Thank you!

Thank you for joining us for this year's Southwest Spring Week! I hope everyone had as much fun participating as I had organizing!

SWSW by the numbers:

• 236 control points marked in terrain (or marked with a question!) in the Tucson events
• 100 participants throughout the week, some taking part every single day!
• Participants came from 18 different clubs
• Volunteers represented 10 different clubs
• We used 10 different mapped areas throughout the week
• Over 400 maps printed
• 13 cactus spines removed from the bodies of non-desert dwelling orienteers (I made that one up)
• Many hours of sunshine (and a few hours of cloudy skies)

I'd like to give a super cactus high-five thank you to all of the volunteers who made this week possible. We couldn't have done it without a lot of hands helping out and we had hands from all over. This is almost certainly an incomplete list. Please let me know if I've missed someone!

Thanks to Peg Davis (TSN) for planning, volunteer wrangling, beginner instruction, pizza party, refreshments, and turning her home into an orienteering hostel. Barb Bryant (Navigation Games/NEOC) helped with planning, directed the Catalina training, and setting up training activities on the sprint day. Valerie Mayer (QOC) was our fearless registrar and e-punch mentor extraordinaire. Jeff Coker (TSN) and Mark Everett (TSN) set a full slate of courses on the Rt 83 maps for the Tucson weekend days, while Boris Granovskiy (QOC) and Greg Ahlswede (DVOA) designed challenging training courses during the week. Mark Parsons (TSN) did all the legwork for the Bisbee Street-O. Nancy Coker (TSN) worked start at Box Canyon and helped with all the control setting and fetching for the Rt 83 weekend.

Jeff Brucker (TSN) was a lifesaver, vetting and streamering both Tucson Mountain training courses. John Little (TSN) streamered and vetted the Friday Catalina training. Jeff Brodsky (TSN) worked e-punch, provided us with quiet power, and hauled a lot of gear back and forth each day. Pat Townsend (TSN) worked e-punch and registration  Gregg Townsend (TSN) worked e-punch and took some great action shots at the Catalina mass start race.

Mary Jo Childs (GVOC) helped us out at registration at Box Canyon and took many delightful photos. The young men from Cambridge and Navigation Games -- Ethan Childs, Vilppu Viinikainen and Keegan Harkavy -- retrieved controls, pin flags, streamers, and tape after almost every single event. Sarah Peterson (BAOC), Sverre Froyen (RMOC), John Crowther (RMOC), Glenn Haselfield (GPHXO) and Ron Birks (GPHXO) all helped with control retrieval.  Brooke Mann (RMOC) provided e-punch support, helped with map preparation, and didn't flinch when I swore at my computer late into the evenings. Lukas Haakon Trout Luis (TSN/Nydalens SK) helped pass out maps a few times and provided copious giggles.

Super thanks to the GPXHO crew, led by Ron Birks on Saturday and Glenn Haselfield & Forest Brown on Sunday, for organizing Phoenix events to fill out a week of Arizona orienteering.

Last but certainly not least, Melissa Trout (TSN/Nydalens SK) gets a big thanks for working the start at Kentucky Camp and a much bigger thanks for taking primary duties watching our energetic son throughout the entire week while I fiddled with OCAD, printed maps, drove around town, streamered control locations, and generally spent way too much time with orienteering and too little with my family.

Thanks again for letting us share beautiful Southern Arizona with you! We'll see you at SWSW 2019!

Bisbee Street-O Results

Today SWSW moved down to the historic and quirky town of Bisbee for a 2-hour street-o. Eighteen people headed out on the course and everyone came back, though a few may have stopped for coffee along the way.

Many thanks to Bisbee resident Mark Parsons for selecting all the control locations and drafting creative questions and answers.

Results (21 possible points)

Name	Time	Points
Ethan Childs	53:27.8	21
Jeff Coker	60:57	21
Keegan Harkavy	78:00	21
Vilppu Viinikainen	80:00	21
Glen Tryson	102:06	21
Sverre Froyen	105:10	21
John Maier	109:00	21
Rick & Eileen Breseman	110:00	21
Brooke Mann	119:00	19
Gregg Townsend	97:00	16
Janet Tryson	107:00	15
Scott Moore	109:00	14
Mary Jo Childs	93:00	12
Heather & Sierra	113:00	10
Lukas Luis	80:00	2
Barb Bryant	118:00	??

Training events

Thanks to everyone joining in for the races over the long weekend! More details and photos will come up over the next few days. The rest of the week before the weekend in Phoenix consists of low-key training events. Please bring your own map case if you want to use one during the training sessions (letter size for all except Bisbee, which is 11x17). The training sessions do not involve timing, e-punch, results, or big control flags. They do involve cool terrain and fun exercises. It's going to be awesome!

Results from Day 3 Catalina Mass Start

It was a windy morning at Catalina State Park for Arizona's inaugural THOMASS-style mass start race. Twenty-two runners set out in the mass start with lots of head-to-head action, a few regrettable route choices, and some surprises in the finish.

Results (pdf)

The course setter welcomes deeper analysis of the splits by any participants. 

Results from Day 2 Box Canyon

Splits for Day 2 are available on Attackpoint.

Share and view routes on Livelox.

Results from Day 1 Kentucky Camp

An energetic crowd of 47 orienteers descended on the Santa Rita foothills today for some very fine courses set by Mark Everett. The ground was still wet from the recent rains but the clouds mostly stayed away and our out-of-town guests got a dose of the sun they were promised.

Results and splits for today are available on Attackpoint.

Add your route or check out the courses and other people's routes on Livelox.

See you tomorrow!

It all starts tomorrow!

Make sure to check the Orienteering Details page for directions, start windows, and information about each day. Here are a few tidbits and useful information:

- No assigned start times on Saturday and Sunday. We'll just be making sure you start with appropriate separation between other runners on your course.

- You'll want leg covering for the forest events. You won't need leg covering for Bisbee (Wednesday) and UA + Reid Park (Thursday).

- If you get a cholla ball stuck to your leg DO NOT try to remove it with your fingers! Then you'll just have a cholla ball stuck to your fingers. Instead, with your map in one hand and your compass in the other, carefully pluck the ball off. Alternatively, carry a comb with you.

- Yes, we're in the desert, but it can rain and there are big differences between night and day temperatures. Bring some layers, especially for early in the morning. Keep in mind that it will also be cooler on the Rt 83 maps (Saturday & Sunday) which sit a couple thousand feet higher than the city.

Still have questions? Please email Cristina Luis.

Have fun! See you in the desert!

Courses will be on Livelox!

Want to easily compare your route against the competition after the races this weekend? We're using the online tool Livelox for most of the Tucson events, which will make it easy to share and compare.

Livelox is an orienteering analysis tool that makes it easy to view and share your route as recorded by a gps - either a watch or your phone, using the Livelox app. It is quite popular in Norway and Sweden and has seem some use in the US. Most of the functionality is available for free (just make an account!), but to see head-to-head comparisons you'll need a subscription.

Charge up your gps watch or download the app and get ready to Livelox!

Two NRE days during SWSW2018!

In addition to Phoenix's National Ranking Event on February 25th, Tucson's event on Feb 18th at Box Canyon will also be an NRE.

Come for a day, a weekend, or the whole week! Get some ranking races and some sun!