Results, Iroquois Park, 14 June 2011

As most of you already know, we had five electronic controls stolen/swiped from the course.  It was unfortunate, but as I walked from the finish backwards, and hearing that some controls were missing, I had no choice but to cancel the meet mid-race--since I had no way of knowing if the stealing of controls was still occurring.  #1 (31), #3 (33), #4 (34), #5 (35) and #10 (40) electronic boxes were taken, and the stands and bags for #5 and #10 were taken.  (The bag/flag for #10 was later found near the maintenance shed.)   

I arrived at Iroquois Park around 3:45 and immediately started setting out controls.  I finished the last control at 4:40 and started milling around the shelter to kick out the smokers, kids, etc.  By 5:15, people started showing up and by 5:40, the Bullitt North kids came back to the start with the bent #1 control pole.  Around  6 PM I had to provide the cancellation news.  However, lots of people milled around the start and a lot of networking was being done by what is estimated to be around 40 total starters.  Some (most?) of the starters donated their registration fee to help out the club.  It's been at least a year since we've lost a control due to vandalism.  This brings the total number of lost electronic boxes to 7 since we started using them.  Surprisingly we've lost fewer finger sticks! 

If I had to guess, based on the thrown flag (bags), pole movements, etc, someone walked north to south along the main trail and picked up #10, then #1, and then went up to get #3, #4, and #5.  I don't think I was followed, since I had to backtrack a lot while setting up the course.  The 'route' from #3, #4, and #5 is a common shortcut for some locals that cut thru the park to get from the water/basketball area to the far south end of the park.  Unfortunately, the stolen controls were along that same route and visible from the trail. Doug Keefe even went the entire base route along the road (3+ miles) and found one of the poles at the road closure near the horse stalls at the south end of the park. The (obviously) kids had even taken the square stamp off the old punch and the black electronic bracket before throwing away the aluminum rod.

It's challenging to keep the sprint courses easy and I do think this was a one time occurrence that should only deter us from Iroquois and not all sprints or having us revert back to only using manual punches.  Thanks to all that helped with today's meet, training newbies, picking up controls, etc. 

-Eric