Adobe Dam Sprints/Motala

Sat, April 6, 2024

On April 6, 2024 GPHXO held a Sprints/Motala event at Adobe Dam in North Phoenix. The site is adjacent to the Arizona Model Pilots Society (AMPS) Radio Control Flying Field. The AMPS club generously gave us use of their parking lot and facilities. It was fun to watch them expertly fly their planes.

Karen Jelenick designed three sprints in the mostly flat desert areas around the airfield. Sprint 1 was 1.6 km, Sprint 2 was 2.7 km, and Sprint 3 was 3.9 km. Participants could run one, two or all three sprints (if they ran all three, we recorded their time as a Motala event).

Gary gave a beginner's clinic. The entire class learned what to do very quickly: so quickly that they caught every mistake Gary made during the clinic! :) After the clinic went out and successfully completed Sprint 1. Well done, class!

Keith Randle was the only runner to complete the Motala. His time of 1 hour 21 minutes was very good. Peter Fiddle and Neal Hayden (one of the clinic students) ran Sprints 1 and 2, with Peter being a bit faster than Neal. The Randle family completed a Sprint as a team. Gary ran Sprint 2 in 28 minutes, which was probably similar to Keith's time for Sprint 2. In all, everyone had a good time.

GPHXO holds a lot of events, despite the fact we are not a large club. We can't do that without the efforts of volunteers. Many thanks to Karen and Greg for designing courses, printing, hanging bags, directing the meet and picking up bags. Thanks to Ron Birks for the basemaps, and thanks to Gary for hauling equipment and helping with registration/timing. We really appreciate our volunteers. We can't do it without you!