unforum

[Cineball]

That's right, 22 seconds on a 3 circuit. Plus we have the first modern recorded seven circuit I believe. Did anyone else attempt a 7 today? I'm not exact on the time on that one, but let me tell you, it was a brain buster just to be a wall on that one trying to figure out where we were supposed to go next.

[Weezel]

[momonga]

I posted the link in the SF Training Session thread, but I guess I'll post it here too! Not much of a report--just photos. I didn't get shots of the other half of our very big group or any of the 7-circuit, which I joined in on as a wall, but I saw some other people documenting, so post, people!

EDIT: I went back to add notes identifying fellow finders of the lost ring. There are probably some I've missed, so send me a PM or something if so!

[Cineball]

Great pics Momonga! I was in some.

[DavFlamerock]

Of course you were

And our best times were:
0:22 for a 3-circuit
2:30 for a 7-circuit.

[konamouse]

Jane posted a bunch of pictures at Avant Game's flickr.

[Ranger D]

Ok, here's a little summary of how the SF event went.

By the time I got to the park (damn cross-town traffic) there were two 3-circuit labyrinths and one 7-circuit labyrinth chalked on the pavement. At 2pm we had enough people to break off into two groups and practice on the 3-circuit ones first.

It was during this time that the 22 second 3-circuit record was claimed, by our very own The Adam. By that time we had about 57 people (pita counted, I'm relying on her impeccable math skills), enough to attempt the 7-circuit. We gave our fastest runners from the 3-circuit first crack at the 7, then opened it up to anyone else. A gentleman named Lex who was here from Holland holds the record for the 7-circuit labyrinth at 2 min 30 secs.

Now some suggestions for runners and walls:

As a runner, you really have to get used to being in everyone's personal space. If you haven't run one yet, look at the pictures and see how close you need to make those walls. Two feet is not a lot of space. So you will run into people, just get over it.

When the walls are moving to catch up to the runner there can often be confusion over where you should be going next, where the labyrinth is ending and needs to be continued. So SpaceBass made a great suggestion: the wall person who is the end holds up their hand. So even if you're running the long way around, you can still see exactly where the labyrinth needs people and go straight there.

The 3-circuit is more or less a spiral, each turn you make puts you at a longer radius to the center, and this makes for easy running and wall building once you get the hang of it. The 7-circuit does not follow this rule. The pathways curve back in on each other, and there is a nasty S-curve in there as well. I can't speak to running the 7, but for the walls it was much more chaotic. You're trying to see where the runner is going to be next, and along the top part of the labyrinth those concentric lines can get confusing. This is where holding your hand up to let others know where to be is crucial.

Amazingly I didn't take any pictures (go me), but there were tons of people there with cameras. Let's see those pictures!

[DavFlamerock]

Alright so that took FAR longer than it needed to. I really need to get a DV cable at home so I'm not stuck pulling video off of the camera at school. You can tell we don't use it much, can't you

Anyway, I have pulled off the raw feed and since it took so long I figured I wouldn't make you guys wait any longer while I messed with music and titles and such (especially since I'm not used to using iMovie) so I just decided to throw it up there (after, of course, deleting the stuff that is nothing but people milling at a distance.)

I pretty much outlined it in the summary on googlevideo. I got about 9 minutes of feed, which includes setup, a 3-circuit run with our group, a 3-circuit run from Jane's group, a FIRST PERSON 3-circuit run (great idea Ourobos) and a 7-circuit run from afar and from up-close.

VIDEO of the San Francisco day!

[lhall]

[unagi]

[Weezel]

[mr.judkins]

Hello all!

Here is the video of our best 3-Circuit run yet.

Off to bed now, but will update on Lhall's record-times keeper thingie in the morning.

[Elizabeth123]

Awesome job, Mr. J! Are these experienced runners? I wonder how much practice it takes...

[mr.judkins]

Thanks Elizabeth - it's been really good seeing our improvement as a group.

As for experienced runners, Atalanta who scored the time above is a natural - having managed a time of 27 seconds during the first training session she was involved with. This is after a lot more practice, and in particular, having experienced, co-ordinated walls.

Incidentally, Atalanta is also our only runner so far who has been a Thumos. We've been on the lookout for a male Thumos, and think we've finally found one for next time.

Bizarrely, they really are just better at it (and don't seem to understand why noone else finds it as fun as them).

[jasper]

http://upcoming.yahoo.com/photos/8427

Report from Austin- we were not able to train because not enough of us showed up at the same time. The folks with the video camera arrived after we had given up at left, but I'll have my low tech version of a video of my friend walking the 3 circuit labyrinth we drew to post in a while.

ETA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oi09u9DwW4