Update Training April 26

The exact location for the training @ Churchill Park is the small brick building on the east side of the park. Paul Trebilcock is the host and he will also sell membership if anyone needs to purchase/re-new a membership. Start between 5.45pm and 6pm.

The course is 3.7 km, and it is the same course that high school ran at the school meet, which by the way attracted over 600 students. What if we could get 1% of them to come out Thursday evenings...?

Orienteering At Mineral Springs

The fourth and last practice in the GHO intraclub program for winter/spring 2007 is a line orienteering/regular orienteering at Mineral Springs (Dundas Valley). Since orienteering is NOT allowed in the Valley in May and June, the ribbons will be taken down next weekend (April 28-29). E-mail Hans - hans dot fransson at cogeco dot ca if you are interested in this training.

Also, thank you to all that came out to the previous trainings and to Waterloo that organized the March practice. GHO will evaluate this program to see if the club will change anything to next year. If you have any comments about the program, e-mail Hans - hans dot fransson at cogeco dot ca

GHO Thursday Night Training @ Tyandaga Hills - May 3

The training at Tyandaga Hills is ten days away, but everything is set to go. The course and map controller (see picture) was out today to inspect and you can see him coming out from the third control, the re-entrant. Seriously, the woods are awesome, very open, and although the area is small it is definitely worth the visit. As well, the map has been updated this spring.

SCHEDULE FOR ORIENTEERING TRAINING SPRING 2007

Thurs. April 26. Churchill Park, Hamilton. Regular orienteering course.

Thurs. May 3. Tyandaga Hills (Kern Cliff Park), Burlington, ON. Directions: from QEW - take Brant St exit N, turn W on to North Service Rd, turn right on to Kerns Rd. Follow Kerns Rd to Kern Cliff Park parking lot. From 403 - take Waterdown Rd exit, cross 403, turn right on North Service Rd, turn left on to Kerns Rd. Choose between line orienteering, regular orienteering, score orienteering or combine them.

Thurs. May 10. Iroqouia Heights, Hamilton. This area is very small, but the woods are very open and very nice. A precision compass exercise with or without trails on the map will be the alternative to the regular score orienteering.

Thurs. May 31 - Rockcliffe Trails, Waterdown - Hosted by Barb Campbell

Wed. June 6 - McMaster Sprint - Hosted by Liza Pye & Marley Taylor

Wed. June 20 - Hosted by Ian Sidders

Starting on May 31, you can check in for training sessions between 6:00-6:30 pm, and the course(s)will close at 7:30 pm sharp. Please respect the times.

GHO at Spring Tune-up

On a blustery Spring day GHO members did well in the GGO Spring Tune-up Farasta at the Forks of the Credit Provincial Park. The course was quite athletically challenging involving 2 to 3 loops with climbs up and down the 10% grade that of the Credit River ravine. The final loop was a sprint around the upper sections of the park. Barb Campbell won F35, Andrei Login M35, Trudy Deumer F45 and Richard Erlich M45 categories. Chris Piller was 2nd in M Elite. Congratulations to all. See the Spring Tuneup Results. Other racers participating were Serghei, Elena, Ian and Glenn.

Giant's Rib Raid 2007

After running in T-shirts and shorts in late March, winter returned for this year's Giant's Rib Raid on Saturday April 7! The race course, designed by Mark Adams with help from Chris Piller, started and finished at the Halton Country Inn near Milton, travelling through Hilton Falls, Kelso and Rattlesnake Point Conservation Areas. The weather was a few degrees below freezing, with blowing snow flurries for part of the day, but there was an excellent turn-out anyway - 40 teams for the 25K event, and 6 teams for the new 10K event.

As always, the race was interesting and included a wide variety of challenges. Most teams began with members doing relay loops around the golf course, then heading over the stile to the Bruce Trail. After finding a couple of controls near the Halton Country Inn, we had a trail and road run to Kelso Conservation Area, where we did a long "Walk The Line" segment using a black & white map with little information other than contours, vegetation boundaries and the lake. There were 4 controls hidden along the line, and if a team missed finding one, they had to go back. After that, it was time to climb the ski hill, which was coated in slippery layers of snow and ice. There were several controls to find at the top of Kelso, using the "Walk The Line" map and an aerial photo from Google maps at different points.

Next it was time to run on Steeles Ave to the back of Rattlesnake Point Conservation Area. Still using an aerial photo, teams did a scramble where they could visit three controls in any order before doing a long trail and road run back to Hilton Falls. Next up at Hilton Falls was a new section called the MicrObe. The map contained a limited amount of information, e.g. just the top contour for a hilltop control, with blank space all around. The trails were also provided for relocation purposes, and a couple of major features such as cliffs. Teams visited controls in alphabetical order until they had found two controls with SI units. Then they could leave to find the next control. At #11, teams could split up to find the 4 controls in the Matrix, reuniting at #12. The next challenge was a tricky climb down a cliff to visit a couple of controls in crevices and rocky areas beside the Niagara Escarpment. Finally, teams ran to the finish line for pizza, prizes and stories.

Results are available here. The overall winners in the 25K event were the Foreigners with a time of 3:03. Our own Coach Hans and Team GHO Canada GHO finished 2nd overall. Beowulf was the top Coed team, and Lost Bearings were the top Masters team. The QuantiGHO Queen Bees won the female category. In the 10K event, team "Which Way is North?" took the top honours with a time of 2:42.

Great job by race organizers and volunteers. Thanks for all your hard work to give us a fun time!

Thomass Eliminator Preliminary Results

The 2007 Thomass Eliminator was a very interesting event! Using Sport Ident gear, data analysis was possible for the three loops. Hammer set a quite intriguing course that's subtlety was difficult to foresee. See Eliminator Results for the final results. For a more complete analysis of SI gear use in this format see SI Case Study. Barb had an excellent day, winning both first rounds with the weather becoming a factor in the last.


Ian