Joseph D. Grant County Park
Date: (Sun.) Mar. 12, 2023
Location: San Jose, CA
Event Director: 
- 650.941.8251
Course Setters: Derek Maclean, Kim van Berkel
Type: B; Standard 7-course event for beginners through advanced; free introductory instruction for beginners
Related Event Information
WinSplits Results (http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/show_event.asp?id=87917) Attackpoint Results (https://www.attackpoint.org/eventdetail.jsp/event_55490) RouteGadget – Introduction RouteGadget – This Event (http://baoc.org/gadget/cgi/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=509) Event Announcement
Event Write-Up
By , Event Director
Just over 100 orienteers braved the wet conditions on Sunday at Joseph Grant Park.
The day started dry, but showers quickly set in and it mostly remained persistently wet thereafter. Many participants reported difficult freeway driving conditions while getting to the park—we appreciate their persistence and are glad everyone arrived safely.
We could not have picked a better day to try our European waterproof maps (most were shipped from Finland!). This is part of our test for the California O Festival this summer, where we hope to use waterproof maps. Most people reported a positive experience with the new paper. The few exceptions are hopefully consoled by knowing they contributed to our future development in this area.
Many volunteers helped to make the event happen.
Course setters Derek Maclean and Kim van Berkel spent months working on interesting and challenging courses. The wettest winter in recent memory added to the challenge for course setters and participants.
The following showed up on the day with smiles on their faces and made the event happen. Volunteering in the rain gets you a few more Brownie Points in my book!
- Setup: Graham Brew – including ‘‘improvements’’ to the river crossing near the Start!
- Registration: Steve Haas, Sarah Williams
- Beginner Clinics: Rex Winterbottom
- Starts: Graham Brew, Emily Tucker, John Richardson
- Control Pickup: Taylor Pospisil, Tom De Vre, Emily Tucker, Tapio Karras
- Cleanup: Emily Tucker, Gavin Wyatt-Mair
- Results: Jay Hann (aka Western Race Services)
In addition, these people helped before the event:
- Graham Brew wrote and applied for the permit.
- Dan Ingram handled insurance.
- The staff at Santa Clara County Parks supported a smooth and issue-free permit process.
- Bill Cusworth made map updates.
- Chuck Spalding maintained the event pages on the website with all the new information.
Please let me know if I have omitted anyone.
Lost and Found
The following items were found at the event:
- A pair of eyeglasses (they look like they could even have been lost at last year's event!)
- A nice compass.
Contact me () if they are yours.
Course Setter Comments
By , Course Setter
Thanks to all the hardy souls who made it through the wet and wild at Joe Grant this weekend.
There are two times during the event when the course setter is most anxious: waiting for initial runners to confirm that the controls are present and correct on each course, then waiting for the final competitors to return after the courses close. Thanks to my fellow control hangers (Steph Maclean and Kim van Berkel) for ably supporting the first goal, and for the second, all the competitors who braved wet, slippery conditions making the rugged terrain even more challenging than normal. This particularly applies to Red and Blue runners, who dealt with the very steep slopes in the eastern part of the map, with streams turned into raging torrents, and steep, eroded, slippery banks.
Here’s a summary of the course results:
Course Entries Competitors WinningTime DNFs
White 4 8 17 min -
Yellow 17 34 38 min 1
Orange 8 13 54 min 2
Brown 12 13 57 min 3
Green 13 15 57 min -
Red 10 11 73 min 4
Blue 10 10 55 min -
The weather clearly kept the numbers down, especially on the White course, which Sara and Miesel completed in a speedy 17 mins. It’s good to see that Yellow was quite well attended, as I was quite pleased with this course. It offered an adventurous route, climbing to offer a view back to the assembly area, then a cross-country section descending a broad spur, with the parking area always in sight to guide you down, finishing with a couple of stream crossings near the end that were pretty rather than challenging. Kain Gupta had a great winning time of 38 mins.
The Orange and advanced courses started with a small “maze†of controls in the initial bushy area. The accurate mapping here by Bill Cusworth in 2022 enabled use of this section for real navigation. It doesn’t look like too many people made errors here, although there were a handful of very long times to first controls, suggesting that some may have not readily figured the initial route through to the open area. Emily Tucker had a nice run to win Orange in 54 mins.
The Red and Blue courses were designed to be challenging. Climb was on the high side at 5.5%, but necessary to access the lesser-used eastern area, and pose route choice on the way up (6 to 7 on R/B) and coming back down (see below). Anthony Riley’s winning time for Blue of 55 mins is remarkable in this terrain, beating Erin Schirm by 10 minutes. All the Blue runners completed the course, with a longest time of just over 2 h, suggesting an appropriate level of challenge. Red had a longer winning time (Andrejus Masalkov at 73 mins), and 4 out of 13 DNFs. The course may have been a bit too long/tough than desirable for Red.
James Roney posted a query (https://groups.io/g/BAOC/message/779) on the BayONet (https://groups.io/g/BAOC) about the main return leg on Red/Blue. Here is my response: I did not have a clear prescription for the “best†route—in fact that was my point in setting the leg. The high route parallel to the fence is more obvious and most direct, but the target control is well below the starting point, suggesting some lower routes that may traverse less-steep hillsides than the upper slopes. By the time one reaches Red #9 (or Blue #10) one would have a pretty good sense of what this area was like before turning back for the return leg, and thus be better able to make an informed route decision. I like the area around 8–9 on Red (and Blue), and wanted to get ambitious runners out there this year. Congrats to all who successfully executed this challenging leg.
Brown and Green were designed to offer a variety of challenge and terrain. After the flat, bushy maze at the start, you climb up and across the lower slopes with good running conditions, then route choice into some more-rugged terrain (7–8 for Brown, 5–6 for Green). Climb again to set up the traverse back across the upper hillside, then some short legs with quick direction changes in the slightly flatter terrain to keep you on your toes with likely oxygen deficit after the climb. Sweep back home through some fast downhill terrain, then the last push across the final stream to the Finish. I was pleased with these courses, and feedback was generally positive. Congrats to course leaders Dennis Wildfogel (57 mins on Brown) and Tapio Karras (56 mins on Green).
While this section of Joe Grant is not highly technical, I hope we met our goal of presenting some interesting courses. Thanks again for coming.
I really appreciate Kim van Berkel’s efforts in helping with the courses. This was the first time in quite a while that Steph and I worked on the same event. We didn’t fight too much, and are still married.
Results
Joseph D. Grant County Park
San Jose, CA
Sunday, March 12, 2023
White Course Yellow Course Orange Course Brown Course Green Course Red Course Blue Course
Also see control-by-control timing in the WinSplits results (http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/show_event.asp?id=87917) and on Attackpoint (https://www.attackpoint.org/eventdetail.jsp/event_55490).
You can see the event map with the actual routes traveled by participants, and draw your own route for comparison, in RouteGadget for this event (http://baoc.org/gadget/cgi/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=509). (Use of RouteGadget is explained here.)
- In RouteGadget, you can enter your route manually or upload a GPS recording and adjust to fit our map. The following tips apply to the GPS method.
- RouteGadget Tip #1: After selecting your GPX file, make sure to adjust the time offset between starting your watch at the start line and leaving the start triangle. The offset can have a huge impact on your route accuracy. For most local events, the offset should be set to 0 as we start from the triangle (assuming you started your watch exactly when you started).
- RouteGadget Tip #2: After uploading your GPS track to RouteGadget, you can create additional blue adjustment points by right-clicking your track. You can use these points to better align your route with the map, for example, along trails. You can delete extra adjustment points by right-clicking them.
Please tell and the if anything needs to be changed in the results.
White Course (2.1 km, 20 m climb, 10 controls)
Time Time
Pl Name Club Time Behind Lost
1 Soren & Meisel 17:13 0:00
2 Annie & Ben Halliday BAOC 17:33 0:20 0:50
3 Lumi & Matias Koskela Tampereen Pyrintö 29:47 12:34 3:38
4 Dana & Avery 33:28 16:15 6:26
Beatrice Schreibstein OCIN DNF
Vladimir Gusiatnikov OCIN DNF
Yellow Course (2.9 km, 155 m climb, 15 controls)
Time Time
Pl Name Club Time Behind Lost
1 Kain Gupta 38:07 2:00
2 Sohit Gatiganti 40:13 2:06 4:37
3 Katie Duong 40:17 2:10 3:50
4 Rachel Grant 40:28 2:21 3:34
5 Annie & Ben Halliday BAOC 45:00 6:53 8:14 (2nd course)
6 Kop Troop 80 46:45 8:38 7:59
7 Princeton Pair 49:15 11:08 6:30
8 Yonders 51:06 12:59 6:49
9 Team Blackhawks Troop 80 53:27 15:20 13:59
10 Axel Madrigal Turlock NJROTC 58:30 20:23 10:28
11 Scarlet Hanson Turlock NJROTC 59:51 21:44 10:25
12 Roney family BAOC 1:04:21 26:14 6:45
13 Neville & Rucha 1:08:34 30:27 11:21
14 Joanna Laney Troop 80 1:16:05 37:58 14:44
15 The Germans BAOC 1:24:16 46:09 4:25
16 Michael Granville 1:34:39 56:32 29:45
17 Shawn Chan 1:50:35 72:28 52:29
18 Chrispher Hoover Troop 80 1:54:06 75:59 49:35
Team Timmy Troop 80 DNF
Isaiah Granville DNS
Noah Granville DNS
Orange Course (3.9 km, 210 m climb, 16 controls)
Time Time
Pl Name Club Time Behind Lost
1 Emily Tucker BAOC 54:03 4:54
2 Trace & Jess 1:19:43 25:40 21:06
3 Sarah Williams BAOC 1:20:24 26:21 9:51
4 Ellen Mouchawar 1:29:02 34:59 8:41
5 Miroslav Trubelja BAOC 1:29:42 35:39 9:08
6 Landen Elliott Turlock NJROTC 2:01:30 67:27 43:54
Maya McNealis DNF
Mirjana Spasojevic DNF
Rhonda Stieber BAOC DNS
Roopa McNealis BAOC DNS
Brown Course (3.8 km, 185 m climb, 16 controls)
Time Time
Pl Name Club Time Behind Lost
1 Dennis Wildfogel BAOC 57:43 6:34
2 Jan Wignall BAOC 1:01:31 3:48 8:20
3 Stephen Haas BAOC 1:04:52 7:09 4:55
4 Gavin Wyatt-Mair BAOC 1:05:15 7:32 6:01
5 Hayden Elliott Turlock NJROTC 1:13:24 15:41 9:40
6 Johanna Merriss BAOC 1:18:17 20:34 12:32
7 Emily Ellsworth 1:25:44 28:01 30:47
8 Julie McGinnis Turlock NJROTC 1:27:17 29:34 17:43
9 Evan Custer BAOC 1:52:28 54:45 11:48
Jeff Lanam BAOC MSP
Keysha Esparza-Mendoza Turlock NJROTC DNF
Two Dudes DNF
Chuck Spalding BAOC DNS
George Minarik BAOC DNS
Green Course (4.7 km, 245 m climb, 13 controls)
Time Time
Pl Name Club Time Behind Lost
1 Tapio Karras BAOC 56:08 0:48
2 Tac SUGIYAMA BAOC 58:46 2:38 1:52
3 Zachary Bogorad 1:04:53 8:45 4:16
4 Piotr Holubowicz BAOC 1:05:49 9:41 5:44
5 Werner Haag BAOC 1:06:22 10:14 4:27
6 Eric Rosenzweig BAOC 1:09:49 13:41 7:36
7 Marie-Josée Parayre BAOC 1:10:59 14:51 6:52
8 Vin Noah BAOC 1:13:46 17:38 5:47
9 Van Boughner BAOC 1:17:08 21:00 10:40
10 Matthias Mattson 1:21:05 24:57 11:13
11 Penny DeMoss BAOC 1:24:34 28:26 9:05
12 Nick & Alex BAOC 1:42:53 46:45 7:51
13 Edgar Rojas Turlock NJROTC 2:08:09 72:01 47:03
Red Course (5.5 km, 290 m climb, 16 controls)
Time Time
Pl Name Club Time Behind Lost
1 Andrej Masalkov BAOC 1:13:20 3:20
2 Deron van Hoff BAOC 1:22:27 9:07 7:36
3 Graham Brew BAOC 1:25:11 11:51 15:25
4 James Roney BAOC 1:36:20 23:00 11:15
5 John Richardson BAOC 1:36:38 23:18 21:19
6 Brian Ritchken BAOC 3:43:46 150:26 58:37
Nikolay Chukanov BAOC MSP
Scott Sampson BAOC MSP
Jason Reed BAOC DNF
Oriana Riley DVOA DNF
Blue Course (6.7 km, 385 m climb, 20 controls)
Time Time
Pl Name Club Time Behind Lost
1 Anthony Riley DVOA 55:17 0:59
2 Erin Schirm BAOC 1:05:24 10:07 3:28
3 François Léonard BAOC 1:09:08 13:51 2:02
4 Wayne Staats BAOC 1:18:22 23:05 6:25
5 Kyle Halliday BAOC 1:25:56 30:39 8:53
6 Taylor Pospisil BAOC 1:36:23 41:06 14:52
7 Ari Backholm BAOC 1:40:51 45:34 17:58
8 Rex Winterbottom BAOC 1:47:46 52:29 14:32
9 Tom De Vre BAOC 1:59:12 63:55 13:34
10 Weichun Fong BAOC 2:06:48 71:31 27:26
_______________
DNF = Did not finish (missed one or more controls)
DNS = Did not start
MSP = Mispunched (one or more controls wrong)