Night Sprints

Night Sprints
at
Keystone State Park

Sprints are short orienteering courses, generally not requiring advanced orienteering skill and generally in the open areas of a park rather than in forest. These sprint courses are at night which will make them a little more difficult. Night orienteering is often not recommended for total beginners; however, because the courses are sprints, even total beginners should be able to do the shorter sprints. Unlike most WPOC events, there will be no beginner instruction at this event due to time constraints. All controls will be marked with the usual orange and white nylon bag and have a rod wrapped in reflective tape directly above or beside the bag. There will also be a blue control box at the control for you to record the fact that you were there.

Each individual or group that participates in this event is entitled to do two sprint courses. There are two relatively easy, shorter sprint courses (about 2.0 km each) all in open areas of the park for people with little experience. There are two longer, more challenging courses (about 3.0 km each) with one partly in the forest for experienced orienteers. It is recommended that participants arrive at check-in/start during the first hour it is open so they can complete one course and have time to do the second. The time table for this event is more compressed that the usual WPOC events because the courses are so short. Also, arriving early will also allow a participant to do part of the first course before it gets totally dark.

Time Table for 15 April 2023

7:54 pm: Sunset

8:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Check-in for preregistered participants; registration for those not preregistered and signing of the waiver for those who are not club members. To preregister, go to www.wpoc.org/preregistration.php . Map fee payment will be collected at the event; for preregistered people, the fee is $5 per map for WPOC members, $6 for non-members and Free for minors. For anyone not preregistered, add $1 to these fees. Preregistration is highly recommended so that we are sure we have enough maps and to speed the check-in process.

Also these two hours are the start window - all starts must take place between 8 pm and 10 pm.

11:30 pm
All courses close. Everyone must return to the finish by this time whether they are finished with their course or not. At this time, we will begin taking down the controls.

Required equipment:

Compass (we will loan you one if necessary)

SI card (we will loan you one if necessary)

Whistle (we will sell you one if you don't have one)

Light (with spare batteries or a second backup light - we will NOT have spares).

There are two roads that run through the area we will be using. The courses have been designed so that it is unlikely that you will want to run/walk along either of these roads - one of the roads will likely have some traffic. However, each of the more challenging courses cross one road. It should be easy to make the crossing if you just look for traffic. If you are concerned about visibility, we recommend that you wear some bright colored outer clothing.