Little Pan Classics

Sun, Feb 26, 2023

On the final day of Southwest Spring Week the Greater Phoenix Orienteering Club held the Little Pan Classics event. We had a good turnout, with most participants coming from outside the Phoenix area. And this was in spite of a weather report calling for cold morning rain. Fortunately, the rain stopped during the night, leaving behind firm ground for running and nice views of snow on nearby mountains. We only got a few drops of rain and some brief periods of hail (grapple, more likely). Still, it was a chilly morning, even for our guests visiting from northern climes.

We set three classic courses: Yellow/Orange, Brown/Green and Blue. The goal was to make them slightly shorter and less difficult than standard, with route choices allowing runners to avoid excessive climbing. We think we achieved that, although the Brown/Green course turned out to be more like a full Green.

Now for the results! Francis Falardeau was fastest on Blue, followed by J. P. Lande and Taylor Pospisil. Kimball Forrest was fastest on Brown/Green, closely followed by Greg Lennon and Tak Sugiyama. Ryan Dekany was fastest on Yellow/Orange, followed by The Diamondbacks and Donald Traicoff.

Many thanks to Greg Lennon of QOC for helping us pick up controls. We appreciate it!

And many thanks to all of you who came to Little Pan and braved the harsh Arizona winter to run these classic courses. We hope you enjoyed yourselves, and we look forward to hosting you again.