My route at the Bing-O  (Ft Leavenworth Adventure Series), Apr 1, 2017

Burr Oak long course, Mar 11, 2017.  Sloppy run today.  Going to 2 - not paying attention to compass.  4 and 5, again not reading details around the control.  Snow during the run, temp: 34F, windy.

Day 2 Brown Course, NTOA Cooper Lake SP

Day 2 Brown Course, 3.3K.  ET: 45:03

Day 1 Brown Course, NTOA Cooper Lake SP

Day 1 Brown Course, 3.7K.  ET:43:49

2 Spooner Hall maps: O Training

July 3, 2016

Mary's KU Campus O - training run

June 15, 2016, 8:45 am, after Dog Days workout.  Error to #7, skipped last 2 controls.

Bing-O' at Ft Leavenworth

Nice workout at Ft Leavenworth (5/21/16).  Much longer than I expected and ended up walking much of the last part. Earned my Ft Lv Series bike jersey (5 events).  Fuzzy course map; Garmin Forerunner battery wasn't charged up.

16 Feb 24 O training - Clinton Overlook

Bike ride to Clinton Lake this morning.  Towards the end, rode to the upper parking lot at the east boat ramp (near marina) and saw a vulture flying overhead.  I mumbled, I'm old but not dead yet."  Then saw the other half dozen sitting at the top of the trees.  So this is the graveyard for old bike riders...

Create your own travel map - TravBuddy

My route at the Knob Noster 3 Hour Score O, on Feb 14, 2015.

O Training at Riverfront Park - Feb 6, 2015

O Training at Riverfront Park - Feb 6, 2015

With temperatures expected to be in the 70s, went out this morning to Woodridge to do a timed run on the TRIM course.  It was already 45F by 10 am.  Woods were rough and tripped a lot on the branches on the ground.

Jan 24 (2015) Night O

My route from the Night O at Clinton Lake Overlook Park, Sat, Jan 24 (2015).  Route includes time after I crossed the finish line; another forgetful moment using a Forerunner.

Workout at Rockhaven East (south side of Clinton Laske), Jan 14, 2015.

My route from the score O' at Shawnee Mission Park (Sun, Jan 11, 2015)

Rockcrusher O - New Year's Day 2015

Jan 1, 2015 - first orienteering event was at the Rockcrusher Area at Clinton Lake.  Here's my route.

Mar 28, 2014 E Fleming O' Meet

My route from the East Fleming Park, Lake Jacomo Meet, March 29, 2014.  Not a clean run, but I wanted to race it hard and got lucky to take first on the Red course.

My first orienteering meets - 1976

I first orienteered at Camp Bromelsick (Boy Scout Camp at Clinton Lake before there was a Clinton Lake) as a class outing in George McCleary's cartography 101 course in the fall 1976.  Don't have the map.
George drew up a better black & white map of Shawnee Mission Park than the USGS photocopy PTOC was using (or was it the Johnson County Outdoor Society?).  He did this in the middle of a geography faculty meeting.  It was a more accurate map for the Nov 21, 1976 meet.  George's cartography students and his Cub Scouts did better than the KU ROTC guys using the USGS reprint.  I copied the course from the master map in pencil (off to the right at shelter #2 on Small Lakes Rd).

Sam Mar Wee 1954-2012

My brother, Sam Mar Wee, passed away November 14, 2012. 
This is a slideshow of Sam from several family photo albums
created by our youngest brother, Kim.  

Saved kitten from road side

Saved kitten in a pocket.
Dee, Grover Everett & I were biking this morning on the path near 6th & Geo Williams Way & found these two kittens abandoned along the highway. The 1st gray kitten was willing to stay in my back pocket until we got to the corner and called Grover's wife, Carolyn to come by with the car. Headed out again and heard meowing in the same spot and found "whitey" who wouldn't stay in a jersey pocket. Called Carolyn for help. Both kittens are doing fine now and have been adopted by friends of the Everetts.
They're about 4 weeks. Cruel people in this world; they wouldn't have lasted long in the heat, to say nothing of wandering out onto Highway 40.

Psycho Wyco 2011

2011 Psycho Wyco

Snow packed with 6 inches of snow at the start then snow packed trails the rest of the way. Map attached. Ended up finishing in 2 hrs 8 min. Slower than last year.

Gateway Runt (Mar 7, 10

Map from the Gateway Runt (shorter than the Grunt) - 9.5k if you went to all the controls. You were allowed to skip one and chose #13. Bad, bad error to 4.

Mar 6, '10 Hawn Green Route

My first Quick Route map: Green course at Hawn SP.

mizzou.us

The Journal-World today reported that if you go to www.mizzou.us, you get to another website. "Word of the switch reached the Mizzou Alumni Association (www.Mizzou.com) Monday afternoon, drawing a few expressions of surprise, disappointment and, perhaps, maybe a little envy."
Going to be a fun year. . .

Hmong Haiku

A Hmong then two Hmongs
A Hmong among many Hmongs
Minneapolis

(composed before seeing Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino.
OK - "Detroit, Michigan" instead of Minneapolis)

My Univ of Kansas orienteers?

I came across the Vulcan O' Club's Orienteering Workbook (2004) with a reference to the KU Champs on page 9:


The Sport Evolves
After fading away around 1971-72, West Point orienteering was rejuvenated in 1975 by U.S. Army orienteering founder Bud Fish. The cadets have dominated U.S. intercollegiate competition from 1978 to the present except for 1983-85 when Gene Wee's University of Kansas orienteers won. Bill Gookin has been an orienteering organizer in the San Diego area since 1969. The San Francisco Bay area club with the leadership of Joe Scarborough and the clubs around the Seattle, Washington, area grew rapidly as the top western orienteering areas in the 1980's. . .



I assembled the runners and they did all the work. . . Many are still OK members 25 years later. Maybe KU in some other sport can win a national championship this weekend down south. . .

Camp Prairie Schooner (Sept 16, 07)

Sunday - day 2 - got the chills the night before and almost missed this one. Slow start and didn't have a great plan on route selection. At gun, thought either 3 or 2 would be a good starting point; opted for 2, got crowded at 1, so I skipped (why?) 1 figuring I might not finish the course and call it quits about 30 min. Anyway, Larry Rink missed the turn to go to 15, so Paul Clatterbuck and I headed north to 15, then Larry zoomed by us. I couldn't keep up with either of them and decided picking up 16 would save me the climb later (west to 16, then retraced steps to trail to 15, then almost missed the faint trail to get to 21. Area is very reminiscent of Camp Naish with faint trails, clusters of hue rocks broken off from outcrop lines; lots of campsite pads and small buildings. Mary Jones left 21 before I did on her way to 24. I was trying to slide up to 18, but ended up verring on to the trail to 24; then up to 18, 23, 14, 19, up 13, trail to 20, 8, 11, followed Kelly Sumner to 10, then 17, then on way to 22 saw the stupidity in getting 17 first, then fearing the darker green up from 17, took the trail by 10 and all the trails to 7. Then seeing I had a lot of time left to finish in under an hour, went to 9 (clearly botched the route choices), then 6, 5, 4, 3, and 1.

49:11. 3rd. OK for a sicky.

Harrisonville Score O

Having only entered 2 O' meets last season, the 2007 season started off with 2 event the same weekend (Sept 15-16). The Jerry Tabb Road Trip Orienteering Event was held at the Harrisonville (MO) city park - a 1:7500 map made by Kelly Sumner - and the event was listed as not a PTOC event, so refreshing to have a new meet director and event sponsor.

My route: 24-23-22-21-18, then wanted to go to 20, but made a parallel error going to 19, then headed east like I was leaving 20 for 19. Mucked around before figuring out the problem. Then continued: 20-19-17-16-14-13-12-11-10-9, ran back to 5, then was sloppy and missed 6 and 7, so headed to 8, then picked up 7-6-4-3-2-1.

Lee's Eighth Promise

Reading William Poy Lee's Eighth Promise. Lee is a Toisan-American and the similarities of his growing up experiences, even though he was in San Francisco and I in Wichita, are more than our differences.
Toisan perceived by many as the hick dialect of Chinese - yea.
Herbal soups were a battle ground with my Mom, too.
I could figure out most of his romanized Toisan words; this is digging back to 50-year ago.
He's had more success in blossoming into a lawyer, activist and writer. Is the Toisan roots that important for every Toisan-American to get his act together?
Would a visit to the home village be enlightening or as some who've gone back, a trial of grubby "relatives" demanding tribute to those you suffered and did not get away?

Upscale Indian Restaurants

The NY Times reported on a few upscale Indian Restaurants in London and mentioned Hot Stuff as a great less pricey traditional small establishment to try.

Psycho Wyco - Runners with Loose Screws?

Are they crazy to run on icy trails on the hills at Wyandotte County Lake Park? The event name is Psycho Wyco. The sponsors are the Kansas City Trail Nerds. Trail running is catching on around the country and the Feb 10th event proved these die hard serious, fun runners know what they're doing.

Loose screws? If you were doing the 50K (3 lap) race and came into the first lap aid station, you may have lost your screws. The ones on the bottom of your shoes. Trail Nerds had been heralding this simple fix to fight the icy trail conditions all winter. At the aid station like any horse out for a long run, you need to be reshod. A team of volunteers with power drills and ample supply of ammo "screwed" any runner's shoe in need of a fix.

This created the miracle on ice - traction on a sloped skating rink. But there were plenty of falls - some harder than others.

For Lawrencians, Psycho Wyco's aid station support is like an Octoginta for trail runners. A a laid-back attitude, along with serious prep (screws), good food and great support crews - all make this event your should put on your calendars for next year.

Christmas and music

Christmas Day - There was a nice TV documentary on the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It HAS been along time since I was in a choir. They sang the Battle Hymn of the Republic (the Gould arrangement) - how I liked that piece! These days it is hard to carry a tune. But, like riding a bicycle I hope you don't forget and some day, given the opportunity, I can sing in a chorus. One of the latter songs on the program was "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing". Mom used to sing that and is a favorite hymn of mine. I thought it was of Scottish background, but is an American melody (Shaker?).
Anyway, it brought back memories of Mom, Don my brother who loved to sing, my youth and a past now long ago.
It was nice to reminisce.

Accessing blogger account

Had trouble logging into the blogger account the past week. Things have been messy ever since trying to use Internet Explorer 7. Went back to 6.0, but still some problems.

Sample Map of Dec 2 Sprint O

This is just a test to see if the map we're making for the Dec 2nd O' on Mt. O' reproduces OK. This should be a fun meet and any KU Alumnus will be pleasantly surprised what the campus has to make for an interesting course. Final scale will be either 1:4000 or 1:5000.

30 years of O' at Clinton State Park

March 7, 1977 - that's when Paul Jordan and I hosted a PTOC meet at Clinton State Park - or whatever it was called before the water filled up Clinton Lake (reservoir). We had a training workout today - I just hung streamers and Mary Jones, Dick Neuburger, Fritz Menninger, Eric Saggars and one more KC guy ran the course. We also had a Jr ROTC group from Manhattan, KS doing the beginner's course. About 13 people total. I might send a copy of my Randolph Park map so the Manhattanites can orienteer closer to home. My first time at the Randolph Park Area was the O' meet Dale Bryant (KSU O'Club) on Mar 26, '77.
The Lake Henry map used today is out-of-date with vague treelines, vague line of outcrops and missing trees in open areas. Hope the runners managed to cope with the fuzziness.

You are My Sunshine. . .

Listening to Prairie Home Companion this morning, the Wailin Jennys, Garrison plus Bonnie Raitt sang "You are My Sunshine." Beautifully done. Growing up in Wichita I got to see Gene Autry at a rodeo at the old Lawrence Stadium. That seemed to be his signature song. . . can't remember if he sang at the rodeo.

Music was a big part of my youth - church choir, church bell choir, violin and orchestra (4th to 7th grade), junior high choruses. As much as I liked to reminisce about "You are My Sunshine" I can't carry a tune any more. But I'm out of practice. My brother Don sure liked to sing. I miss his enthusiasm to respond with a song to questions.

NBA's Notwitzki & fencing & Naismith

According to the AP story today, Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks got his speed as a big man partially from some footwork with fencers recommended by his basketball coach. That reminded me that the inventor of basketball was also a a fencer and fencing instructor. Here's a photo (from 1926) of James Naismith with some of his students at KU. The footwork helps the fencer score - she or he needs only a touch and not a millimeter more to score - the exact distance improves your chances to score.

a turkey vulture's wind tunnel

I was out on a morning bike ride to Clinton Lake. At the far west end before the boat ramps is a nice gradual descent between the trees. A turkey vulture came in over my head about 15 ft up and soared above me for quite a ways keeping pace just ahead of me (half-wheeling me?). Staying just below the tree tops, the road must be sort of a wind tunnel where this bird was catching a good draft.

The Pan American: to be (served) or not to be

Just finished Wayne's book. Curious to see what Kim thinks of the story as he made contributions to facts about the Pan American Cafe. Nice photo of a Pan American lunch crowd in the book, with grandpa (King Mar) serving customers behind the counter. I need to dig up a good photo of the apartments that were above Pan American (150 N Market, my first home address. Mom and Dad and I lived there my first year).

Wayne mentioned that blacks were served in the back. I remember the sign in front by the counter, "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone." A common sign back them to keep blacks out. The Pan American customers were mostly whites on a business lunch or between work as the book mentions the boom days of the El Dorado oil fields and the aircraft industry. The Chinese population in Wichita of 0.1 % made it nearly invisible and no race relations can be made if you don't see someone to interact. I always wondered if that sign would come back and bite the Pan American owners and cooks.

Still, it was a black and white society right up to the 60s.
I got two traffic tickets about 6th grade - once I was labeled white, then second time Dad was amused see I was labeled black. And then Sam as a high school student leader had to deal with the race riots. Mom and Dad mentioned to me Sam agonized on his proper role and reponse. Do you see i from the black perspective; from the white view? Wichita was still in the B&W TV mode and had yet to discover NBC's Wonderful World of Color. This was a few years before the 1998 movie, "Pleasantville" posing the possibilities of life beyond black and white.

Wayne's World of Wichita

During my lunch break, I happen to walk by the Asian-American History section in the Oread Books (shop) at the Kansas Union. On the top shelf was American Paper Son: A Chinese Immigrant in the Midwest, by Wayne Hung Wong. I was thinking, this can't be the Wayne Wong that my brother, Kim, and my Dad talked about years ago. Then, looking at the photo pages, the pictures sure looked like our family albums. Then, there was a shot of the Pan American Cafe - the downtown restaurant I grew up in and owned (partly) by my granddad, King Mar.

Info on the book is available from the Univ of Illinois Press. I always thought it would be nice to see an account of the Chinese in Wichita. I'm glad Wayne and others with the talent and resources assembled the story.

The photo shows the Pan American (circa 1950).

Bike Race at Perry Lake

Here's the peleton on the Ferguson Road (crossing the Slough Creek bridge). Dee and I were there partly to catch the racers on the steepest hill - nothing to bother most of the riders. A national championship event in the Lawrence area is a long ways from the big packs of 12 guys in tne 70s training on these hills. Riders from ALL OVER! Will catch the downtown criterium tomorrow.

TioMila video from France

I happen to come across this video of the Tiomila Relay last weekend (Apr 30, 2006) and also posted it in the runLawrence web page - partly because I'm intrigued by these net video productions and partly to share the excitement of team orienteering events. After viewing it a couple of times, I finally read the results scores posted with the video and figured out the three guys that anchored had a super race to the finish - seconds apart. But Halden wins - again.

Raintree Run

I wanted to get a nice photo of this year's Raintree Run, but did not want to repeat the overhead shot looking down on the line of runners. Well at the same spot, I took this photo of Vincent Topiwo with the rocky wall in the background. Are we still in Kansas or does this have a foreign feel?

Storm damage and Udall

The following were the top three news releases from KU today. The first two refer to the recent storm damages. While it's nice that three students are being considered for the Udall scholarships, Udall has a special meaning to Kansans and in particular those from the Wichita Area. A very bad tornado disaster truck Udall (near Wichita) in the 1950s. There probably wasn't a bigger tornado disaster story until Topeka was hit in the mid 60s.

* Force of microburst wind pressures wrought havoc on KU campus roofs; Damage assessment on March 12 storm
http://www.news.ku.edu/2006/march/16/damage.shtml
The competing negative and positive wind pressures lifted roofing materials, in some cases tearing them off and in others slamming the roofs back down.

Media Advisory: KU officials to discuss storm damage, cleanup
When: 1:30 p.m. today
Where: Danforth Chapel, Jayhawk Boulevard and Lilac Lane
Who: Jim Modig, director of design and construction management, and Jim Long, vice provost for facilities management

* KU nominates three students for national Udall scholarship competition
http://www.news.ku.edu/2006/march/16/udall.shtml
The Morris K. Udall Foundation awards 80 scholarships nationally to students focused on careers related to the environment and to Native American and Alaska Natives planning careers in health care or tribal policy. HOMETOWNS: Overland Park and Salina, Kan.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; and Vancouver, British Columbia

Perception of effort in workouts

When posting my workouts in Attackpoint you're asked to rate your workout from1 to 5, 5 being the hardest. The plan was to run this morning doing 3x1.5 mi with half mile recoveries - at tempo. Years ago we sold a textbook inthe Union Bookstore, "Physics for Poets" - a text for non science majors, of course. I wonder if there are any real measurable standards to determine the workout effort. My formula is a 3 is for a training run, a 5 for a race and a 1 for warmups, or walking around an airport at a brisk pace. This morning, the "at tempo" is new enough to me in that I had to think a pace to keep than just "go out and run." The effort could have been more a 4; but there's the recovery which should rate a 1. So, it was 3 workout on my log. That's the poet's measurement.

Good run wasted - another boom

Mark Roodhouse set a 7.7 km red course at Shawnee Mission Park. After a good New Year's Day trail run, I decided being careful and slow will get you clean, but slow runs. So, made it a point to run harder today. No major complaints up to 13, then then went back to 4 instead of going to 14. Cost me at least 3 places in the results. Can you see a comtributing cause for the error, besides the oxygen debt?

New Years Day 2006

Here's a shot of the New Year's Day run at Clinton State Park. Note that Mike Eglinski has a map. I left mine at home.

Bigger event isn't always the best

On Thanksgiving Day, runLawrence hosted its 2nd annual 5K Run. Why another run when Kansas City attracts thousands at the Sprint 5K & Family Stroll, or the Parkville Turkey Trot also on the same day? Well, a few people came to Lawrence from KC, Bonner Springs, etc., to get away from the crowds. The Parkville event is well attended by most of the KC running crowd, is fun and is convenient. But it has grown. So, runLawrence is happy to host a crowd of about 200. If we continue the trend, we will again offer homemade cookies, hand-crafted awards, the 5K distance, and the smalltown feel. All events are great; we're just the small town version. All the volunteers seemed really happy to help - and probably happier to be able to get home about 10:30 to spend the rest of the day giving thanks.

Good Day to be a Jayhawk!

Lawrence is happy with the first victory over Nebraska football team in 36 years. KU volleyball won in Manhattan, also another long-time losing streak ending. Saw a falling star on the way home last night from the PTOC meet at Blue Springs earlier in the day and the ngiht O'.
Good weekend to be a Jayhawk!
Rock Chalk!

Shrouded Phog

Just in time for Halloween - Phog Allen's outfit. Renovation on AllenFieldhouse is just weeks away from completion. Phog decided to dress up for tomorrow night. "Beware ye all who enter. . ."

My grandfather, King Mar, was an avid amateur photographer. During the day he was the cashier/manager of the Pan American Cafe in Wichita. He took lots of pictures and lots of pictures of the waitresses that worked at the Cafe. The cafe thrived because of its downtown location (150 N. Market) and businessmen appreciated the quick lunches for about 60 - 90 cents a plate. Don't know who these two ladies are, perhaps waitresses. They're dressed up pretty nicely. The photo was taken in King's apartment (above Pan American) in the 1950s. Looks like he used his floodlights (from the right). Behind the light in back are photos of King's parents.

The apartments above Pan American (I wonder how they decided on that name for a Chinese-American cafe?) looked a lot like the tenement photos you would see in 1900s back East. There was an open space in the middle that went up three(?) floors. Each floor had a balcony all the way around. Clothes lines were strung across all the time. The floors were dark, probably unpainted. I lived there the first year of my life. After we moved to 350 N. Topeka, I would often visit King in this apartment. It was just like any set out of a film noir movie. King and my Dad were pretty dapper when dressed in suits and looking very much the man of the 40s and 50s (Tyrone Power, Humphrey Bogart, etc.).

Any way, a nice photo of the period.

O'run videos

Mike Eglinski recommended Thierry Gueorgiou's latest "Follow Me" video. He shows a leg of the world cup sprint race in Italy. Don't think running on the KU campus will be that intricate.
Mike did his own video running at Knob Noster SP as well.

Then Patrick Nuss ran a white course in Seattle last weekend. Check his video.
(My apologies for the bad link that played every time.)

All of these would be great to show at a club meeting (if we ever do meetings again...)

We're not in Kansas...

Aspens were in full fall colors. Dee & I went to Beaver Creek, Colo, Sept 25-28, for the Dean Evans & Associates conference for users of the Event Management System. This was just up the hill from the Park Hyatt where we stayed for three nights. Further up we got within ten feet of a mule deer.

An intelligently designed sign?

Gene on the way to the stables. The family name , Mar, means horse in Chinese. Since Kansas questions the theory of evolution, I may not have been visiting distant "relatives."

River Trail Run

Headed out from the house through Lawrence and on to the river trails (bike trails to Mud Creek and back). Just a nice morning for a run. The leaves are still green, but yellow leaves were falling here and there. The sun streamed through the trees and a cool breeze picked up on the return leg back. Noticed the lack of spider webs across the trails - different from a week ago.

About a mile into the trails, heard the rumble of machinery harvesting the corn crop - you could see the equipment over the other side of the levee. Saw two deer about 15 meters to my left about a mile from Mud Creek.

On the way back, started to take one minute walked to ease up - that helped and I finished tired but without stress.

Noticed a marker just before the Mass Street bridge indicating the top level of the 1993 flood.

"Till Eulenspiegel" - thought came to mind I'll sign a quote for the Late Night with Mook Trail Run with Till's name. The fun run without sun; you do LNWM to vary your routine and enjoy a chat with friends on the trail; the headlamps some people will wear will impress you; etc.

Total run time: 2 hrs 28 min - marathon training run

web authoring is hard work

Labor Day Weekend was a holiday weekend. It was also time to update the running club's web pages. Info was needed for the Sun, Sept 4 meeting. Finished the draft for the Thanksgiving Day entry. Worked with Photoshop Elements to create the turkey chasing a group of runners. Also put together the first draft of the Late Night with Mook flyer. After the club meeting, created the club store page so members could order running gear. Then, Mon (Sept 5) went to Leawood to photograph Dee and Karen Hyde at the 5K. Added results and photos to website.
Fun work, lose sleep, get addicted to the creative process, lose energy to train. But accepting the fact that I don't have the talent to be a pro at this stuff, but there's enough talent to be a good amateur and still enjoy the creative activity. It's like my running - good enough to enjoy and train, but not among the best in the world.

Damon biking in Topeka

Damon was one of the judges at a skateboard/biker event in Topeka, Aug 6, 2005. Afterwards, the judges had a chance to ride.

Shop Class Desk

Here's the desk I made in 1962-63 in 9th grade woodworking class. The desktop was supposed to be made of glued together solid birch wood. This project took most of the 9th grade year. After the Christmas break, the whole desk had warped due to the desktop curling. Had to redo the top (2x4s, and 1/4" birch plywood on top and sides). Anyway, it still stands today in spite of some hard use by my brothers using it over during my college days.
Legs never broke on this project.

Sam Mar's Family (1950s in Wichita). Standing in the beige jacket is Junior Mar and his wife ("mumu" to my brothers and me). For Ken and me, Junior and Mumu's house was a second home. Our parents were close to them. One of the cousins made a coffee table in junior high (I think it might have been Robert, the one on the far right). He brought it over to our house for storage until he had a chance to get it home. The design had all four legs angled out (about 45 degrees). The legs broke as soon as the table was set in the entryway room. Mom, who was always quick to offer an opinion, commented, "don't ever make a table like that when you take shop." My first project was one of those pine foot stools. Straight legs, but it still cracked within a few weeks.. Eventually, in 9th grade, I made the desk I still have today.

Lance for President

CBS reported Lance Armstrong's ride into Paris - winning his seventh and final Tour de France. CBS asked, "what's in the future?" Lance didn't rule out politics (never say never). If he attacks working in politics like he did the Tour - why not? Lance in '12?

Movie theme songs for Lance

Don't want to jinks Lance, but if he gets seven this year, OLN or CBS ought to use the music from the "Magnificent Seven" on the last day coming into Paris. It's the Texan riding off into the sunset (Go Yul! Go Lance!). Olympic coverage over the years (ABC and NBC) has used Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" as the background music for the closing segment of the broadcast. For the Tour when an American wins it all, it should be Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue from an American in Paris."
1999 theme: Gene Autry's "Back in the Saddle Again".
I'll stop here. Someone else can come up with the other years.

Losing balance

Went to Red Dog's Dog Days 6 AM workout at the stadium. While doing stretching at the start, noticed I can't keep my balance when doing any kind of lunge - need to use a hand to keep from tipping over. The aging process continues. . .
Just a blah feeling working out. The Saturday run (Heather's Run 5K) will be tough if I don't have more energy.

Steady rain the entire 3 hours (thundering in the distance). 

Dee Boeck finishing under 3 hours. Team TJ (in background) with their getaway car. Two families piled into the van and found all the controls. Two groups did the auto O' version. 

MOP Run Instructions

June 11, 2005 MOP Run, Too Instructions

Essentials of the Game
1. Find as many control points in 3 hours or less.
2. Bring a pen and a watch with you.
3. Check in before 7:30. Maps will be issued at 7:40 am. Start is 8 am.
4. Points awarded: controls 10-19 = 1 point; 20-29 = 2; 30-34 = 3.
5. The exact center of the circle is the location of the control.
6. Water fountains are marked on the map - it's best to bring your own water.
7. Run on public streets, trails, park land & parking lots, but respect private properties. Exception to standard map colors: white is out of bounds.
8. The honor system: Don’t guess the answers for locations you did not visit. Groups: do not split up. Everyone has a chance for awards. Honi soit qui mal y pense.
9. Finish time is when you put your scorecard in the drop box. No bonus for coming back early.
10. The suspense of being late, even one second over 3 hours, has been kept. Lose a point a minute for the 1st 10 min; after 10 minutes, all points lost are 2 per min.
11. Newcomers: read the map like any street map (except no street names) and use whatever symbols make sense and ignore the rest.


Awards
12 awards: top male & female 25 & under, top male & female 44 & under, male & female 45 & older, 1st two groups, 4 random drawings.


Stop, if you don't want to read any more. . .
1. Hint - thumbing. Without street names, use your thumb to keep track of where you are on the map. Move the thumb on the map as you move along.
2. Shades of yellow or light brown (park areas or parking lots) are OK to run through. The solid yellow is mowed grass. Lighter shades of yellow may be slower - cutting through a short stretch may be manageable, but scratchy. Use the green for navigating reference - the woods are thick.
3. Most of the control points will have a street address. Others are identified the traditional orienteering way - e.g. "depression" - read the map to see the depression symbol.
4. The purple crossing symbol suggests possible passage ways.
5. A few control points will have a sports logo painted on stone slabs, about 0.3m high (= 1 ft). like this KSU Wildcat.
6. With the recent rains, your shoes may get wet in some off-road areas.


Disclaimer
. . .the questions have been painstakingly researched, though the answers have not. Persons searching for the truth should sit on their hands or host their own orienteering event… Anyone thinking otherwise is itching for a fight.


Gene Wee
Questions (before June 11): 785-841-3587 or gmw@ku.edu


Here's a Yahoo map showing where Dad Perry Park is located.

Amy Thompson 8K

Dee and three other runLawrence members ran the Amy Thompson 8K yesterday (Mon, May 30). A lot of pizzazz (parachutists landing; nice crowd, cool weather, radio DJ announcing). Too bad the results for the 8K were messed up. Stayed for the awards and had to leave because they couldn't figure it out - like last year. Fortunately, the results were eventually done the next day - and with times. The link above will get you to some photos I took of the event.

Do you want to run Lawrence like Mike?

Lawrencians know that Mike Wildgen, city manager, runs Lawrence. He also runs Lawrence. Perhaps you don't control the city budget, but you can run around Lawrence like Mike. Come out June 11 to see a whole lot of Lawrence. This 3rd annual urban orienteering event is a continuation of the "scavenger hunt with a map" done two years ago with the Jayhawks on Parade statues. Here are some photos from 2004.

Runners training for a marathon can get in a long workout but making a game of it really makes the time fly by.

Orienteers, who usually run in the woods (and in the winter around here), will find a few more route choice decisions and can take advantage of their mapreading skills with increased IOF symbols added to the map.

Groups wanting to play a walking game don't have to stay out the whole time limit. There will be plenty of control points close to the start area.

Awards will be given not only to the top finishers but also by random draw. Winners can be anyone, not just the random luck of having "fast runner" genes. Come run, enjoy the workout, and earn a prize.

If interested, please submit entries before June 9 to insure your copy of the color map. Questions? Email me at gmw@ku.edu.

Reunion weekend - fun weekend

A lot of people associated with cycling I haven't seen in awhile appeared at the races this weekend. Friday, Cal Melick and David Conrad volunteered to help. So did Mike Riehm. John Giele took a lunch break to check the criterium. Cal, David and John raced with me in the early 70s. Ken Mackenzie was there, too. John and I rode to Canada with Ken one summer.
Lawrence Bike Club leaders - former presidents Jim Turner, Jim Baze along with Randy Breeden, too. Randy & I worked the Fri 3 am shift. Saw John McClure monitoring the 10th & Vermont corner - forgot to ask him about his bike trip to Portugal. Mike and Ed Eglinski were there and Rick Hermesch and Mike Harmon - bikers who've orienteered.
Rich Backus came by the 8th & Mass corner.

Sunday morning, I rode to the K10 trafficway to watch the team time trial. Standing at the K10 & 15th intersection was an older man along with the fire and police officials. His daughter (grand-daughter?) was riding for Colorado. Said he's from Topeka; we reminisced about Stephens Bike Shop, riding BAKs, and him now riding recumbents. He was Karl Hummel, one of three people who helped form the Kaw Valley Bike Club. I asked about Phil Menninger - the first Topeka guy I met who organized the first century I ever rode. The third founder of the club Karl couldn't remember. I asked if it was Gene Wansing (who's still active the KVBTC) - Karl said - "ah, that was the other third guy."

Met a guy along side the race course dressed in leather to ride Harleys. Said he was from Wichita and he and a friend rode from Wichita to Florida in 3 1/2 months on bikes from Hamilton's Bikes (no toe straps).

It was so easy to strike up conversations this weekend. The work week is hard these days and I look forward to every weekend. This one was special.

Sun

Collegiate Natl Champs in Lawrence

The NCCA (collegiate) National Championships were awarded to Lawrence Kansas for three years. It's an impressive accomplishment because the organizers thought big, for Lawrence very big, did their homework and got the best local people to get it done. The KU Cycling Club got KLM Marketing from Kansas City to be the professional organizers. Former KU Athletics director, Bob Frederick, lent his name and got many of his sports management students to volunteer. Plus the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Lawrence Sports Corporation now have the vision and staff to encourage major sporting events. Closing off Downtown Lawrence just never was allowed in the past.
The photo is from the men's division 1 criterium.
Tomorrow we take them to the Kansas hills.

I volunteered to help with the setup this morning (3 am!) setting up barricades - in the rain. Lawrence had about 3" last night.
 

No solo orienteering for young Scouts

Came across this guideline in the new Orienteer Kansas webpage. The sidebar had a link to scoutorienteering.
What's New
Subj: GSUSA Position on solo Orienteering. Feb 20 2004

"Competitive Orienteering Courses often require participants to operate independently. While solo competition is not recommended for inexperienced or other program levels, girls 11-17 years of age whose skills match or exceed the demands of the course may participate in such competitions. As with all orienteering sites, there should be a clear area of safety (Safety Lane), a specific finish time and location and Search and Rescue procedures designed by the competitions host and the Girl Scout advisor/leader."

Boys Scouts have always promoted the buddy system and over the years I've rarely seen locate Scouts out for the first time going out alone. Looks like the Girl Scouts have a similar concern. A few years ago while teaching orienteering to some Cub Scouts, an adult leader asked that I accompany him with the yound Scout he wanted to teach - he quoted a rule that an adult cannot be alone with a single Scout. I supposed it's a good rule for safety, but was life much simpler and people more trusting back 30-40 years ago, or were we lucky or were we duped?

Mop Run, Too (June 11)

This will be the third year for the annual urban orienteering run in Lawrence. "The Mop Run, Too" is set for Sat, June 11. Click on the title above for a pdf-file that better to print.