Our unofficial Wed. Evening Training series got off to a great start tonight with eleven people showing up! Hayden took first place with a time of 32 minutes with Jeremy nipping at his heels with a time of 34 mins. Neil came in at 39 mins, and Marcy at 42 mins. Poor John D had to run back and find his control sheet bumping his time to 43 mins for Fifth Place. I didn't bother recording seconds but I probably should have as it was very close.

Because of our great turnout (12 people including me) we should be able to get each person to organize one week, and we'll be set until mid-Sept! So thanks to everyone who came out, and in doing so unwittingly signed a contract with the devil to commit to organzing an event! But seriously, it's not that hard, and Leigh can give you a pre-made map anyways. Also thanks for everyone who picked up controls. See you next week at Mt. Doug!

-Scott

Leigh put on an excellent pin-flag course salvaged from an old determinator. Hayden annihilated the course leaving Todd in his wake. The rest of us had fairly close times, except Jeremy who seems more concerned with cutting himself than collecting controls. Great weather for the second week in a row!

-Scott

Without question the most difficult Wednesday Night Training course so far! Neil and Veronica recreated an old course from 2008 with ten controls planted around the confusing nightmare of trails that is West Thetis. The course swallowed up more than half of the runners tonight with only Hayden and John able to actually finish. Many O regulars decided to skip this one, most likely out of pure fear. I personally made a game-ending parallel error at #5 and had to sheepishly return with Neil picking up controls at the end to find it. Another perfect weather day, thanks to Neil and Veronica for an excellent event!

-Scott

Wow - A great turn-out! And it's good to see there's still lots of potential for route choices in a frequently used area.

Welcome back, Adrian, Linda and Marie, from your European O adventures. We need to hear more - maybe at an armchair session when the dark and rainy season returns....

We missed you, Scott, Paul, and Cole.

-Diana

A big crowd showed up to run Uvic South starting at the dog park. Nice to see Shane and Sonja. 17 Controls, some in the forest the rest in urban areas of the campus. Todd had a blistering run with Adrian very close behind. Thanks to Leigh and Gill for helping with SI. Full results are posted below.

I hope no one else took a piece of the dog park home with them on their shoe :( maybe re-think start location for next year though the free parking was quite alluring. Thanks to Adrian and John for helping to pick up controls.

-Hayden

Another good WET series turnout with 12 competitors taking on the day's 3.4 km course in Royal Road's upper forest. Competitors enjoyed sunny August evening running conditions, generously hung control flags and open forest running on a number of the legs. Some gratuitous elevation change towards the end of the course and a map cropped too close to a control or two, seemed no bother to participants. Todd and Hayden produced fast near flawless runs to come in 1st and 2nd respectively, followed by Adrian and Scott who fought it out on the course for 3rd and 4th. Thanks for coming out tonight.

-John

With lots of folks away we had six brave participants come out on a very hot 28 degree evening. Jeremy was the big winner with both the best time and most blood drawn. The course was not long, 2.2 km, but seemed to provide challenges for participants. I enjoyed setting up the event very much and would be happy to create one from scratch now that I have successfully recycled an old Determinator. Yes Marie, you and John were definitely right, I had control #6 correctly placed the first time I ran through it but not for the event. Thanks for coming out everyone.

-Brock

With the big guns out of the equation for this race (Hayden not showing up due to a baby or something, and Todd slacking off by organizing some event), the question was who would come out first in this fast running sprint event. Some tricky control locations made everyone double check their control descriptions and having only pin flags to get, you had to be extra aware when getting in the control circle. John Downey had a fairly clean run and came out first. Shane showed up and with his strong speed was narrowly able to take 2nd over Scott who came in a strong 3rd place.
Thanks to everyone who showed up and to those who helped me pick up some pin flags.

-Todd

A great turnout for our event this week, with people coming from as far as Williams Lake! They must have heard we run great events here (or something). A fantastic run by Hayden (first in) was looking really good until John came crashing out of the forest (wearing a bit of the forest on his head), cutting 4:29 off his time. Marie and Linda started last and had the extra handicap of poor light in those last controls. A warning for next week, it's not getting any lighter out there. Start early for better light!

Thanks to all that came out today. I had a great time setting it up and learned a lot in the process. Special thanks to Carl for creating the course for a Determinator back in 2007 and for Leigh for his help with tweaking and printing the maps.

-Paul

Thanks for the great turn out for WET #10! The event at Mount Doug proved to be a tight race, with top finishers completing the course within a couple of minutes, even seconds of each other. John came out on top with the best time, but kept wishing he had done number #3 a little differently for an even faster run. Apparently, that inviting trail to the left pulled in quite a few orienteers on their way to number 3, except Diana and Martin, who knew the tricks Mount Doug could pull on you and looked for those all important root stocks to verify their direction. Only one more Wednesday left! Don't miss out on Thetis Lake Park - East next week!

-Linda

The WET series wrapped up on the East side of Thetis Lake Park, in a great area for vigilante-O. The open terrain and tricky features made a fast but challenging course, with careful map reading the order of the day. Todd finished with a blistering 26:52, with Hayden and Larry close on his heels. Control 4 was the nemesis of the night, with a parallel feature and some unmapped trails defeating more than a few hardy orienteers. Thanks to all for a great night and a great series.

-Marie