Matt Barrett's Meet Report on the US Champs, WI

Thanks to a generous grant from PTOC, I was able to travel to the 2009 U.S. Individual Classic Orienteering Championships in Greenbush, Wisconsin. Five other Possums also went to the Championships—Mike Shifman, Paul Clatterbuck, Dick Luckerman, Reta Roe, and John Barrett. After 9 hours of driving over 2 days, we arrived in time to do a local event on Friday. There were four different courses which you could choose from, so you could practice for the A-meets that weekend on similar terrain. The weather was cool and misty, with periods of heavy rain. The practice course was very easy, so I hoped that the orange courses would be equally simple.

The Northern Kettle Moraine Park map had two parts, one with nothing but contour lines and woods and another with many trails. On the first day, which was the US Championship, the advanced courses were on the side that had no trails, while the orange, yellow, and white courses were on the side with trails. The orange course was mostly running along paths with the controls a short distance away, which made for easy navigating. I came in 4th place out of four with a time of 43:12, missing 3rd place by just 7 seconds. Looking back, I should have run faster; but I was worried about how long I could keep up the pace for the 4.7 km race. There were only 3 minutes, 19 seconds between first and fourth place in the M-16 category. Among the other members of Possum Trot, John Barrett got 1st place in M-10 (the other two boys were not eligible for medals), and Mike Shifman got 2nd in M70+. The lack of catching and collecting features on the advanced courses gave those competitors some trouble that first day.

Awards were also given out for winners of the combined two day results. I knew that I had to run fast the second day, because I had a good chance of making up enough time to get a medal! All of the courses on Sunday were on the section of the map with trails and open areas. This time the orange course was more difficult in both navigation and climb, but shorter in distance (4.2 km). You had to run on compass bearings for several of the controls and use contour lines and vegetation boundaries, rather than just paths. I made one bearing mistake and ended up in the wrong depression with three other people, losing around 3 minutes. Overall I had a good run with some fast splits, and finished 2nd for the day with a time of 40:21, making up enough time to also get a 2nd place medal for the weekend.

I had a lot of fun at the Championships and discovered some things I need to work on. I need to train more physically, because I felt that I could have had faster times if I was in better shape. Another improvement I could make is getting better at reading the map while running. The courses in Wisconsin were relatively easy, so I could have run the whole way, but I had to walk several times to read the map. I am going to practice a lot this fall and winter, so I will be ready for the meet in St. Louis next March.