tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18770141384017005522024-09-20T19:54:09.269-07:00Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.comBlogger104125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-11290165480384205112013-04-15T12:13:00.002-07:002013-04-15T12:13:40.067-07:00

Hot, hot, hot... And it's only April... I guess I forgot how hard it could be here during the summer heat. Battling cold and not running for the last two weeks didn't help either. As a result I was so exhausted by the end of the run, I could hardly stand. And that after I pretty much walked the last third of the course. My time reflected the struggle: 80 mins of 6.9 km with decent navigation - it

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-82265222451332017892012-12-17T12:15:00.000-08:002012-12-17T15:10:15.987-08:00

We got lucky with the weather the second weekend in a row - it was unusually warm for December. Tanya and I went to Josef's traditional 6KM sprint in High Point on Saturday and then to an advanced meet in South Umstead on Sunday. Both courses were a lot of fun! High Point event is one of my favorite events - period. 26 controls with 1:5000 map scale in a somewhat greenish area - very unusual and

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-36099680849391178052012-09-12T15:45:00.000-07:002012-09-12T15:47:11.165-07:00

I was asked on Facebook if I used a MT bike during this event. I did not! :) It was just a very good run for me, maybe the best I ever had in Umstead. I ran all the way, didn't make serious mistakes (there was one where I lost 50 secs or so and another where I lost 10 secs), but everything else was clean and close to optimal. It helped that there were no major hills and the forest was pretty

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-32944879503747397842012-03-20T14:41:00.003-07:002012-03-20T14:52:34.661-07:00

Yes, we'll be orienteering in Umstead this year as well!!! Hard to believe it, I know. I am really looking forward to it though.Got the courses designed and approved by the park already. Just to give you a heads up, I decided to try something different from I've been doing before. The advanced courses will have lesser number of controls, but several really long legs with lots of route choices.

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-87367420770408113452012-03-12T13:42:00.003-07:002012-03-12T14:47:03.756-07:00

And the meet is over. Feels weird. Empty. So much time and effort was put into it over the past 3 months, it's hard to accept that it's all over. Yes, we should meet and do some "lessons learned" thing. Even if just for the sake of a closure.Meanwhile I did some reading on attackpoint.org. I almost wish I didn't - people tend to emphasize negative experiences, it was at times hard to bear. I know

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-52241284514076398902012-02-13T21:11:00.000-08:002012-02-13T22:04:31.308-08:00

Night-O is among my favorite events and is probably the most anticipated one. We only do it once a year after all. So, yeah, I've been counting days :)Also Mihai somehow always manages to add extra twist to the event, whether it is a flood or, in this case, bitter cold and wind. Seriously, it was the first and only really cold evening during the whole winter! After the finish, having crossed

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-30718549270333609442011-10-09T17:17:00.000-07:002011-10-09T17:34:07.596-07:00

Went out today and set half of the ribbons. What a beautiful day, the forest was absolutely gorgeous, sun was shiny and mushrooms all over!The courses are not approved yet, but I am pretty sure that this set of controls won't be questioned by the park. Stumbled on a ribbon for coming 10/16 event and set a Bubba Goat ribbon alongside it. Ha! I guess I have an unfair advantage now :) But no worry -

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-55821732676209250462011-08-26T20:20:00.001-07:002011-08-27T12:07:43.808-07:00

After talking to Roman last Sunday, I thought, it'd be good to put it all down on paper. What does it take to organize an Advanced event? How long does it take? What kind of time commitment is needed? What are the preparation steps and how difficult are they? Surprisingly, it is not hard at all to put up such event - pretty much anyone who is comfortable with running advanced courses could

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-9385376966495420712011-08-23T19:11:00.001-07:002011-08-23T19:12:12.405-07:00

Posted the results: http://backwoodsok.org/advanced-event-at-schenck-forest-aug-21-results

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-44361705554675419072011-08-14T18:13:00.000-07:002011-08-14T20:41:44.079-07:00

Set the ribbons for the Aug 21 advanced event yesterday - took me three hours of very careful walking - but the knee held out. Got some pain at the end, but it's clearly getting stronger. Yay! Didn't have to move any controls, but will need to update the map a bit - a trail disappeared, a gully went in wrong direction (well, it was always plotted wrongly, we just never used it...) - this kind of

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-41866594188570079462011-06-05T20:05:00.000-07:002011-06-05T20:52:00.099-07:00

It was so hot... And my knee hurts - 3.0 hours of controls setting/running/pick-up in one day is probably too much for me to handle it this point. But I did reasonably well on the course: 29 controls in 55 minutes, despite walking half of the time. I am also quite happy how we were able to pull this event up - everybody chipped in and everything went smoothly without a dedicated event director.I

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-57388692535927682172011-05-14T18:30:00.001-07:002011-05-14T18:33:07.054-07:00

With all these rains the past few days I have growing suspicion that people will have to swim tomorrow... One of the controls is set in a way that the only reasonable way to/from it is across a creek which is usually knee deep...To late to change it now. Good luck, everyone...

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-41662467740857127412011-05-01T20:11:00.000-07:002011-05-01T21:19:23.257-07:00

I've been wondering where the shingles from my house went after strong winds two weeks ago (that was before the tornadoes). I know now. They flew to the Umstead Park. Very likely so.The park was full of torn shingles and pieces of insulation. Especially insulation - it was everywhere. I didn't pay much attention to it during the run, but when I went out to pick out controls I was astounded by how

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-34805833282040973862011-02-28T09:28:00.000-08:002011-02-28T10:32:21.233-08:00

It was a tough one... The courses were beautifully designed and non-man-made feature map made them even more challenging. I liked that, but it didn't go very well for me. I lost a lot of time on two controls: one was caused by the map (I can't put it down as my mistake), but the second one was clearly due to my fault and I lost almost 15 mins there! I think there was another leg where I lost 3-4

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-31304741267474855522011-02-13T13:48:00.001-08:002011-02-13T14:58:01.242-08:00

Night-O's are my favorite events, no doubt about it. It's an ultimate orienteering adventure and a lot of fun. Maybe because of this attitude, or maybe for some other reason, but historically, I always do well at Night-Os. Yesterday wasn't an exception. I had a great run (though not 100% clean - what you expect!). Didn't take all controls, but ended up close (26 out of 30). Got disoriented a few

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-43173848868331994592011-01-24T10:53:00.000-08:002011-01-24T12:14:08.276-08:00

I finally made it! I went though an advanced course in Raven Rock without making any major mistakes or spending hours looking for misplaced controls! It look me 7 years to put one decent run/walk there...Here is a history of my struggles in this dreadful place:2004: Red - 3 hours, misplaced controls, lots of mistakes DNF2005: Won the yellow course with a cast on my leg :)2006: Red - 3 hours,

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-77260956796750190102010-12-23T11:08:00.000-08:002010-12-23T11:21:12.717-08:00

I loved it! Even despite the cold. We should do it more often.Below is my route: dark blue is Score-O part, light-blue is Destruct part. My strategy was the following:-- I didn't want to compete with fast runners like Brendan and Mihai for 60th and 50th in the east part of the map - I wouldn't stand a chance there. So I decided to do only Score-O run out there and pick up 70th in the western part

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-86724241430923588212010-11-14T19:06:00.000-08:002010-11-14T19:08:04.250-08:00

The results are up.And I am back to Mexico... Will miss Dec 5 event, but hope to be here for the Destruct-O on Dec 19.

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-53101426821445616052010-11-02T15:05:00.000-07:002010-11-02T15:10:48.181-07:00

All right, I am buying protecting glasses for the next event. No point in arguing with fate...After I got pocked into the eye during the last meet I ignored the warning thinking that it was the only time in 15 years, so I shouldn't be too worried. What a flawed logic... After the first control I got poked into the right eye again (and as I found out later on, tore the lens). The lens stayed in

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-65695108020658977432010-09-19T15:53:00.000-07:002010-09-19T18:04:24.733-07:00

North Umstead is my favorite "half" of the park. It's less hilly comparing to the "south", relatively open, thus it's usually a pleasure to run there. It would have been a pleasure today too - Artem and Holly set awesome courses - but right after the second control I got poked in a eye by a small twig and lost one of the contact lenses... That changed everything. Suddenly the course gained

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-87851143773446004462010-08-30T18:34:00.000-07:002010-08-30T18:43:15.646-07:00

Got the results outThe data in the download box was a mess... I fixed it the best I could, but I am afraid that some data, like Charles' splits didn't get recorded at all.Other than that I am happy with the way event went. I feel like my goal of making a challenging set of courses at Schenck was achieved. We always used to do something simple there: Score-Os and such, while in fact the forest has

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-21897987030290339822010-08-28T18:34:00.001-07:002010-08-28T18:39:29.571-07:00

Everything is ready! I believe it is the first time I have every single control set a day before the event, so I can arrive at the same time as everybody else and still be on time :)Tanya helped me to set controls this afternoon, so there will be some inconsistency in the controls high. She was merciful and set her controls about half meter from the ground, while mine are mostly lying on the

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-34931771228259343102010-08-03T12:39:00.000-07:002010-08-03T12:45:28.229-07:00

Just got an approval for the Aug 29 event and designed the courses. It won't be a score-O this time. Actually nothing tricky (well, almost, there will be some tough vegetation crossings), but the courses will be "sprinty" in nature. Just to give you a teaser:Blue: 6.6 km, 26 controlsRed: 5.9 km, 23 controlsGreen: 5.1 km, 21 controlBrown: 4.0 km, 17 controls

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-70155775870985064772010-05-10T15:12:00.000-07:002010-05-10T16:04:54.314-07:00

Very good event, interesting courses and nice weather. And "no man-made features" map! I had a chance to try it this time and absolutely loved it, we should continue the practice.I was also happy that my hip held up. I've been stretching "it band" in my left leg for almost two months and it looks like it is starting to show. After the last event I felt crippled, but I am fine after 1.5 hour run

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1877014138401700552.post-53776165695592045022010-04-19T14:15:00.001-07:002010-04-19T14:17:35.106-07:00

Posted results.Also updated the "cleared" map, so now both north and south Umstead sides are "cleared" from man made features (with exception of bridges).

Vaskorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17531841682321354176noreply@blogger.com0