 200 controls in 18.38km!

I'm working in the US next week, so I'm going.

With an average leg-length of 90m I guess it could feel more like Micro-O than Long-O. I'll try to post the course online afterwards.

Mega Course
Pawtuckaway map sample

[Nails]

looks like you might be punching a boulder or two! Now i know where the cf map names come from!

[CJF]

My husband orienteered there a few years back, he wasn't too experienced but I remember him commenting that there are even more boulders than mapped, they only map the hugh ones, so ones that would be mapped in this country did not feature. I believe he said that the boulders were generally bigger than 4Metres. I could be wrong.


Hocolite

[Kitch]

Yes, the boulders....

I was nearing the end of my course, stretching out across a beautiful open section of forest.
You know the sort of dreamy deciduos stuff, mature trees, no real undergrowth, clear open views, lovely soft leafy floor. It was even a nice gentle downhill gradient, encouraging me into greater speed.

Next thing I know I was on the ground in agony.
My knee !
My knee !
What just happened to my knee ??!!!

I rolled around making noise, then I opened my eyes.
There it was a 1 metre high boulder, just sitting there calm as you like, obvious as you like, clearly unperturbed by its recent collision with my left knee.

I still have no idea where it came from but there is no doubt that it materialised from thin air because there is simply no way whastoever that I could not have seen the thing.

This may explain why all the boulders are not mapped - because they are not there all the time.

Strange forests - beware......

[Hammer]

Pawtuckaway was first used for the 1992 World Cup race. I have only run there once (1994?) and I recall all boulders less than 1m weren't on the map. The maps is also famous for the stacked form lines. In one area there are 5 formlines between contours! (gasp).

The day before the US shatters the most controls in a race record is the finals of the North American Sprint Series. 3 elimination knock-out sprint races based on standings from all sprint races held in North America this year.

[Ancient Grouse]

I 'ran' at Pawtuckaway in 1995 at the NEOC Camping Weekend - my first orienteering overseas. I retired on the first day after spending over 30 minutes looking for a 2 metre high boulder - I found lots of 2 metre (and bigger!) rocks but no flag!

The second day I was less ambitious and entered the Green course, with more success! The last control description was Boulder, 5.0m, East side - I found that one!

I really enjoyed the experience, and would love to go back - sadly work doesn't take me to the States these days. Not sure I'd fancy trying to locate 200 controls even if they are only 90m apart!

[Carnage Head]

What's the UK record for the biggest number of controls in a race? Are there any record-breaking attempts in the pipeline?

[Upnorthguy]

I ran the WC in 1992. They had a public race the next day that used a 12 metre high boulder as a control; fortunately it was not "top of".

[Mike]

So then Spookster, how was it? The maps are on the website - looks good!

[Spookster]

So then Spookster, how was it? The maps are on the website - looks good!

In a word, tough! 203 controls, 18.85km, 580m climb, almost all in terrain. Visibility was mostly too low to be able to see the next control from the last, so lots of intricate navigation.

All the controls had pin punches, but the organiser decided that punching was optional (there were some distinct controls with blue stripes - and you had to count how many of these there were on the course to prove you'd been to all of them). Several people did punch them all, and that probably added 15 mins to their overall time. I made a special control card with 203 boxes, and punched every one.

A bunch of Canadian squaddies ran round in about 2:45 just touching the controls. I was 3 hours 25 mins, and some people were taking about 6 hours!

The control description list was about 4 feet long, and apparently used every possible IOF description. I haven't checked yet! Surprisingly there were only 42 boulders.

Oh yes, and we set a new World Record...

Here's the course (in 3 segments):
Pawtuckaway East part
Pawtuckaway North part
Pawtuckaway West part

[Hammer]

Yeah this was a tough course.

One thing Spookster didn't mention was that there were a lot of branches on the ground and lots of branches in the face making it not only tough to see but really physical as well.

At about control #40 I thought that this was the coolest thing I had done in orienteering (maybe even better than Tio-mila).... by about control #120 (about the time I saw Spookster) I was gettign tired and thinking it was a tad silly. Fortunately the end of the course was technically easy and had some road/trail running.

Results are here: http://users.crocker.com/~pg/team/megaresults.htm

-Mike
P.S. Top three sweep by my club

[bendover]

nice going wadd! looks amazing.

you still heading over here?

ben

[Spookster]

Ok, it seems we didn't quite use all the IOF descriptions, but we certainly used most of them.

4 foot long control description list

Lots of discussion about the race over on Attack Point. And news of the event has spread. It seems the Norwegians are planning to retake the record, whilst the French think the "rules" weren't properly followed! Apparently you're supposed to have 15% electronic controls at random points on the course, to prove you went to all of them.

A control card with 203 punches proves that though!

[Hammer]

>you still heading over here?

Yup!


But yeah Ben this mega race was a lot of fun -- almost as much fun as the time I coached the Commonwealth "O" team to a 2nd place (out of two) in the international beer-O at the 1997 O-Ringen....

[Kitch]

a tad silly.

only a tad ?
not that theres anything wrong with silly.