Pt Pinole
April 6, 1997

A large crowd of close to 200 orienteers gave up an hour of sleep (Daylight Savings Time kicked in that morning) to participate in our inaugural event at Point Pinole. I certainly discovered that it is much more nerve-wracking than usual to set courses in an area at which you also made the map! Normally if a competitor complains about a bad map after running their course, the course-setter can listen sympathetically and offer condolences (although it was probably the course-setter's fault, for putting a control in a poorly mapped area in the first place). Here, however, I was 100% responsible for both the map and the courses. Thus it was a great relief to me when most everyone returned with positive comments and fast times! It's clear that we will want to make this an annual event on our orienteering calendar.

Point Pinole is a open, flattish area and the times were fast on all courses. Sarah Minarik and Jenny McKnight were among the early starters and knocked off the White course in 29:02, and then Jenny went on to run a Yellow course by herself and won that course as well, in 41:23. Do we have a potential new orienteering star here, Sarah? Only three people ran the Pink course (I definitely won't bother to set that course next year), won by Michael Melyk in 71:45. The Long Yellow course was better received--it attracted many of the non-competitive hiking folks--and was won by Larry Breed in 84:00. And in what must be a BAOC record, no one DNFd on the Orange course, and only one group took more than two hours to finish! Matti Laavainen blazed through the course in 28:46, and Leslie Minarik also had a great run, finishing second in 38:38.

Most of the advanced runners tackled the Long Orange course and it was interesting to see how the best runners in our club compare with each other head-to-head. It was sobering to me, though, to see just how FAST the top runners in our club are on this type of terrain! My test run time before the event was 43 minutes, and I knew ahead of time exactly where all the controls were. Four people bested this time, headed by Neal Barlow in 35:41. Also noteworthy is James Scarborough's time--he declared himself unofficial due to prior knowledge of the terrain, and also inadvertently failed to punch control #13, but nevertheless finished the course in 31:36 (which works out to about 4.8 min/km!) Yes, this was definitely a runner's course, but even the non-runners seemed to enjoy the area (or at least were too polite to complain much).

A couple of points that should be mentioned: At least two people DNFd because they lost their punch card halfway through the course. Please note that if that ever happens to you, don't quit in disgust--just punch right through your map at the remaining controls. This is perfectly OK and your punches can be checked and time taken as usual. Also, two other unlucky folks started their courses with mismatched maps and clue sheets (i.e. one was Yellow, the other Long Yellow), and did not discover the error until they were well out on the course. Especially now that we are heading towards premarked maps at many of our events, it's a good idea to check your map at the very start of the course, to make sure it's the correct one.

As usual, meets like this just do not happen without a lot of help. Evan Custer vetted my Long Orange course and gave me a huge list of suggested map additions and corrections. Rex Winterbottom also vetted courses and helped me hang bags on Saturday. George Minarik, Leslie Minarik, and Shirley Parlan ran registration. Neeme Loorits, Scott Aster, and Wyatt Riley handled the starts. Gavin Wyatt-Mair and Tony Pinkham manned the finish line. Vicki Woolworth made the Start-O map and ran the event. Gary Carpenter, Tapio Karras, and Anne Rock helped with bag pickup. Finally, a special thanks to Bob Cooley for patiently teaching me OCAD, loaning me his computer for a couple of months, and printing out all the maps we needed for the event on his printers at home. I enjoyed my first real mapping work a great deal.

- Steve Gregg


WHITE  3.2 km  45 m 10 controls

1.  Jenny McKnight & Sarah Minarik   29:02
2.  Ed DeAvile                       41:59
3.  Leslie and Blancke               49:28
4.  Eric Nastronatteo                53:13
5.  Pagendarm group                  64:23
6.  Sarah Kutner and Sara Sachs      68:12
7.  Jean Lichtenstein                71:47
8.  Susan and Laura Gravens          72:20
9.  Dean Lukes                      104:16
10. Diana & William McKennett       110:20
    Leadbetter/Woolworth group        DNF
    Derek Johnson                     DNF

PINK  5.6 km   65 m  14 controls

1.  Michael Melyk             71:45
2.  Joe Walowski              73:49
3.  Greg & Sherrie Gilmore   129:30

YELLOW  3.4 km   50 m  11 controls

1.  Jenny McKnight                   41:23
2.  Joe Walowski                     42:49
3.  Jim Cassady                      53:06
4.  Cobb, Ihrig, Hamilton, Gray      53:42
5.  Hanna Aavikko                    54:45
6.  M. Pedron                        57:24
7.  Josh Tullos                      58:53
8.  Shavonna, James, Cris, Calton    69:43
9.  Ransone, Lofwall, Roberts        70:11
10. Falkowitz group                  70:50
11. Barbara Scott & Phil Belisle     71:40
12. Butterfield, Keag, Satyam        74:10
13. Frank Kuhn (FLO)                 88:16
14. Quaife, Shier, Kyser             94:10
15. Explorer Post 111               101:14
16. Englehart group                 106:55
17. Ed Rosser & Eva Lieben          154:20
    Jessica Woods & Renee Comer     DNF (#5,8)

LONG YELLOW  5.7 km  80 m  17 controls

1.  Larry Breed                   84:00
2.  Anne Rock                     85:58
3.  Lacefield group               97:18
4.  Johnson & Hoffman             99:50
5.  Shirley Parlan               100:59
6.  George and Pat Aster         106:06
7.  Dick and Judy Koehler        106:50
8.  Weydemayer group             135:50
9.  Thomason & Kirsch            146:01
10. Diane Hall                   163:05
11. Melinda Haslam               176:00
    Casillas & Margolin (MBOC)     DNF

ORANGE  3.5 km   55 m  9 controls

1.  Matti Laavainen                   28:46
2.  Leslie Minarik                    38:38
3.  Nick Corsano                      40:44
4.  Racnel Yoter & Eric Mehlhaft      43:13
5.  Dwight Freund                     44:00
6.  Kathleen Lennon                   46:15
7.  Marsha Jacobs                     46:40
8.  Joe Walowski (2nd course)         49:26
9.  Rick Boyer                        50:58
10. Cobb group                        58:19
11. TJ, Dawn, Victor, Rachael         59:56
12. Aileen Abernathy                  60:08
13. Jeff Lanam                        61:42
14. Gravens group                     63:30
15. Beth Dameron                      63:49
16. Nancy Lindeman                    69:15
17. Ransom, Roberts, Lofwall          94:32
18. Ev and Jean Beuerman              94:52
19. Ed Rosser & Eva Lieben            95:20
20. Brown group                      133:25
    John Pagendarm                   MSP (#1)

LONG ORANGE  6.6 km  90 m  17 controls

1.  Neal Barlow                      35:41
2.  Neeme Loorits                    37:37
3.  Mikko Laavainen                  37:50
4.  Wyatt Riley                      43:22
5.  Steve Jankowski                  44:15
6.  Derek Maclean                    44:36
7.  Van Baughner                     45:47
8.  Gary Carpenter                   46:35
9.  Dan Clark                        47:16
10. Syd Reader                       47:34
11. George Minarik                   47:47
12. Tapio Karras                     50:10
13. Dennis Wildfogel                 52:24
14. Bill Papendick                   52:26
15. Jay Montgomery                   53:09
16. Sarah Minarik                    53:45
17. Gavin Wyatt-Mair                 54:10
18. Bob Cooley                       57:46
19. Adam Smith                       58:46
20. Bill Banker (MBOC)               59:54
21. Tony Pinkham                     60:10
22. Joe Scarborough                  60:42
23. Matti Lainema                    61:55
24. Doug Stein                       64:10
25. Scott Aster                      65:38
26. Josh Friedericks                 65:54
27. Joe Papendick                    67:10
28. Mark Blair                       70:49
29. Michael Poulsen                  71:14
30. Stephanie Maclean                79:31
31. Charles Brenner                  85:20
32. Mike Maughmer                    86:09
33. Phillip Hoare                    89:43
34. Andrew Hertz                     90:26
35. Steve Beuerman                   98:58
36. Steve O'Keefe                   108:54
37. Terry Gleason                   110:38
38. Martin Weiss                    117:13
39. Don and Jon Gee                 146:04
40. Staley group                    170:30
    David Meredith                    DNF
    Johnson group                     DNF
    Victor and TJ                     DNF
    Evan Custer (Vetter)             47:16
    James Scarborough (Unofficial)  MSP #13--Time 31:36