It was another cold day at Raccoon Creek as the high for the day was about 40. But it was a very sunny day and not too windy; so, most people regarded it as a good weather day. This year again there was very good cooperation for the participants with respect to parking. Thanks to all the competitors for making an effort at carpooling.

This year, for the first time, we used electronic punching for Raccoongaine.  This was new for many of the teams; but I think they caught on to the benefits quickly.  Those benefits were especially evident when they finished and got their splits, overall time and score almost instantly.  We had only two incidents with the e-punching.  One team dropped their SI card near one of the controls and came to the finish without it.  This was rectified during control pickup when the SI card was found hanging next to the control flag.  I assume some other team found it on the ground and placed it there.  The other incident was that one team used a SI card that was too new for our master control box.  I think we will need to update its software to be able to read the newer SI cards.  Otherwise, things ran rather smoothly.

The registration limit was again reached early this year. We had 22 3-hour teams and 57 6-hour teams registered; however, four 3-hour teams did not show up, three 6-hour teams did not show up, and one 6-hour team changed to being 3-hour at the last moment. The format was the same as in previous Raccoongaines: 50 controls with values of 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 (10 controls of each value for a total of 1500 possible points). The penalty for lateness was 10 points per minute.  Four mystery controls were not shown on the map (in this case controls 111, 112, 113, and 114) and four other controls (the mother controls, in this case 109, 115, 135, and 130, respectively) had maps to show where the mystery controls were. After arriving at a mother control, competitors could choose to go to the mystery control or not; all mystery controls were 20-point controls. The most interesting mother-mystery pair was probably 109-111; there an interesting dynamic played out. 109 was the closest control to Rec Hall and the most visited overall; but the associated mystery control was in the opposite direction from the one most competitors wanted to go at the start. Some that went to 109 first probably skipped copying the mystery control onto their maps because it was crowded at the control (we had hoped to alleviate this somewhat by providing three maps of the mystery control); some did copy it and came back at the end to get 111. Some left 109 until the end figuring they would get it if they had a few minutes at the end. Many of them were probably pleasantly surprised to discover it was a mother control and had enough time to get 111 as well; but there were a few who cut it too close and didn't have the 4-5 minutes they needed to go to 111.

Hail to the Chimp was the overall 6-hour winner, as he was last year, with a total of 1170 points, having lost 30 points to penalty. He visited by far the most controls, 36. Second most was 28. This year for the first time we had a woman in the top three overall, Olga Huber was second overall with a total of 910 points; Tom Rycroft was not far behind in third place with 890 points. Klokkerud from Norway was the overall 3-hour winner with 390 points, having visited 12 controls. Jonestown was second with 360 points from 12 controls and Nimkik Skulls was third with 270 points. Twelve was the most controls visited by anyone on the 3-hours course.

Here are a few observations from the splits and visitations (both have links below). I was looking at the time teams took from their last control to the finish as a measure of what they had left at the end. These are some of the ones that impressed me: From 110 to Finish in 6:19 - the distance is short but it has 60 m of climb; From 146 to Finish in 36:48 - this is more than 4 km with the last 1 km all uphill; From 144 to Finish in 14:27 - this also has a lot of uphill and downhill and was done by someone who had already been to 150, 138, 143, 145 and 146. Also, a surprising note of omission - one team went to 106 as their last control; they must have come right past 109 on the way to the finish but didn't stop to get it, even though they had time to spare. In terms of visitation, it is not surprising that 109 was the most visited control; least visited was 105, with 116, 108, and 125 close behind. I had figured that 116 and 125 would be the least visited before the event.

A lot of people helped to make Raccoongaine VI possible. Thanks to Alexis Rzewski for designing the course and making the awards. Thanks to Dave Battista for vetting the course. Thanks to Joe Logan, Jim Trautmann and Ryan Knecht for controlling parking. Thanks to Barbara Johnstone and Laurie Opila for dealing with waivers and packets. Thanks to Sherry Shank for showing people how to use and wear the SI card. Thanks to Giuseppina Mecchia, Laurie Opila and Joe Logan for preparing food. Thanks to Joe Logan for putting out the water stops (did you notice that the water wasn't ice - we didn't put the water out until just before the start). And thanks to Jen Livingston, Laurie Opila and Alex Rzewski for helping pick up control flags.

EM3        3-hr       Elite Men

EW3        3-hr        Elite Women

EB3        3-hr        Elite Mixed

MM3        3-hr        Masters Men

MB3        3-hr        Masters Mixed

VM3        3-hr        Veterans Men

VW3        3-hr        Veterans Women

VB3        3-hr        Veterans Mixed

EM6        6-hr        Elite Men

EW6        6-hr        Elite Women

EB6        6-hr        Elite Mixed

MM6        6-hr        Masters Men

MW6        6-hr        Masters Women

MB6        6-hr        Masters Mixed

VM6        6-hr        Veterans Men

VB6        6-hr        Veterans Mixed