Another near miss with springtime showers, and all stayed dry (of rain) for the fifth and penultimate week of our six-week street orienteering series. We had 26 starters out of Weaver Park in North Asheville exploring the historic Albemarle Park neighborhood.
The main story of the evening was #11, the super cool tree house. That morning when I found it, the street it was on kind of looked like a public street — it was marked in OpenStreetMap, and when I drove in I saw cars parked on both sides and multiple buildings – I honestly thought it was another bed and breakfast.
It was not, however, a bed and breakfast — instead, it was (come to find out, the hard way) a multi-generational home and a private driveway. One of the homeowners, Julie, followed some runners back to the park and asked what was up, and at first I thought she was a curious passer-by so I began explaining how orienteering works. Soon it became evident she wasn’t exactly curious, she was looking for an explanation. Whoops. Thank you, Julie, for being so cool about 20+ people coming through your yard, to see your awesome tree house.
On the evening, Lily Addicott had no competition on the Scatter A course, collecting 17 controls in 43:16. Actually, she rarely “has any competition” even when she’s racing against others. The Blonde Blur strikes again.
Lots of action in the Scatter B course, with Jody Addicott taking the win this week. That’s father and daughter on the podium in the two longest divisions, you know.
The Landrys beat Doug on Scatter C by ONE SECOND, and maintain their grip on the C course standings after five weeks.
Jim handily won the D course 10 minutes ahead of Kristen. Honorable mention for return offenders Julia and Carolyn, who defied the odds and sacrificed their OK result by damning the torpedoes and heading for the Grove Park Inn. They got to see the Spoons in the Sky, even though Lily ran past it and didn’t notice them!
The PowerWalker course was taken down by a special guest, Jay Smink visiting us from Northeast Ohio Orienteering Club (NEOCC) and paid us some very nice compliments on the community we’ve got here at WNCOC. It’s always a treat to meet another experienced orienteering person who “speaks this language” and get feedback on our “homemade orienteering club.”
Next week is our last week in the Spring Series, after which we’ll take a little break and return for another round after Memorial Day.
