Starkey Hills is a Gators heritage map in use for the last 30 years (at least). The venue for the event will include the main Grand River Conservation Area lands in addition to private lands on the east and west side. To provide a different perspective, we'll be starting the race from the south-west side of the map. The Gators are truly grateful for the generosity of private landowners in the area for access to their beautiful land.

This Thomass event will be typical in format but will be longer than a normal Thomass. The expected winning time will around 50 minutes but the actual distance will range from 5.5km to 8.5km, depending on your handicap and the number of controls that you will visit in the Thomass Box. Instructions will be provided prior to the start.

A key characteristic of the Thomass format is the Thomass Box. The Thomass Box is an area on the map that marks a set of controls that may be visited in any order. Depending on your handicap, you may drop controls (not visit) according to the following table. Please note that the control locations in the Thomass Box are always marked with a letter; the manditory controls are marked with a number and must be visited in order. Of course, anyone can visit all the controls to take advantage of training opportunities and also to take advantage of visiting a nice location in the forest. The challenge for the course setter is to choreograph the handicaps to, ideally, create a mass finish. The challenge for the competitor is to visit the boxed controls to minimize overall time and finish before everyone else, even the elite aged competitors.

Category Handicap female add 2 12 or younger 4 65 or older 4 14 or younger 3 55 or older 3 16 or younger 2 45 or older 2 19 or younger 1 35 or older 1

Examples, Woman, age 36, handicap will be 3 (1+2) or, drop 3 controls in each Thomass Box Male, age 15, handicap will be 2 or, drop 2 controls Woman, age 58, handicap will be 5 (3+2) or, drop 5 controls Male, age 25, handicap will be 0 or, visit all controls Woman, age 66, handicap will be 6 (4+2) or, drop 6 controls

Please stay after the event and enjoy our famous chile and vegan stews - and, talk about your run. Coffee or hot cider will be available at registration time. This year we'll have our normal meat based chile for carnavors and African Stew and Lentil Stew for those who choose a vegan lifestyle.

The SPORTident timing system will be used for all controls of the Thomass course