A beautiful fall day, with temperatures climbing into the 50's, made for the largest turnout at the annual post-Thanksgiving meet at Mt Tom in my memory: 96 starts and over 125 participants. The courses were physically challenging, all with about 5% climb and lots of rocky terrain, but there were some excellent times on all six courses. Even those who spent a lot of time lost in the woods seemed to have fun, and are eager to come back for more. All maps had the courses pre-printed on my trusty Canon S900. The Orange through Red courses had e-punching which went off without a glitch.

I had a lot of help without which this meet would not have been possible. Peter Gagarin ran the starts, and then picked up half of the advanced controls. Steve Richardson provided instruction before his run (there were lots of first-timers), and helped with clean-up after. Gail Richardson worked registration, manned the finish, and also helped with clean-up after. Susan Levitin also helped with the finish, including waiting for some overtime runners. My wife Margi Caplan manned one of the registration tables. Joanne Sankus and Dennis Struble ran the e-punch renting and downloading of results, and then Joanne helped pick up the orange controls. Clint and Jackson Morse picked up white and yellow controls. Finally, J-J Cote added map corrections that I sent him to the OCAD map file with a 24-hour turnaround. It is the volunteer help that keeps this sport alive for all of us.