Street-O @ Maroondah Triangle

This was my course. I had everyone collecting street names, with a twist - the value of the control was based on the scrabble score for the initial letter of the street sign.

The hip behaved and I had an enjoyable short run - 6 kms in 6:37/km.

This is part the report I wrote for the Street-O website:

Scrabble-O

One of the privileges of being the course setter [on a Monday Special] is that you can plan the perfect route in advance. The one that will net you the greatest number of controls or the highest possible score in the shortest possible distance. Pre-planning means that you can simply run without having to calculate "where to next", or endless route choices and changes of plan.

I did none of these things.

The aim of tonight's run was to collect the first letter of the street sign. "Hopkin's Notation" was introduced early on in the season, and I've always found it easier to look for large plain street signs than small fiddly yellow post tags. So street signs it was.

To make it more interesting, the value of each control was based on scrabble scoring. So a street sign at Joseph St gave you a "J", which in scrabble terms is worth 8 points. Posts which had 2 street signs were worth double points. The sign on the corner of Beaufort Rd and Diana St gave a "B" and a "D" which equals (3+2)*2=10. This meant that you didn't know the value of the control until you got there.

With 25 controls on offer there were plenty of options.

I hadn't realised how far it was to #4, or how steep the hill was near #6. I'd forgotten which controls had doubles and I couldn't remember which one the triple was at. And what a stupid place to put #10 (sorry!). It made a lot more sense in the daylight, and in the car.

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, which is the main thing. :-)