CNYO - "A Hope -N- A Holla"

	Central New York Orienteering
	"A Hope -N- A Holla" — Meet Notes
	Updated: 09/21/2006	Sponsored by: www.LightLink.com

A USOF-Sanctioned "A" Meet
"A Hope -N- A Holla"
Saturday-Sunday, September 23-24, 2006
2006 Northeast Regional Sprint-, Middle-, and Classic-Distance Orienteering Championships

Meet Director's Notes

Course Setter's Notes — Day 1

Course Setter's Notes — Day 2

Meet Director's Notes — Eric Smith:We hope that you will enjoy this weekend of orienteering festivities! We are providing three different styles of races on the weekend with a considerable difference in the terrain between Saturday and Sunday. The sprints on Saturday morning are intended to be spectator friendly—you will be able to catch glimpses of people on many of the courses during the early going. Starts for the sprint are being roughly seeded by rankings—known faster runners will be leaving at the end of the start window. There will be starts every 30 seconds; this allows us to compress the entire start window into a one-hour time frame. Were everyone to run their typical pace, the finish window might turn out to be even shorter!

Starts for the middle-distance race on Saturday afternoon will begin at 1pm, and will be seeded based on the finish times for the morning sprints. Any runners not having participated in the sprints will be placed at the very beginning of the start order. Again, the starts will be compressed into not much over an hour window. This has left few vacancies in the start list. If you miss your assigned start time, you will have to wait until the very end of the starts to provide appropriate intervals between starters in the same class.

There will be awards for Northeastern Champions presented at the end of the racing on Saturday, for the fastest runner in each class coming from the Northeast region. (Awards in both Sprint- and Middle-distance events, but only 1st place in each race.)

Dinner will be at the Elks Club in Cortland. Ideally you will have booked a spot in advance, but we have reservations available such that we can sell an additional 10% or so of tickets to the first to apply. We think you will find the dinner to be an excellent value for the money, and it will of course be a great place to socialize.

On Sunday, we will move from the less-detailed terrain typical of central New York to Lime Hollow Nature Center which has a very interesting post-glacial mix of depressions, eskers, marshes, etc. which should provide some interesting challenges despite the existence of a rather extensive trail network.

Awards for the combined-time 3-race results, plus awards for the Northeast in this classic-distance race will follow shortly after completion of the races.

CNYO members have put in a great deal of effort to organize this event. Special thanks go to Mark Dominie for mapping, Barb Dominie (also registrar) and Ann Leonard for course setting/vetting, but there are many other individuals who have put in long hours on the day of the event, and in some cases in prior preparation. PLEASE if you have any complaints about the organization, don't complain to our volunteers, but come directly to me with your problems! We want to continue to have volunteers for future events, though we of course do want to correct any perceived difficulties before next time.

We are very appreciative of the help and cooperation of the folks at Hope Lake and Greek Peak Resorts for making the area available to us, and also to the Gutchess Hardwoods lumbering company which delayed their logging on part of the area by a week or so to avoid disrupting our map and courses for the event! Also, the Lime Hollow Center for Environment & Culture and the Cortland Convention and Visitors Center have been very helpful to us throughout our planning and execution of the event.

Day 1 Course Setter's Notes — Barbara Dominie: The day 1 portion of this event consists of the Sprint- and the Middle-Distance courses. There are many controls in close proximity to each other throughout the area from all courses. Be very careful to check the control descriptions and control codes. This is a new map at 1:5,000 scale for the Sprints, 1:7,500 scale for the white, yellow and brown Middle-distance and 1:10,000 scale for the orange, green, red and blue Middle-distance. Courses and corresponding clue sheets for each event are identified with a capital letter denoting the race discipline. S for Sprint-, M for Middle- and C for Classic-distance (i.e.: "green M" = Green Middle-distance course/clues).

Here are a few things specific to the day 1 terrain you should be aware of:

There are many faded short pink ribbons from when the area was surveyed for the new construction project. Don't let these ribbons distract you.
I've marked whatever barbed wire fence I found with either long pink or orange ribbon, but there is almost assuredly more that is not flagged so be careful!
This area is a cross-country ski area during the winter so you may find wooden pallets and small logs (corduroy) on the trails in low spots or where water oozes or drains. Also, some of the plastic drainage pipes are exposed, so please be careful not to trip on them.
There is one bridge that is unsafe to cross by foot (OK if you have your skis on) that may be encountered on the advanced courses. It has been ribboned off with yellow caution tape. PLEASE do not try to cross this bridge. It has a purple X overprinted on the map.
Due to the very wet summer, the Goldenrod is very lush and tall in the rough open areas, much more than anticipated or is normal. If you pay attention, you can work your way around the worst of it. It can be slow going, especially if wet. Unfortunately, these areas could not be avoided, especially for the red and blue courses.
There was some logging done last winter in a couple of areas. They are marked with wide, light green diagonal bars on your map. Most of the upper courses go through these areas. Runnability is surprisingly okay, just a bit of slash on the ground.
Even with all the rain we've had this summer, all the streams are easily crossable. On the other hand, the trails are damp and soft and the hillsides are "oozy".
The start, finish and go controls are in close proximity to each other, so make sure you don't miss the GO control. Also they are close to the main pavilion, so be aware that competitors will be running through the spectator areas and please don't interfere or assist anyone.

The start and finish areas are near the main pavilion and parking area, so the walk to the start is only a minute or two at the most. The Sprint starts are at 30-second intervals on each course, while the Middle & Classic-distance starts are at 1-minute intervals on each course. The start windows for all three events are about 1 hour in length. Start times for all events are seeded. The Sprint start times are based on the rolling USOF rankings for each class. If your not ranked on your entered class you will start first in the window. The Middle-distance start times will be based off your placing in the Sprint (slowest to fastest). If you were a DNF or didn't participate in the Sprint you will be seeded at the beginning of the start window. The Classic starts will be based off your placing in the Middle-distance (slowest to fastest) with DNF's, non-runners, etc. again starting first. Since we do not assign any vacant slots throughout the start window you will have to start at the end if you miss your assigned start time.

Awards for Northeast Champs for the Sprint- and Middle-distance races will be given out Saturday afternoon as soon as results are complete. We're shooting for 3:30 - 4:00pm.

Day 2 Course Setter's Notes — Ann Leonard: NOTE: There is limited parking at Lime Hollow. Please park as directed by parking personnel, and snuggle your car in close so everyone can fit. Thanks! Start and Finish are close together and an easy walk from parking.

The Lime Hollow Nature Center is a new map for CNYO. The site has never been used for an orienteering meet of any size. The intricate and challenging terrain is a varied mix of eskers, knolls, dry pits, marshes and streams, and New York State's usual spur and reentrant fare.

TWO Cautionary Remarks!!!

There are junk piles here and there. I have attempted to remove broken glass in areas that seem reasonable route choices. If you come upon a junk heap, proceed with caution until you clear the area.
There are many ruined barbed wire and mesh wire fences. Wherever runners are apt to come barreling through, I have streamered these nearly invisible barriers with pink ribbon as a precautionary measure. If you see pink ribbons in the woods please watch your step until you are clear of this linear booby trap. Not all the wire is up in the air, some is hidden under years of duff. If despite all precautions you do happen to get snagged, be sure to wash, disinfect and bandage all cuts immediately after your race, as cuts from rusty barbed wire are notoriously slow to heal and get infected easily.

There are many trails on this map, so many in fact, that they can become "trail spaghetti" and confuse the daylights out of you. The woods are generally wide open and runnable. The fields are not so kind, featuring goldenrod and aster (in full bloom this time of year) that is shoulder high in places. There are also varied brambles that will get your attention by grabbing hold of your legs and hanging on for dear life. Running through these fields in shorts is NOT a good idea unless you really enjoy looking like you have tangled with a wildcat and lost. In general, the more green dots there are mapped within a yellow field, the more vicious the neighborhood. Dark green really, truly means "fight" on this map; however, our ample deer population has a handy network of "social trails" that cut through the green. It is not feasible to map all these little trails as they will vary year to year; however, if your optimum route choice is to cut through the green, look for a deer track going your way. You're likely to find one.

Wooden marsh walks and bridges WILL be slippery, especially so when wet. Watch your step. Marshes and streams will have water in them, though not to the brim. I guarantee you will get your feet wet and muddy, so no worries, right? Slog on though.

If an area has been marked out of bounds (diagonal purple hatches on the map) please do not trespass. We wish to continue to use this map in future and need to stay on good terms with the neighbors.

RED and BLUE runners. Your maps are two sided to avoid the use of a map exchange. Exercise caution when re-folding your map during your run so that you don't inadvertently end up on the "wrong" side of the map.