Registration

Location

Fuller Lake Day Use Area, Pine Grove Furnace State Park. 40.031729, -77.300774.

Personnel

Event Director: Brad Whitmore
Course Setter/Map Coordinator: Mike Bertram
Registrar/Course Vetter: Samuel Kolins Contact: srk25 at cornell dot edu

Overview

Welcome to the Mid-Atlantic Championships at Pine Grove Furnace!

Everybody is welcome to participate in this event including members of Mid-Atlantic clubs, members of other clubs, and people new to orienteering. You can be competitively vying for the titles of Mid-Atlantic Individual and Relay champion or just out for a fun time in the woods; there are options here for everybody so don't be intimidated by some of the "competitive" aspects.

The event will consist of two races. In the morning there will be individual classic-length courses. The morning race is an official Orienteering USA National Ranking Event. In the afternoon there will be a three-leg relay.

As part of the event, there will be a competition between QOC, SVO, DVOA, and other clubs for the coveted Broken Compass Award. Clubs will earn points based on attendance as well as performance in the classic race and the relay. Everyone is encouraged to participate - you can only help, not hurt, your club by running in races and earning points for your attendance and finish. More details on scoring are below.

In addition to the Broken Compass competition, the times and format will be a little different than you are used to from other SVO events, so please read the following carefully.

Pre-registration is now open. Guarantee yourself a map for the morning/classic course by pre-registering; payment will be collected at the event. Click here to pre-register by October 31st. Beginners are more than welcome to pre-register, but we will also have extra beginner maps on hand for people who want to try out orienteering.

Courses will open at 9:00 AM with the last starts going off at noon. Note that Sunday is the start of daylight saving time, so set your clocks back one hour before going to bed (extra sleep!). Everyone needs to be out of the woods by 3:00 PM so we can collect all of the controls before it gets dark. But you will want to plan to run on the early side, because in addition to the individual race, the Mid-Atlantic Championships feature team relays, which will begin at 1:30 PM. The relays are a lot of fun and a great chance to build camaraderie with your fellow club members.

You don't need a relay team yet; clubs will help organize and register teams the day of the event, so don't hesitate to join the fun. If you want to find a relay team in advance, contact the following person who is coordinating relay teams for these clubs:
DVOA: Wyatt Riley (Contact: wyattriley at gmail dot com)
QOC: Jon Torrance (Contact: jon.torrance at gmail dot com)
SVO: Brad Whitmore (Contact: whitmore at stsci dot edu)

So plan on arriving early, staying late, and enjoying a great day of orienteering with your friends from all the Mid-Atlantic clubs at the 2019 Mid-Atlantic Championships!

Saturday French Creek Score-O

In addition to the Sunday events, on Saturday there will be a 90 minute score-o. This is a local event put on by DVOA. The event is not part of the Mid-Atlantics scoring, but a fun way to create a full weekend of orienteering. The course will have a majority of advanced-level controls but also a beginner-appropriate loop. To make sure we have enough maps, pre-registration is requested (using the same Event Register link as for the Sunday events). Payment will be collected at the event, $7 for juniors and members of any club or $12 otherwise. For more information see the DVOA schedule.

Logistics

Registration will be in the snack bar pavilion at the end of the parking lot. The snack bar will be closed, but the bathrooms in the building will be open. Start and finish are both within a few yards of the building, with picnic areas adjacent as well.

If you have registered for a course in advance (strongly preferred for non-beginners!) when you arrive you will just need to pay and check in to let us know you are here. If you have not registered in advance you will also need to fill out some paperwork, register in the computer, and confirm that we have enough maps for you on your desired course. You can then get ready and proceed to the start. Volunteers at the start will assign start times on a first-come first-serve basis, ensuring at least 2 minutes between start times on the same course. Maps will be distributed at the start. Unlike some local events, you will not be able to study the map until after punching start. Participants will have 3 hours to complete their course. The map scale will be 1:5,000 for white and yellow and 1:10,000 for all other courses.

You are strongly encouraged to pre-register for the classic (NRE) courses in order to guarantee getting a map and to make registration run more smoothly.

Costs

Cost for the classic is $10 for members of any orienteering club or juniors and $12 for all others. The relay is free for anybody doing a classic course or $5 otherwise. All fees are collected at the event.

Classes and Courses

Since the morning race is a national ranking event, when you register you will enter a particular "class" of competition. These classes are determined by age and gender, and each class is assigned to run a particular course (see the chart below). However, if you would rather run an easier course that is fine - there are open male and female classes for each course that anybody can enter (also in the chart below). You are welcome to go out as a group on any course - use the open classes to do this.

To score points on your individual course for any club in the Broken Compass competition, you must choose either the course corresponding to your gender and age or a more difficult course. However, this is only a consideration if you think you're likely to be one of the faster finishers, male or female, on a course. If that isn't you, simply sign up for the course you prefer for its length/difficulty - you'll still be contributing to your club's score just by taking part, as attendance figures into the Broken Compass scoring, not just the individual course and relay results.

The different classes and the course each class will run are listed below:
White: F-10 F-12 M-10 M-12
Yellow: F-14 M-14
Orange: F-16 M-16
Brown: F-18 F55+ F60+ F65+ F70+ F75+ F80+ F85+ F90+ M65+ M70+ M75+ M80+ M85+ M90+
Green: F-20 F35+ F40+ F45+ F50+ M-18 M50+ M55+ M60+
Red: F-21+ M-20 M35+ M40+ M45+
Blue: M-21+

Open Classes: White (M or F), M & F Yellow, M & F Orange, M & F Brown, M & F Green, M Red

In the chart F = female and M = male. The number denotes age on Dec 31, 2019. A "-" before the age means "and younger"; the "+" after the age means "and older". Example: M-12 is open to boys 12 and under, F35+ is open to women 35 and older. "Open course" classes and "21" classes have no age limit.

Course Details and Notes

White - 1.8 km, 25 m, 7 c
Yellow - 2.5 km, 30 m, 9 c
Orange - 4.4 km, 70 m, 8 c
Brown - 3.8 km, 85 m, 7 c
Green - 5.9 km, 110 m, 10 c
Red - 7.3 km, 170 m, 10 c
Blue - 9.3 km, 205 m, 14 c

A previous version of the map in .pdf format can be viewed here.

Course Setter's Notes: The area of the map was used to produce charcoal for the furnace. There are 2 features on the map related to the charcoal production. Firstly, the colliers cut a flat area in the woods on which to burn the wood. These platforms are characteristically cut into the hillside with a bank on the up-hill side and are built up on the downhill side. The platforms are shown as a brown triangle on the map, and are between 10 and 15 meters across. The second feature is a circular ditch that the colliers dug around their huts to protect them from flooding. These are about 4 meters in diameter and are mapped as five brown dots in a circle.

There are numerous cabins on the way to the first and penultimate control on the Green, Red, and Blue courses. These cabins have been marked out of bounds. Please respect the owner's privacy and do not enter the 'yards' around the houses.

In July the area was hit by a windstorm. In some areas big trees were toppled. They have been marked as rootstocks, when appropriate, and the area marked green where there are larger tangles of trees.

The White, Yellow, and Relay courses use a 1:5,000 version of the map. The rest of the courses use a 1:10,000 map.

Relay Details

The relay will have three legs so forming a relay team requires THREE (3) orienteers. Anyone can form a team and a club can enter as many teams as it likes. There will be three classes of relay teams: 3-point, 6-point, and 9-point, according to the total points of the three team members. A team with 3-5 points counts as a 3-point team; 6-8 points counts as a 6-point team, and 9 or more points counts as a 9-point team.

Below are the rules for calculating team member points according to age and gender.
- Ages 17-20 or 35-49 receives 1 point
- Ages 15-16 or 50-59 receives 2 points
- Under 15 years of age or 60 and older receives 3 points
- a female orienteer receives 2 points in addition to any age points

Only teams with members all belonging to the same club and whose team members total at least 3 points can affect the scoring for the Broken Compass. Other teams are more than welcome to participate (please join the fun!) Such teams will have their times posted in the results but will not be factored into the Broken Compass scoring system.

There will be a "chasing" start. 9 point teams will take part in the initial mass start, 6 point teams will start 7 minutes later, 3 point another 7 minutes after that. There will be mass starts for 2nd, and 3rd leg orienteers who haven't already been tagged ~15 minutes after the lead runner on the leg in question starts. We will count each runner's full time in the result. All classes of team are part of the same competition, i.e. the first 10 club teams whose third leg runners finish, with no one on the team mispunching, are the ones that earn points for their clubs.

All relay maps will be 1:5000 scale, and there will be three courses/legs, with the following stats (subject to change as courses are finalized):

Orange difficulty, 2.6 km, 30 m, 7c
Yellow difficulty, 2.0 km, 25 m, 7c
Green difficulty, 2.9 km, 95 m, 7c

Team Scoring for Broken Compass Award

The coveted Broken Compass Award will be awarded to the club with the highest number of points. To keep the burden of computing the scores manageable, it is each competitor's responsibility to make sure the results list them as competing for the correct club and in the correct competitive class. All are encouraged to pre-register in order to minimize the burden on the timing/results volunteers.

Points are awarded as follows:

Attendance: 200 x (club members participating/total club membership) - maximum 200 points possible for each club.

Individual Courses: Separate points for top eligible male and female finishers on each course (not class) as shown below, for a total of 341 points at stake. To be eligible you must be a current club member and must be running the appropriate class according to OUSA rules, or running up in a harder class (so those in any open class are not eligible). Non-eligible members earn attendance points for their club, but will be ignored for purposes of individual course scoring (so they can't prevent others from earning points). If anyone runs more than one course, only the first course they run counts for attendance, scoring, and national ranking.

While first place for each course and gender is worth 10 points, we have adjusted the number of places for which points are earned to reflect the number of different classes running that course. For example, the only female class running the orange course is F-16, while the green course is run by classes F-20, F35+, F40+, F45+, and F50+; thus there are more places that earn points for green course women than for orange course women.

White: F/M: 1st through 3rd - 10/5/2 pts - 17+17=34 points at stake
Yellow: F/M: 1st through 3th - 10/5/2 pts - 17+17=34 points at stake
Orange: F/M 1st through 3rd - 10/5/2 pts - 17+17=34 points at stake
Brown: F 1st through 7th- 10/8/6/5/4/3/2 pts - 38 total points at stake
M 1st through 5th- 10/8/6/4/2 pts - 30 points at stake
Green: F 1st through 7th- 10/8/6/5/4/3/2 pts - 38 total points at stake
M 1st through 6th- 10/8/6/4/3/2 pts - 33 points at stake
Red: F/M 1st through 6th - 10/8/6/4/3/2 pts - 33 + 33 = 66 points at stake
There will be no separate male and female points for the blue course, points will be awarded to top finishers' clubs as follows:
Blue - 1st through 7th - 10/8/6/4/3/2/1 pts - 34 total points at stake

Relay: As noted above, the handicapping for the relay will be done by giving higher point teams a head start. Thus all relay teams will be scored together, regardless of how many points the team has.

Relay points: 1st through 10th- 60/50/41/33/26/20/15/11/8/6pts - 270 points at stake
All teams beyond tenth will earn 2 points for their club.