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NEOC on Twitterby Ian Smith
Two A-meets, or national competitions, were held in March: the US Classic Championships in North Carolina and the 16th Flying Pig in Cincinnati. A-meets are major events sanctioned by the national federation, OUSA. Compared to local meets, A-meets are higher quality events, with months of advance planning, better courses, more stringent secrecy, and novel terrain. Results from A-meets are used to produce end-of-year national rankings.
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| North Carolina: A map sample from the Blue Course from Day 2 |
One of the best parts of A-meets is running in different terrain on unfamiliar maps. You can only run on a local map so many times before it becomes routine and memory is as much an asset as the map. At the start of a race on a new map, you boldly run into the unknown. Each terrain type invites certain techniques and poses distinct challenges. There are two upcoming A-meets near New England: the annual West Point A-meet in West Point, NY on the weekend of May 5, and NEOC’s own creatively named Western MA 5-Day: five races packed into two days on May 26-27 in Amherst, MA. Because of the extensive logistics involved, competitors must register for A-meets weeks ahead of time. Early registration for both West Point and the Western MA 5-Day closes in mid-April, so register now! Links are on the NEOC schedule page.
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| Izzy Bryant runs into the woods at England-Idlewild at the Flying Pig. Photo credit: Julie Keim |
The Classic Champs is one of the two major championships each year – the other is the Sprint, Middle, and Long Championship, which this year will be in Atlanta, Georgia in mid-April. The Classic Championship consists of two races – one on each day – of “classic” distance – with a winning time of about an hour. The location of the race changes each year, and the Backwoods Orienteering Klub hosted this year on a new map in the Uwharrie National Forest. About thirty New Englanders made the 700-mile trek.
In North Carolina, the Birkhead Wilderness map is characterized as ridge-and-valley terrain and is dominated by long, hilly ridges and broad networks of reentrants and streams in deciduous forest. Rock features and trails were sparse, and the map was dominated by rolling hills and valleys. Many competitors navigated exclusively using the contours. The Championship was awarded based on the combined time from the two races, and NEOC made a good showing. Meg Parson and Isabel Bryant took 1st and 2nd in F20, Tim Parson and Bill Pullman took 1st and 3rd in M55, Peter Gagarin and Jeff Saeger took 1st and 2nd in M60 – separated by 32 seconds, Gail Gagarin took 1st in F60, Alison Crocker took 1st in F21, and Giacomo Barbone took 3rd in M21.
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| Kentucky: a sample from the middle course at England-Idlewild |
The Flying Pig event has been a staple on the US event calendar for the past sixteen years. This year’s event doubled as the Eastern States Interscholastic Championship, and many middle school and high school students showed up to compete. Only four NEOCers made the trip to Ohio – Barb Bryant, Isabel Bryant, Dave Yee, and Ian Smith. The event had four races on three maps over four days: a middle distance at Middle Creek Park, a sprint and middle at England-Idlewild, and a middle at Big Bone Lick. Each map presented its own challenges: Middle Creek had thick vegetation, steep hills, and copious deadfall; England-Idlewild had a complex maze of open and dense vegetation with numerous trails, and Big Bone Lick had broad reentrants with numerous parallel erosion gullies inviting navigational disaster.
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| Ian Smith finishes at Big Bone Lick State Park at the Flying Pig. Photo credit: Julie Keim |
The setting for the sprint was fantastic – about half of the race was in open terrain in a park, while the other half navigated the twisty routes of a hilly Frisbee golf course. Traversing the thick vegetation that bounded the fairways was necessary for optimal times. Overall, the variety of courses and terrains was delightful, and while northern Kentucky terrain can be unpleasantly muddy, hilly, and thick, the event was great fun and very well orchestrated. The elite men’s field had 37 competitors – more than is typical at non-championship events – and was heavily reinforced by a contingent of West Point Cadets. Very strong showings from some Canadians pushed all the Americans out of the medals.
In addition to West Point and the Western MA 5-day, a large number of New Englanders are attending the US Sprint, Middle and Long Championships in Atlanta, Georgia on April 13-15. In addition to being the SML Champs and a World Ranking Event, the A-meet will serve as the team trials to determine who will represent the United States at the 2012 World Champions in Lucerne, Switzerland. Stay tuned for news!
Links:
2012 BOK US Classic Champs website
2012 Flying Pig results
Team Canada's Flying Pig Racing Report
