Monday Night Fun Running

Impending rain and a number of absences lowered numbers a little tonight. We had consulted Blair's rain radar just before leaving home and it indicated that Hurricane Gustav had somehow moved from the Gulf of Mexico to an area north of Melbourne - and it was heading towards Glen Waverley at speed. Convinced that it was going to rain "chats et chiens", several of us donned wet weather gear - only to discover to our horror that we baked during the event. No rain...or not very much anyway! Eric Davidson blamed Geoff for spreading alarm amongst those present - and noted that it was like running in a portable sauna.

Many present found the exercise a little difficult - partly due to the double-sided map but also due to the way in which Louise had cunningly hidden the control circles and associated numbers on the maps. While they were perhaps a little faint, one should note that as a result of a PDF copy of the map, circles could only be drawn with a (admittedly 4H) pencil and subsequently photocopied. Under bright lights in the office, I thought "they'll do..." but on reflection I found them very difficult to read at night, inside a plastic pocket and in wet conditions.

Did anyone else have trouble with uneven footpaths this evening? I found a number of locations where residents were in the middle of construction or had failed to trim trees/bushes that overhang the footpath. It would have been better to run on the road, but there was quite a lot of traffic around this evening.

I also had trouble with kids on scooters - one particularly annoying lad whizzed past me on several occasions...even uphill. I was so jealous!

Suzanne fakes serious illness to avoid double-sided map

Rumour had it that Suzanne approached a friendly GP and got herself diagnosed with pneumonia so she could avoid Louise's double-sided map activity. While she admitted in a discrete conversation with Peter Maloney that she was a little afraid of the concept, she was clearly upset that her absence tonight meant that somebody else would have to step up and eat her share of the chocolate dumplings. Peter notes that Louise took care of everything - and had two serves (although, I must note in passing that I've never seen anyone eat as much chocolate mousse as Ian Greenwood - and still find themselves able to move afterwards).

Get well soon Suzanne - we'll see you when you're fit enough to come back out for a run!

Bryan and Bruce leave the country for the same reason

Oh alright, it's not really true....Bruce and Bryan are participating in the Radio Direction Finding championships in Korea over the next week or two.

Recent Feedback

• Gordon Wilson - not one of my better efforts.
• Mark Jarvis - I got lost and wandered around that stupid lake for at least 5 minutes!
• Ian Stirling found a marked path that was no longer a viable route choice - and we will notify Mike/Judy of this. A ragged hedge on a bowling green gives the impression that the park has started much earlier than it really did - and while there was a suspicion that the map might have been faulty here too, we visited the spot later and verified that it was OK.

• Ian Dodd - I ran and walked.  I was (very) late.  This was entirely Schon's fault as she failed to yell out to me that I had gone up the wrong road.

Ian's Maps

The map Ian ran with - flipped horizontally	Another possibility - a photographic negative Interestingly, it was easier to read at night!	We couldn't be so mean - a negative, rotated and resized map. Felt by those present to be impossible to use!

Organising an event

If you haven't already done so, we need everybody to log into the training database and pick a date, a map and a course. If you haven't used it yet, why not check it out now at http://street.orienteering.com.au/training/login.asp