"All Things Considered", everything worked out amazingly well for EMPO's planned Ski-O, which was turned into a Foot-O due to a total lack of snow. On Friday, when I hung the controls, the weather was sunny, with a temperature in the 50's. On Saturday when I woke up it was raining, and during breakfast it was periodically pouring. I brought the book I'm reading with me to the event site, figuring no one would show up and I'd need something to do.

But, at right around 10 o'clock, when registration opened, the rain stopped, the skies lightened (a bit), and soon people began to appear. We had some new (and some experienced) particpants from Clifton Park, some veterans from the far east (New Lebanon), one from the far west (Oneonta), and several members of the BKW (local) High School O Club.

Since this event started out to be a Ski-O, the Start/Finish was located up near the road, rather than down by the pond, as has been usual for Foot-O. This provided a nice view of the much of the course, and it was fun to be able watch as the runners moved across the various open sections. Their hesitations and indecisions were interesting, and when they figured it out and took off to the control it was sweet to see.

Some who did the White course had such fun (and did it so quickly) that they wanted to go out again, and then did the Orange course too! There wasn't too much overlap of controls, so the "2nd Course" times are legitimate.

There continued to be no rain until around 2 o'clock, just after the last finishers had come in. As we all hung out and chatted about the courses and the kids and the weather, it began to rain again. I already had figured we wouldn't bother to pick up the control flags that day. One of the nice things about holding an event on private land is that you have much more flexibility to clean up and clear out in a day or two. And this time, we have an O-Kid (or two) already volunteering to do the chore as a training exercise. Sounds great to me!

Thanks to all of those who braved the sloppy conditions, forded the streams that weren't even on the map, and otherwise made it all worthwhile just by showing up.

- Phil Hawkes-Teeter