Score-O, 12/13 December @ Eno River
Registration for this event is now closed.
Our annual December Score-O will be at Eno River State Park during the weekend of December 12/13. This event is open only to expert orienteers — those who have completed a brown, green, red, or blue course. (We are sorry about the relative lack of beginner-friendly events over the past months; however, increased park usage during the Covid pandemic has required us to limit our numbers and our types of events.) Registration for this event is closed here and will only be open through Thursday, December 10 – but please don’t just jump to the registration page; instead, read the following paragraphs carefully, because this event has a few unusual characteristics.
A ‘score’ orienteering course is one in which competitors are not required to visit checkpoints in a predetermined order. Rather, each checkpoint is worth a certain number of points, and the person who collects the most points in a given time period is the winner. It is important to finish your course in the proper time limit because there are large point penalties for coming back over time.
Our December event will have 2-, 4-, and 6-hour divisions. The 4- and 6-hour competitions will use the same map, so these competitors will not need to declare their time limit before they start. In fact, any 4-hour competitor who takes more than 4 hours to complete their course will be automatically assigned to the 6-hour division. However, the 2-hour competitors will receive a different map, and will need to commit to their time limit when they register.
There will be no BOK supervision at the start, finish, and registration areas of this event. Instead, checkpoints (with SI units) will be set out by the evening of December 11, and competitors can come to the park at any time on the 12th or 13th to do their course. The start and finish locations will be relatively remote, hidden from most park users, and will require a bit of navigation to find. Maps will be available at the start, and you may study the map and plan your route for as long as you need before you start your course. When you finish, you must punch the finish control as well as a special download box that will be used later to tabulate the results. You must have an SI fingerstick in order to compete. If you do not have one, you may rent one, and it will be included with your preassigned (labled) map at the start. If you take a rental fingerstick, you must leave it in a container at the finish.
Please ensure that you provide a valid email address when you register, because a critical pre-race briefing (including rules, course notes, and a map to the start) will be emailed to participants on Friday, December 11. If you have questions between now and the 11th, send them to Dave at dw.orienteer@gmail.com. If you have an idiosyncratic question that will not be covered in the pre-race briefing, I should respond to you individually. Otherwise, if you don’t get an answer back, assume that your question will be addressed (and hopefully answered) in the briefing.