Great Brook Farm State Park
September 21, 2013
Meet Director: Tim Parson

At last year’s National Orienteering Day event at Great Brook, a couple got engaged while doing the Yellow course.  This year’s meet didn’t feature romance on that level, but with so many new people trying out the sport there's a good chance more than a few of them fell in love with orienteering. 

In various ways, people had fun in the Carlisle woods and the turnout for the meet was excellent, with lots of beginners and near-beginners.  Mika Latva-Kokko brought a large group from Phillips Academy, and also headed up a crew of instructors that included Marcie Berkley and Joanne Sankus.  We were forced to ration maps on Yellow (for which I’d printed 40 copies), and Orange (for which I’d printed 50), and the supply was tight on the other courses as well.  The results don’t indicate that many official “starts”, so I guess there were groups using multiple maps, but it’s better to have our maps out in the world as mementos than gathering dust in my basement!

This year all the courses were set within the central part of the park, with the Red going back-and-forth to achieve enough distance.  Beaver activity elevated the water level in a key spot, so participants on all courses but White and maybe Brown ended up with wet feet.  (Our inner child likes splashing in puddles, right?)  The results show familiar names winning most of the courses, from the Shapiro brothers on White to Ian Finlayson on Green.  In the day’s marquee event, the Red Course, Ian Smith took on Giacomo Barbone (ex- U.S. WOC and JWOC team member) and Andrea Seppi (ex-Italian JWOC team member); pre-race discussion was whether the pace would be below 7:30/km.  Giacomo did beat that standard, running the 7.1 km course in 52: 25, with Ian and then Andrea behind him.  

Lost & Found: We found a green SI stick ("dibbler") at the meet, if you think it is yours contact Event Director Tim Parson.

Thanks are due to many people for helping out: Richard Powers, Kristin, Ethan and Bridget Hall, Joe Usoff, Kelly Guarino, Raina and Jim Crawford, Andy McIlvaine, Patty Moran, Bill Binette, Ben Parson (for pre-meet OCAD work) and, as noted above, Mika, Marcie and Joanne.  Finally, Steve Carlin and his staff at GBF were again accommodating and flexible, making this a wonderful place to put on an event.

White Course       1.6k

Yellow Course        2.7k

Orange Course       4.0k

Brown Course       2.8k

Green Course       5.3k

Red Course       7.1k