Sunol Regional Wilderness
Date: (Sun.) Mar. 20, 2005
Location: Sunol, CA
Event Director: 
- 925.462.2254
Course Setter: Gary Carpenter
Type: B; All seven courses, plus a Long Orange (Adventure Race training) course
Related Information
Event Announcement Course Setter's Notes WinSplits (http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/sv/default.asp?page=classes&databaseId=4255&ct=true) Route Gadget (http://www.baoc.org/gadget/)
Event Write-Up
By Mark Blair
It was a dark and stormy, uh, day and ... Oh come on. Ahem. Let's try that again.
After being cooped indoors by three days of Spring rain, an astonishing 214 people apparently decided they could no longer stand it, and headed to Sunol Regional Wilderness for the BAOC event on March 20, even though intermittent showers continued to drench the Bay Area that morning. As it turned out, rain at the park was only brief and spotty during the morning, but shortly after noon it began to pour steadily, and many folks ended up their courses with a good soaking. Even so, the early wildflowers were spectacular, and damp smiles were seen on almost every face.
Except for the Rogaine put on by Harold and Penny DeMoss last year, we always set the "standard 8" point-to-point courses at Sunol. And that's what we did this year. The White and Yellow courses traversed the central flat area between the two major bridges, with the Yellow course venturing into the surrounding hills a bit. Participants on the Orange, Long Orange, and advanced courses were sent on a half-hour uphill trudge to a remote start from which they then had the pleasure of cruising mainly downhill on their courses to a finish back at the point where they'd started their hike.
On the White course, the top three finishing teams were (I believe) all from a group of about 20 Boy Scouts who had told me they planned to come. Their times were very close, with Robert Gibson and Jay Van Syoc finishing first, followed by Jonathan Chiappa, then Matt Walsh and Josh Luther. The Yellow course was a bit tougher than usual. But that didn't stop the winner Joe Maffei from buzzing through it in a mere 37 minutes. Only a minute behind him was Daniel Kopisch, shadowed by his dad and longtime BAOC member Manfred Kopisch. Finishing third with her companion Vince Witwer was BAOC's sweetheart Anneliese Steuben, who is still hobbled by a ligament problem that we all hope continues to improve.
John Turner loved the 43 minutes he spent blitzing all his competition on the Orange course so much that he then ran the Yellow course and nearly won that one too. Trevor Swallow and Gary Martinez finished second and third on Orange. The long version of the Orange course, designed with adventure racers in mind, went considerably north of the remote start to the other side of Welch Creek Road before heading back downhill toward the finish. But Roy Malone somehow managed to blast through it in 52 minutes, winning the Long Orange course easily. I think Roy may be ready for advanced-course duty. Thomas Bastis sped to second place in just over an hour, and Jake Niebaum bagged third place.
Competitors on the advanced courses reported them to be somewhat easier than usual. Times on all these courses were indeed a bit shorter, and more tightly spaced, than we typically see. But diabolical course setter Gary Carpenter had thrown them all a curve: In BAOC local events, the middle portion of the four advanced courses is almost always shared by all those courses. Based on a suggestion by Kelly Wells, Gary had forked this common portion to four different, but closely spaced, control points for the four different courses in a delightfully technical little area of the Sunol map. (No USOF control-separation regulations were violated.) Apparently a couple of our expert navigators were tripped up by this little gambit.
On the Brown course, Dennis "I Live To Sprint" Wildfogel did exactly that to top the finish list with an impressive time of 34 minutes. But this was no shoo-in; second place finisher Mikkel Conradi was only a minute behind. In third place was BAOC veteran Gary Kraght. After accompanying his son on the Yellow course, Manfred Kopisch set a good example by winning the Green course. He was followed by Chris Roper, and 40 seconds later by BAOC's own master of the bovine lullaby, George Minarik. (When I tried George's technique of serenading feisty cattle to calm them, they did retreat a little but did not seem to be registering what I would call contentment. I guess George just has "the gift".) Something truly amazing happened on the Red course when Pierre Delforge, an apparent newcomer to BAOC, blistered his way across the finish line in an incredible 49 minutes, beating all other competitors by at least 13 minutes. But this was a good race: The next five finishers were all spaced only about a minute apart, starting with top-notch BAOC regulars Tapio Karras and Bruce Wolfe in second and third place. On the Blue course, three familiar BAOC pros Syd Reader, Francois Leonard, and Doug Stein flew over the terrain to finish 1, 2, 3 in close times just over an hour.
Oh my God! This humble author has just discovered that Mikkel Conradi, who almost beat professional sprinter Dennis Wildfogel on the Brown course, had apparently already run the Blue course and finished fourth, just a few minutes behind Doug Stein. What an animal!
My army of volunteers deserves special appreciation, not only for the tasks they performed, but for performing those tasks in the relentless rain that made event operations difficult for everyone. James Wilson handled the overwhelming crowds that showed up early at Registration and was aided by Peter Graube who stepped forward on the spot to help him. Terry Farrah took over the Registration later on. Chuck Spalding and Francois Leonard ran the White and Yellow course starts. Special thanks to Marie-Josee Parayre for helping out before Chuck arrived. Steve Gregg educated the masses with his beginner's clinics. Matthias Kohler and Gavin Wyatt-Mair manned the finish line. Many thanks to Bob Cooley, not only for keeping the maps in good supply, but also for stepping in to help at the finish line when it was badly needed. E-Punch is a particularly labor-intensive operation that functioned smoothly all day long due to the efforts of Trinka Gillis, Evan Custer, Jeff Lanam, and Tony Pinkham. Galena Shakhnovsky helped me process White/Yellow results. Jim Fish and Bob Heady helped put up and take down tents. And Jim, along with Harold & Penny DeMoss, Bob Cooley, Marina Keating, and Joe Maffei marched out into the steady rain at the end of the event to pick up controls.
Finally, I'd like to shine the light on industrious Sunol course setter Gary Carpenter, who was always one step ahead of the game. Gary designed and set the Orange, Long Orange, and all the advanced courses. He also worked the remote start all day long at the event, and picked up the farthest controls.
Thanks for coming, all participants and volunteers. Stay dry and we'll try to drench you with sun instead of rain at Sunol next year.
Results
Sunol Regional Wilderness
Sunol, CA
Sunday, March 20, 2005
Pl Name Time
White Course (2.3 km, 45 m climb, 10 controls)
1 Robert Gibson, Jay Van Syoc 29:40
2 Jonathan Chiappa 30:13
3 Matt Walsh, Josh Luther 31:55
4 Ryan Kelly, Matt Dickerson, Andrew James 32:31
5 Annette Walsh, Merrie Van Syoc, Pat James 37:29
6 Alan Roof 38:24
7 C. J. Allen, John Willey 38:47
8 Gina Christopher 44:26
9 Hunter Tynes 48:25
10 Hershal Patel, Kevin Gibbons, Roger Hau 48:49
11 Chad, Nick, Dylan 51:04
12 Luke, Tim, & Robin Randall 51:15
13 Joseph Kim, Brandon Forrest, Ryan Johnson 53:37
14 Alex Genevsky, Lisa Eigner 56:01
15 Frank & Alex Grabowski, Plamondon 1:01:45
16 Barbara Ziegenhals, Sally Morgan 1:05:42
17 Donna Tiano 1:12:45
18 Dave & Charlotte Hovey 1:17:53
Yellow Course (2.8 km, 155 m climb, 12 controls)
1 Joe Maffei 37:15
2 Daniel Kopisch (and Dad) 37:44
3 Vince Witwer, Anneliese Steuben 44:05
4 Terry Farrah 45:43
5 James & Zion Wilson 46:39
6 Jukka Karras 47:33
7 Ellen & Ben Kwan 51:20
8 Tim Gravier, Jeremiah & Marilou Sumagit 58:40
9 Tristan Delforge 1:00:49
10 Susan & Rebecca Want 1:01:12
11 Lea Widdice 1:04:24
12 Julie Bruins 1:09:44
13 Chad, Robert, Josh 1:15:50
14 Jakub Deptula 1:16:35
15 Marty & Josh Katz 1:18:09
16 Galena Shakhnovsky 1:20:23
17 David, Amber, & Amanda Galbreath 1:21:16
18 Juliette Delforge 1:26:57
19 Gavin, David, & Carl Williams 1:40:40
20 Dan, Keith, & Jennifer Veditz 1:41:58
21 Genevieve Brebner 1:43:08
22 Scott & Jeremy Curtis, Eileen Candelaria 1:44:25
23 Chris Tabith 1:45:50
Jacek Deptula, Sophia Sandaval DNF
Abigail Freeman DNF (lost card)
Second Course
Ryan Kelly, Derek Freihofer, Sunny Maxey 39:01
John Turner 39:06
Gina Christopher 52:41
Jay Van Syoc, Nick Luther 1:14:40
Pl Name Time
Orange Course (3.6 km, 190 m climb, 9 controls)
1 John Turner 43:00
2 Trevor Swallow 47:45
3 Gary Martinez 58:46
4 Marta & Tomas Deptuk 1:01:30
5 Flip Deptula 1:03:55
6 Viktoria Batanova 1:10:38
7 Bob Heady 1:16:23
8 John Wallace 1:18:26
9 Erin Magers 1:21:41
10 Nancy & Hannah Lippo 1:24:30
11 David Dippon 1:35:53
12 Karl & Cynthia Royer 1:51:21
Colin Carroll DNF
Long Orange (4.7 km, 385 m climb, 12 controls)
1 Roy Malone 52:19
2 Thomas Bastis 1:05:07
3 Jake Niebaum 1:12:07
4 Leon Berzins 1:12:55
5 Marie-Josee Parayre 1:13:41
6 Peter Pensotti 1:13:48
7 Robert Wong 1:14:15
8 Debbie Wojtowicz 1:24:02
9 Karen Cook 1:29:07
10 Jim Fish 1:45:08
11 Marina Keating 1:48:40
12 Joe Saba 1:57:55
13 Karen Lynaugh 2:03:02
Mark Manning DNF
David Egbert DNF
Brown Course (3.2 km, 135 m climb, 10 controls)
1 Dennis Wildfogel 34:12
2 Mikkel Conradi 35:56
3 Gary Kraght 44:30
4 Joe Scarborough 45:45
5 Denis Kourakin 51:02
6 Steph Maclean 52:11
7 Nick Corsano 54:51
8 Stew Hintz 57:39
9 Chris Delp 57:57
10 Roy Want 59:29
11 Anna Zaster 1:00:08
12 Carolyn Cobey 1:01:25
13 Trinka Gillis 1:06:39
14 Terry Gleason 1:06:48
15 Vladislav Skvortsov 1:09:23
16 Beth Dixon 1:09:46
17 Leslie Minarik 1:11:24
18 Oleg Shakhnovsky 1:14:09
19 Yulia Yukina 1:15:55
20 Sean Campbell 1:40:20
21 Nancy Lindeman 1:42:03
22 Vic Revenko 1:45:24
23 Chris Cobey 1:54:21
Michael Behrens DNF
Alan Glendinning DNF
Green Course (3.8 km, 200 m climb, 12 controls)
1 Manfred Kopisch 43:55
2 Chris Roper 49:10
3 George Minarik 49:52
4 Gregory Khanlarov 50:20
5 Evan Custer 53:39
6 Chuck Spalding 53:45
7 Bjorn Widerstrom 58:23
8 Chad Davis 1:05:27
9 Doug Masiel 1:06:01
10 Joe Maffei 1:06:37
11 Alex Saltman 1:06:49
12 Johanna Merriss 1:11:46
13 Gregory Stemkovski 1:13:25
14 Joan Roos 1:14:44
15 Scott Aster 1:16:48
16 Bill Wright 1:18:35
17 Mike Fleishman 1:18:52
18 Mark Rice 1:23:17
19 Vicki Woolworth 1:24:11
20 Dave Ingram 1:28:38
21 Jeff Lanam 1:29:22
22 Theo Verhoeven 1:30:11
23 Laura McKeegan 1:32:29
24 Jennifer Kerr 1:34:11
Red Course (5.5 km, 330 m climb, 17 controls)
1 Pierre Delforge 49:48
2 Tapio Karras 1:02:26
3 Bruce Wolfe 1:03:44
4 Matthias Kohler 1:05:06
5 Kent Ohlund 1:07:07
6 Peter Graham 1:08:58
7 Derek MacLean 1:11:11
8 Ian Tidswell 1:11:16
9 Tony Pinkham 1:24:46
10 Russell Neilson 1:25:10
11 Trevor Pering 1:30:34
12 Steve Smith 1:30:53
13 Bud Laird 1:32:58
14 Keven Schoenfeld 1:35:22
15 Oliver Pohl 1:38:36
16 Graham Holmes 1:44:22
17 Gergana Swallow 1:47:11
18 Brian Ridgway 1:47:26
19 Gavin Wyatt-Mair 1:48:24
20 Bob Strauss 1:50:17
21 Kristin Stinger 1:53:27
22 Andre Barrows 1:55:11
23 Jack Kotovsky 1:55:23
Brad Wetmore DNF
Jim Waite DNF
Blue Course (6.8 km, 460 m climb, 18 controls)
1 Syd Reader 1:05:05
2 Francois Leonard 1:07:54
3 Doug Stein 1:08:17
4 Mikkel Conradi 1:11:28
5 Mark Prior 1:13:25
6 Mattias Vangbo 1:13:44
7 Mattias Eriksson 1:14:28
8 Steve Gregg 1:15:29
9 Andrejus Masalkovas 1:20:42
10 Penny DeMoss 1:25:56
11 Michael Prindiville 1:29:06
12 Rex Winterbottom 1:32:57
12 Attila Nagy 1:32:57
14 Mutsumi Sugizaki 1:39:36
15 Peter Graube 1:49:22
16 William Gilmore 2:27:46
_______________
DNF = Did not finish (missed one or more controls)