Lessons Learned
Following are some observations that were made during the course of preparing for and running this event. Some are my own, some have been passed to me by others. All in the spirit of continuously improving the quality of events offered by NEOOC.
Feel free to submit your own comments to mike@neooc.com.
- For early Spring and late Fall events, when vetting the courses, consider how the imminent change in foliage will affect how easy (Fall) or difficult (Spring) it will be to find controls.
- For self-serve events, have another person vet the set-up of the apps needed to run the courses, in addition to vetting the courses in the field. (Apologies to Tom F. and any others who were inconvenienced by the control order error in the iOrienteering setup on the Hills-B course!)
- The GPS option did not appear to be a popular choice, and for those who used it there were some issues in registering a few of the controls. Consider offering Livelox as the option for runners who would like a hands-free run. Livelox will register a “punch” if a runner is at a control but will not provide any feedback to the runner during the event.
- On the Hills courses, particularly the A course, using 106 (bridge) as control 11 was a poor choice, since one of the possible routes from 9 to 10 took the runner right by 11.
- There could have been more variety in control locations between the two Hills courses.
- Leg lengths on the Hills courses could have been more varied, and mixed up, to reduce monotony.
- Control flags can survive without being bothered for an extended period of time on well-traveled trails. This can raise a curiosity outside of our normal audience to find out what orienteering is all about. (How can this be capitalized on?)
- Consider placing iOrienteering course set-up QR codes adjacent to the Start/Finish controls, instead of on the maps. They can be made larger and easier to scan, and reduces map clutter.
Volunteers – Many Thanks!!
- Course design: Mike Avery
- Control setting: Mike, Jay Smink
- Map Preparation: Bob Boltz, Mike Avery
- Event Director: Mike Avery and Fred Mailey
- Results: Mike, Fred
- Control Collection: Mike, Justine Avery
- Park liaison: Howard Montgomery
Results
Resources
LiveLox – Upload and Replay Routes
iOrienteering Results Pages
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- Lake Course, QR Code
- Lake Course, GPS – no participants
- Hills-A Course, QR Code
- Hills-A Course, GPS
- Hills-B Course, QR Code
- Hills-B Course, GPS
Simple Splits Browser – check back soon