Thomass Blithe Hill - Nov. 26

The winter orienteering season got off to a balmy start yesterday as 50 racers competed in the first Thomass event at Blithe Hill Nurseries north of Orangeville. This private land, with its varied terrain and beautiful views, was mapped for the 2006 Canadian Orienteering Champs and used as the model training area for that event.

Giles Malet and Andrea Chappell designed an interesting course that was longer than usual, including two Thomass Boxes with seven controls each. There was the potential to do a lot of hill climbing or log jumping, depending on route choice, which made for a physically challenging morning. This led to a winning time of 52:36 and a wide spread in the results, but the Gators made the wait worthwhile by providing a yummy post-race spread of chili and apple cider.

GHO had an awesome start to the 2006/07 Thomass season, sweeping all the categories:

1st Junior - Serghei Logvin, tied for 1st overall
1st Man - Andrei Logvin, tied for 1st overall
1st Woman - Barb Campbell, tied for 4th overall
2nd Woman - Trudy Deumer
1st Team - Silence Beckons - Trudy Deumer, Ian Sidders, Pierre Robitaille

Results, splits, photos and event feedback form can be found here.

GHO is putting on the next event - the Thomass Chase at Bronte Creek Park on Dec. 10. See you there!

Faster. Faster? Faster?

Suggestion for this week's Thursday training. Pick one, or both loops, and then run the loop(s), one, two, three, x times. If doing multi loops, the goal is to run each loop(s) a little bit faster each time. If you're really up for a challenge, leave your watch (hidden!) somewhere around the start/finish by the club house.

Free Orienteering Clinic

Ontario's (and Canada's, perhaps the world's...) newest club, Waterloo Stars, is hosting a navigation clinic this Sunday in the Kitchener/Waterloo area. Nick Duca is the organizer, and he has graciously invited all GHO GOLD card members as well. There is no charge for this clinic, but you need to bring your GOLD card. No exceptions. See the Stars' web site for more details.

POST RAID THE HAMMER BENDER

Started in 2005, members of the Golden Horseshoe Orienteering Club got together for an informal laid back post-training and post-race gathering or as we like to call it a "BENDER".

Keeping with tradition, if you endured the pain from last weekend at the Raid the Hammer (RTH), you are invited to join us for a post-RTH gathering to discuss race stories, route choices, and what you liked or disliked about the course over some food and drinks at a local establishment.

More importantly, this is an excuse to get out and catch up with old friends and meet new ones in the process. As well, if you know people interesting in adventure running, feel free to invite them out so they can see what it's all about.

Join us for intervals starting at 6PM at Chedoke Golf Course or join us just for the Bender at 8PM. Here are the details...

THE DETAILS
When: November 21 (Tuesday Night)
Where: East Side Mario’s in University Plaza (119 Osler Drive, Dundas ON)
Time: 8 PM
Directions: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=119+Osler+Drive,+Dundas+ON+Canada&hl=en

If interested please give Jason (jasonc at mountaincable dot net) the heads up for numbers by November 19th.

Golf Orienteering

You don't need to bring your putter though! The suggested Thursday training this week is distance running with some easier navigation.
The maps can be found here and here. Start and finish by the club house, and the checkpoints are the white rocks that can be find on each tee. To get a little bit of distance, run all odd holes first and the even numbered holes.

Team Supplierpipeline win Raid the Hammer

The trio of Bob Miller, Scott Ford and Bill Wells on Team Supplierpipeline (SPI) held off former North American orienteering Champion Nick Duca and his team (The Foreigners) to cruise to an easy win at this year's Raid the Hammer. SPI is Canada's top international adventure racing team. Earlier this year they placed 4th at the very prestigious and very tough Primal Quest Adventure race in the US. Just 2 weeks ago they beat Team Nike in a race in Mexico. The three veteran international adventure racers participate in many orienteering races during the year including GHO Canada GHO training and the THOMASS winter series.

"I did my first Raid the Hammer/Raid the Rib in 2000, and have tried to race in them ever since. I've been adventure racing for 7 years, and I started orienteering a bit more over the past 2 years" says Miller.

"Orienteering is actually great practice for adventure racing, and vice versa. Both sports require strong navigation skills in order to excel. The mental challenges are also similar, since they often stem from good, or bad navigation. With adventure racing, there are the added mental challenges of sleep deprivation over multiple days, and constantly switching disciplines. However, some orienteering events (Rogaine's) also take place over a24-hour period, which brings the effects of sleep deprivation into the picture. For the past two years we've been incorporating as many orienteering events into our training as possible. We've found they help keep our navigation skills sharp, they've improved our off-trail running (bushwhacking) capabilities, and they provide a great up-tempo running workout" he adds.

Team Supplierpipeline is sending two teams to the NuevoLeon Outdoor Challenge (www.nloch2006.com) in Mexico at the end of the month. They are waiting to hear the official race dates for events in 2007 and in the mean time will use the THOMASS winter series for running and orienteering training.

Nick Duca, Giles Malet and Laszlo Orosz (Team Foreigners) took the early lead in this year's Raid the Hammer after the Matrix section where team members split up to get several checkpoints on their own, but SPI caught them on the run up the Niagara Escarpment. Duca has participated in the last 10 World Orienteering Championships and will focus on the THOMASS seies as well but adds "if I get some good training over the winter for next year selection races and who knows , maybe another WOC".

Third place was taken by Coalition of the Wiling with former North American Orienteering Champion Mark Adams, National orienteering squad member Chris Piller and marathon runner Wes Roberts.

The coed category was very close with the lead changing several times during the 4 hour race. Team Beowulf took the win followed by Compass Schmompass and Team Salomon/Suunto.
Fourth place coed was Team Indiana Pye comprising Liza Pye, a member of one of Canada's top AR teams (SRS), Simon Donatao (a veteran of international adventure racing) and Adam van Koeverden. Adam van Koeverden was a double medallist (Gold and Silver) in kayaking at the 2004 Olympics in Athens and used the Raid the Hammer for some endurance training.

Upcoming Adventure Running races....

THOMASS - the winter series this year will include a team competition. 7 races for only $175 for a team of 3. Now that is great winter adventure value!

GIANT's RIB RAID - Saturday, April 7th (Easter Weekend, Milton)

GHO wins Ontario Relay Champs

Well, the Logvin family actually won the Ontario Relay Championship for GHO.
Serghei, Elena and Andrei were the fastest team at the race last weekend at Albion Hills. The race was hosted by Ontario's newest orienteering club - The Waterloo Stars.

Winter Training Is Here!

Well, several degrees above zero and light drain is perhaps not typical winter weather, but...
1. The intevals took us around 17th fairway; we have done that loop the first Tuesday after the end of the daylight savings time for several years.
2. Someone was out on the golf course with ski poles. Ski poles are indeed typical winter items.
Definitely signs of winter...

Night O

Night orienteering is fun, but it can be challenging. If you want try, gain some more experience, or just have good orienteering training session, there is a night orienteering course set up on the Chedoke Falls map. The ribbons already out there, so you can choose when you want to run, but the ribbons will be taken down Friday. However, parts of the course is on the Chedoke golf course, so running during the day is NOT an option. Also, since some ribbons are on the course, there is no guarantee they will not be removed by a golfer or worker. Parts of the course are in the woods around the golf course, and there is also a small urban section. In other words, a great area for night O. You can either do this as a point-to-point orienteering, or score O. Your choice. This training is open to all members of any Ontario orienteering club. E-mail, before Tuesday, hans.fransson@cogeco.ca if you are interested, and a jpeg, or gif-file with map will be sent to you. Arrangements to get a hard copy might be possible, again, e-mail Hans.