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100 Point Score Course by Phil Giddings

Report

What a delightful area - wide, well-lit, tree-lined streets with some picture-postcard federation and weatherboard houses with lights on the front porch....very pretty indeed. We were most fortunate to have mild conditions at the end of an unseasonably hot day. As we arrived about 6:30 pm, Phil's garage door was open revealing that he, wife Lynette and daughter Clare had prepared drinks and nibbles for after the run (thanks folks - it changed the night from a simple training run to a very enjoyable social evening). 

What a great course! 25 well-placed controls for a total of 100 points, the map was crystal clear and - in contrast to last Saturday's - even had contours. The area is peppered with twisty-turny streets and tiny laneways and walkways that thread from one street to the next. At about 7:56, Phil briefed everybody on the event and we handed out maps 1-2 minutes before 7pm. We took the opportunity to tease Jun about being back on time - and as you can see from the scores below - he's almost got the hang of it. There was a rustle of paper as people turned over maps as the computer counted down to 7pm....and a brief moment's hesitation while people decided which way to go. Phil had cleverly set the course so that there were several high-scoring controls quite close-in, all you had to do was decide which one to do first.

Highlights/gossip from the evening included:

• Bayside Kangaroos refuse DROC's transfer offer for Ian Greenwood; apparently negotiations between DROC and the other clubs have not gone as well as hoped. For a while it looked like Vic Sedunary from Bayside might be prepared to take him on, but when he reviewed last year's Summer Series he realised that they had already had enough course-setting disasters of their own without putting themselves at risk of more.
   
• Geoff Adams overtakes runners - well a runner anyway - is making alternate route choices really fair? The twisty streets confused me briefly in the South-East corner of the map. Approaching #25, it took a few moments and a nudge from Geoff Adams coming up from behind to tell me I'd stopped too soon. I then compounded this sin by turning back along the road to go to #17, while Geoff just ducked around the corner and appeared on Canterbury Road about 100m ahead of me. Recognising that I'd redirected him at the previous control when he got momentarily confused - is this fair?
   
• Bryan Ackerly misses control 7 - no idea if this is true or not....perhaps Bryan can let us know.
   
• Ian Stirling - noted that he circumnavigates each pole to look for a pole number (and if he got dizzy doing this it may explain why he forgot to submit his control card for the second week running). I noted that David Prentice just put an X in such squares - although I was beginning to get suspicious about his power-walking score of 5-5-5-5-5 over the past few weeks...;-)
   
• Mark Besley issues homework - Volume 1 distributed at Mont Albert event provides an explanation of the activity next week. Please read the sheet provided or the PDF copy here in preparation for the event.
   
•  Keith Anker protests about location of two light poles - after long-consideration (taking about 2-3 seconds) he was advised that we just put the circles on the map, location of the poles is an issue for the council. Keith plans to avoid the 10,000 point fee for submitting a protest by taking it up with Booroondara Council ().
   
• Debbie Dodd had some weird - now unreadable - comment associated with #25. We'll investigate and report back.
   
• There are lots of new-folks coming along. Has everybody introduced themselves to Paul and Desiree? They bring the greyhound each week - if there's someone there that you don't know, please introduce yourselves
   
• David Prentice heading overseas - sabbatical in Bethlehem, Philadelphia. David is a lecture in economics and will probably get a close-up view of all the action if the US economy goes into a tail-spin again.
   
• The clock seems to be running slowly. It seems as if the computer clock loses time in the space of one event. This meant that people that thought they were late back, were not as late as expected. We'll investigate and report back soon.

Comments from Participants

Ian Greenwood. Another terrific map tonight and fantastic weather for running. I was a bit flat and only managed 10.2km. My course 14-8-21-2-22-4-20-15-10-18-6-24-16-17-25-7-1-23. There were many very clever control placements that made decisions very difficult. With 25 controls there was heaps of choice - well done Phil! (BTW - while transfer negotiations for me,  with other clubs, seem to have foundered I've been approached by Ian James to establish a Power Limping category at street-O. He suggests that as MFR have already got the elite side of things sewn up, maybe the new club could specialise in "unremarkable performances on flat courses". This seems to cover both of us from time to time. What do you think?

Results