DART-nuun News
presented by nuun

On February 17th, the Cascade Orienteering Club held their Winter Interscolastic Orienteering Championships in Point Defiance Park just south of Seattle. As an active member in the Club and with his local trail running knowledge, Glenn Rogers "set" the course for this meet. The interscolastic league is a group of high school teams and adult orienteers from around the puget sound.

There were appoximately 200 runners of varying abilities and seven different courses were created to give competitors of all levels a challenge. The maps were updated to reflect changes in the park. Glenn commented, "When I first started developing the courses in late December most of the trails were still closed because of the winter storms and I was worried that we wouldn't be able to race in the park. But, close cooperation with Metro Parks ensured that we got all of the necessary trails open."

The course design invloved creating challenging "legs" from one control to the next. The object wasn't to hide controls but as Rogers explained, "You want competitors to use both their physical and mental abilities when racing. Route choice, using "handrails" or landmarks is key. I also tried very hard to incorporate the unique features of this park." Many routes had competitors running along the beach or on high bluffs overlooking the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

Leading up to the race, countless hours rerunning and changing the courses were spent to ensure that competitors where challenged. As this was the championship, Rogers wanted it to truely be a championship course. In the end it was great to watch the kids and adults being challenged, finishing the course and discussing their race day strategies.