1st ever GP event - how it went yesterday

[Guest treemoss2]

Well, people have been winging aorund ideas for events with GPS, so I organized one and put it on. This is how it went yesterday.

There was a run and a bike section.

GPS coordinates were e-mailed out the day before so people could put them in their GPS.

The coordinates for the mtn bike section following the run were given to people when they came in from that run. The only maps given were your typical non-topo park maps as are given to people entering the park.

The markers were 18" wood stakes with 1/2 index card with a codeword written on it. CPs were sequential and participants recorded the codewords as proof of finding the target.

As an adventure racer and an orienteer and a geocacher, I submit the following.

Geocachers use GPS to find caches, but are not usually otherwise of the speed or nor physical demands of a race situation.

Adventure racers use topos and can thus, to an extent, see in advance, the terrain. They also do not ever have to find anything as small or obscure as the stakes I placed. These would have been very hard to find using only non-topo maps (even with topo maps) and coordinates. Terrain was basically flat. At least as showed on available topos.

Orienteers rely very, very much on the most detailed of maps, but use no coordinates. This restricts them to areas that have been mapped to that degree of detail.

My event incorporated elements of the above, without any one method predominating.

You needed GPS coordinates, and ultimately to locate the stakes.

You could use the basic map to coordinate direction/distance with choice of routes - bushwack vs paths/roads.

The event had 3 solos, 2 three person teams, 3 two person teams.

I also had a couple checkpoints such as, "go to fishing pier and record the object next to the stake". This had no GPS coordinates.

Everyone seemed to have a good time, even on the treasure hunt part where they found a cache of eggs and had to carry a designated amount to the next GPS checkpoint and back to the start where they then had to hardboil the eggs and eat them before proceeding out on the mtn bike section.

To help spread out the runners at the start, they were required to set up and take down their tents before leaving the start area. Of course this task was kept a secret until the just before I said, Go".

The biggest problem in the event was the numerous flats on the mtn bike section with the "goatheads" causing punctures. Everyone got a flat, many had mutliple flats and ran out of extra tubes.

Ce la vie.

Next event will be a night event when the weather warms.

The biggest motivator for me to put on this event was that the course setup is easier and still accurate than other orienteering or adventure races.

I did not need the detailed maps needed in an o-meet and not widely available. This enables a meet to be held in almost any area.

I did not have to worry about more visible checkpoints risking being taken before the race, nor needing to have manned checkpoints as in an adventure race. Plus I could plot and run the course one time instead of having to re-establish and re-plant or re-check more visible checkpoints.