On a day with threatening weather, more than 200 people came to Stanford for the four courses designed by Jeff Lanam. In addition, an unknown number of people tried a free "sample" course that was offered as one of Stanford's Community Day activities. A nice change from previous years was the use of real pin-punch controls instead of plastic plates with codes to write down. (Fortunately, none of the controls went missing during the event.) The real controls gave beginners a more representative experience, and permitted experienced runners to save time.
The White course was a bit more challenging than normal, requiring careful navigation through a maze of buildings, roads, and trails on the campus. However, nearly everyone completed the course successfully (one group failed to punch at the last control), with the group of Eric Vincenti, Cory McCloskey, and George Kadifa finishing first in 22:54, only slightly ahead of first-timer Robert Wong at 25:31.
The Yellow course, which was essentially a longer version of the White course, was won by ("injured") Doug Stein with a swift 15:25. Doug was more than 26 minutes ahead of the second-place group of Bill, Freda & Leo Rassieur, who were only 7 seconds ahead of the third-place group of Danielle & Matthew Cassley, and Jake Kirshner. Doug's time caused at least one person to question if the result was correct. That lead me to compute Doug's pace, and that of other advanced runners. See the comparison below.
The Orange course offered more distance and lots of route choice among the buildings. The top three finishers were separated by only 29 seconds, with Devin Prouty on top at 28:25, CJ Powers second at 28:49, and Scott Spears third at 28:54. That was one of several close finish results during the day.
Long Orange controls 1 to 6 were shared with the Orange course, after which the long course added a loop North to the athletic fields, around the stadium, and back through the "woods" to rejoin the Orange course for the final two controls. The more-experienced orienteers really stretched their legs, with the top six finishers exceeding a 6-min/km average pace (and that's based on the straight-line distance, not the actual distance they ran). Nearly two thirds of the entries averaged faster than 9 min/km! Steve Gregg won at 33:23, a full minute ahead of Syd Reader. Then there was a three-minute gap to closely-fought third, fourth and fifth places: Tapio Karras, Matthias Kohler, and Dennis Wildfogel, respectively, who were separated by a total of 13 seconds.
As mentioned above, a question regarding Doug Stein's seemingly phenomenal time lead me to compute the average pace for several runners. Here are the paces for the 12 runners who bettered 7 min/km:
Steve Gregg 5:12/km Long Orange
Syd Reader 5:23 Long Orange
Tapio Karras 5:53 Long Orange
Matthias Kohler 5:54 Long Orange
Dennis Wildfogel 5:55 Long Orange
Steve Haas 5:56 Long Orange
Hannu Haarma 6:09 Long Orange
Dan Greene 6:24 Long Orange
Doug Stein 6:28 Yellow
Vadim Masalkov 6:37 Long Orange
George Minarik 6:40 Long Orange
Evan Custer 6:46 Long Orange
As always, the event couldn't have been held without the efforts of many people. As mentioned previously, Jeff Lanam designed the courses. Jeff also made map corrections and prepared the maps for printing, set almost all the controls, recorded finishes all day, and picked up controls. Many thanks go to Bob Cooley for printing all the maps, including 1000(!) copies of the two-sided map/flyer that was given out at the Community Day table.
Syd Reader ran the gauntlet of Stanford bureaucracy to get the permit. Shirley and Neal Pierce helped with setup. The ever-present registration team of Ev and Jean Beuerman did their usual wonderful job. Beginners clinics were held by Marsha Jacobs, which surely contributed to the high level of success on White and Yellow. Starts were managed by Cheryl Madson, Steve Haas, Stephanie McCain, and Alexandra Diaz. Alan Glendinning handled all the results. Last but not least, Meg Gerstner, Alan Glendinning, and Steve Haas kindly stayed until the end to pick up the controls and help with cleanup.
Much to my relief, Scott Aster headed up the effort at the Community Day table. I don't know who all helped there, but it included Judy Koehler, Nancy Lindeman, and Gary Kraght.
Thanks to all those folks, to Ben Wahlstrand for posting the announcement and results on the BAOC Web site, and to anyone that I've inadvertently overlooked.
In closing, I'd like to mention these lessons learned, for the possible benefit of future event directors:
Results
Pl Names Time Comment
White Course (1.85 km, 15 m climb, 8 controls)
1 Eric Vincenti, Cory McCloskey,
George Kadifa 22:54
2 Robert Wong 25:31
3 Peter & Andrew Chen 28:54
4 Verle, Bryce & Kiko Aebi 29:28
5 Jeff, Giselle & Chantal Paine 30:04
6 Sarah, Jim, Nora & Julia Brug 31:14
7 Keith & Chris Wycoff, Wayne Lee 31:15
8 David, Kathrin & Ayla Besemer 32:16
9 John Christopherson 32:18
10 John Petterson, Kevin Friel 33:10
11 Cathy Simes, Andrea Miranda 34:38
12 Tim, Elizabeth & Katherine Berry 35:08
13 Theresa Chiaramonte, Lucy Williamson 35:09
14 Vincent & Franco Marzella 35:28
15 Talina Velazquez, Elizabeth Magana 35:30
16 Jeff Prudhomme & family 36:57
17 Cacey & Tristan Jennings 37:37
18 Sheri Simmons, Sean Smith 40:54
19 Ryan, Brennan & Phil Mast 44:16
20 Joan, Luisa, David Westley 44:21
21 Sergei & Nika Rodionov 48:22
22 Darryl, Rena, Rachel, Daniel 50:28
23 Della Fernandes, Kelly Alvares,
Roshni Fernandez 51:22
24 Christy & Joey Hartsell, L. Sonneman,
G. Ah 54:02
25 Stephanie McCain, Alexandra Diaz 1:00:48
26 Frances & Marissa Marzella 1:04:31
27 Wilma Leonard, Barbara Robben 1:27:12
Nick Koenig, Beau & Trevor Carter DNF #8, 1:04:17
Chloe Little, Chris Dixon No Time
Second Course
Chloe Little, Chris Dixon 25:53
Yellow Course (2.38 km, 15 m climb, 12 controls)
1 Doug Stein 15:25
2 Bill, Freda & Leo Rassieur 41:52
3 Danielle & Matthew Cassley,
Jake Kirshner 41:59
4 Kathy Tegtmeier 43:19
5 Pat Mach & family 48:07
6 Christy Sanford, Meera Arulanantham,
Tory Grove, Angela Ruffoni,
Christina Mignano 49:23
7 Anita & Ramana Yerneni 50:26
8 Bob & Nastassja Mills 56:12
9 Fred, Ben & Tim Garcia 59:02
10 Piper Riley, Nancy Thomas, Judy Koehler 1:04:06
11 Marty & Joshua Katz 1:04:20
12 Colin, Lynn, Emma & Evan Bodell 1:05:12
13 John McClelland, Lew Whitter 1:10:21
14 Jim Cornett, Erik Klingbeil 1:10:53
15 Daan van Schooneveld, Sara DeWeese 1:11:24
Second Course
Robert Wong 36:18
Kevin Friel, John Petterson 43:04
Donna & Theresa Chiaramonte, Lucy
Williamson, Talina Velazquez,
Elizabeth Magana 49:50
Orange Course (4.00 km, 30 m climb, 9 controls)
1 Devin Prouty 28:25
2 CJ Powers 28:49
3 Scott Spears 28:54
4 Doug Bass, Matt Holman, Dan Holman 32:12
5 Doug Masiel 33:10
6 Frank Markowitz 33:22
7 Gary Kraght 33:48
8 Ian Tidswell 35:18
9 Daniel Johansson, Anna Flink,
David Osterstrom 38:37
10 Marsha Jacobs 42:35
11 CT List 45:32
12 Eddy Vromen 48:57
13 Christopher Cobey 51:45
14 Carl Reisinger 59:07
15 Shirley & Neal Pierce 1:00:40
16 Jim Hayes 1:01:07
17 Cheryl Madson 1:06:38
18 Nancy Lindeman 1:08:26
19 Rachel Care 1:12:09
20 George & Terri Warren 1:15:32
21 Sunny Tam 1:16:57
22 Geoff & Al Theiss 1:18:59
23 Diane & Harry Hall 1:28:02
24 Nick & Alex Powell, David Thorsrud 1:28:42
25 Larry & Jackie Orr, Janet Thorsrud,
Jackie Bradford, Laura A, Katherine
Chan, Katie Oey (GS Troop 774) 1:29:07
26 Steven & Lei Yang 1:38:47
27 Tom & Leslie Rogers 1:42:56
Jonathan & Kathy Harris DNF #9, 1:04:57
Long Orange Course (6.40 km, 30 m climb, 12 controls)
1 Steve Gregg 33:23
2 Syd Reader 34:29
3 Tapio Karras 37:42
4 Matthias Kohler 37:50
5 Dennis Wildfogel 37:55
6 Steve Haas 38:02
7 Hannu Haarma 39:26
8 Dan Greene 41:04
9 Vadim Masalkov 42:27
10 George Minarik 42:40
11 Evan Custer 43:23
12 Eric Rosenzweig 44:58
13 Theo Verhoeven 46:10
14 Marc Schreiber 46:55
15 Gavin Wyatt-Mair 48:23
16 Mark Blair 49:52
17 Johanna Merriss 52:53
18 Patty Clemo 53:14
19 Vivian Lee 53:30
20 Bob Cooley 53:42
21 Yelena Krasnov 54:41
22 Phillip Hoare 1:01:55
23 Cathy Bolger, Ken Renworth 1:02:18
24 Louise Madrid 1:03:44
25 Bill Straka 1:04:48
26 Dan Dwyer, Jackie Wong 1:09:59
27 Barbara Straka 1:21:52
28 Beth Dixon 1:27:52
29 Meg Gerstner 1:31:30
30 Audrie Faist 2:04:56
31 Andrew Theiss, Steven Gordon 2:11:41
32 Christena, Nick, Alex & Lexi Powell 2:40:37
33 Rick, Vivian, Wesley & Roy Eversole 2:53:11
Second Course
Doug Bass 38:20
Matt Holman, Dan Holman 44:24
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DNF = Did Not Finish (missing punch noted)