March 3, 2019
Maple Lake—Palos North

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Meet Director: Oivind Naess
Course Setter: Oivind Naess

Schedule:
9:30 a.m. Registration opens
10 a.m. Start
11:30a.m. Courses close

(Maximum time on course: 90 minutes)

Cost: (per individual or team)

 

Event Day
Registration

Online
Pre-Registration

CAOC members
$10
$7
non-member
$15
$10
additional maps
$3
rental compass
$1

(We suggest a maximum of four people per group.)

See directions for precise start location
View Maple Lake in a larger map


Details:

Join us for some winter fun (or madness, perhaps, depending on the weather)! We continue our Winter Madnaess series at Palos, starting from the East Maple Lake Picnic Grove parking lot. We will start from the northern end of the parking lot off of 95th street between Maple Lake and Longjohn Slough (see the map above). We are planning on having only a Madnaess course. Details on the Madnaess format are below.

Registration is open through midnight Thursday, February 28.

Winter Madnaess

The Madnaess format is very different from traditional orienteering as the race is a mass start. The race is broken into three parts. The first is a set of common controls where the runners go head to head. They then enter the Madnaess box which features 7-8 controls. The intent of this box is to equalize the race for all levels of skill and as such each runner gets to skip a certain amount the controls based on their age and sex. Elite racers will have to cover all of them while younger or older runners will do less. Coming out of the box they then cover a number of common controls once again and if planned out properly most of the runners should finish very close to one another.

Racers will count total results to determine overall 2016 champions. For runners who are unable to get to all four of the races to count for the total, this is not an issue as each race is a seperate competition so if you can only make one then come out a try.

The competition will go ahead through rain or snow (sleet, hail, etc. You get the picture).

The Winter Madnaess Rules

  1. All events will have a mass start at 10:00 on the event day. You may start without penalty up to 20 minutes after the official start time. After that, your start time may be adjusted back to 20 minutes.

  2. The time limit is 90 minutes--all controls will be picked up after this time.

  3. At each event, every participant must sign an event waiver prior to the start, at registration time.

  4. Pre-marked maps are guaranteed to all who pre-register.

  5. Map cases may be purchased at pre-registration or on-site for $1.

  6. To ensure competitiveness for all participants, each event will use a handicap system called The Madnaess Box. Using their creativity, course setters will attempt to choreograph that elusive mass finish.

The Madnaess Box

Each race will feature the infamous Madnaess Box, which consists of a set of controls labeled with letters (A,B,C, etc) somewhere on the course. Participants may attack the controls in the box in any order. Additionally, participants may drop controls equal to their handicap point total. Handicap points are awarded as follows:

Category Handicap
Female
add 2
12 or younger
4
65 or older
4
14 or younger
3
55 or older
3
16 or younger
2
45 or older
2
19 or younger
1
35 or older
1

Examples:

  • A 46-year-old female may drop 4 controls in the box.
  • A 19-year-old male may drop 1 control in the box.
  • A 28-year-old male must visit all the controls in the box.

Directions:
From the Stevenson Expwy (I-55) take LaGrange Road - South (Hwy 45) across the river and exit on Archer Avenue to the southwest. Continue for 3 miles and turn left onto 95th street. Follow 95th as it bends left. Take 95th past Maple Lake and look for the parking lot on your right. Keep an eye out for the orange-and-white orienteering signs.

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