China Camp State Park
Date: (Sun.) Jul. 10, 2005
Location: San Rafael, CA
Event Director: 
- 415.479.4262
Course Setter: Rex Winterbottom
Type: B; Standard White through Blue courses
Course Setter's Notes
By Rex Winterbottom
The courses are pretty much as advertised. The decreases to climb weren't as dramatic as expected, but remember, there is no remote start or finish. The courses certainly have larger runnable segments than your usual China Camp action.
Navigation is technical on the advanced courses (Blue, Red, Green, and Brown) -- there are some easier segments, and they will tend to feature route choice decisions. The Orange course features a fair amount of off-trail navigation, and most of the time it's faster not to take the trail. The Yellow and White courses are the beginner courses. Yellow goes a bit more off the trail than White. Long Orange is almost the same as running Orange followed by Yellow.
Here are the course statistics:
Course Length Climb Controls Type of Punch
White 1.8 km 25 m 7 Manual punch Yellow 2.8 km 100 m 10 Manual punch Orange 3.7 km 225 m 9 Manual punch Long Orange 6.1 km 300 m 18 Manual punch Brown 3.2 km 125 m 12 E-punch Green 4.2 km 200 m 16 E-punch Red 5.6 km 275 m 23 E-punch Blue 6.6 km 375 m 26 E-punch
Schedule
Registration is open 9:00 to noon.
Starts are available until 12:30.
Courses close at 2:00. (You must check in by then whether or not you finish your course.)
Have a hot lunchtime date? We're looking for "pre-runners" -- your time counts, but you'll be the first to go. One for Blue, one for Long-Orange. Contact me, Rex, about this if you are interested.
Hazards
Watch out for the views. They could slow you down. I was surprised to find star thistle -- there are some significant patches of it. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Poison oak is not widespread, but it is present. There aren't as many steep drop-off kinds of hazards, but be on guard nonetheless. Pants, gaiters, and spiked shoes are recommended for Blue, Red, Green, Brown, Long Orange, and Orange. Personally, I never wear gaiters, but I go through a lot of socks.
The biggest hazard for me out there was spider webs getting in my face. Then you get these yucky wrapped up bugs plastered across your shirt. The webs resist your forward progress too, it's amazing how strong they are.
The safety bearing is North, to North San Pedro Road and the Bay.
Map
I like to set courses where the map is generally accurate. A few obvious corrections were made. It's hard to redraw vegetation, though, and white forest is not always super runnable. And it's not just the Sudden Oak Death that has fallen quite a few oaks out there -- manzanita sprouts up too. It pays to keep your head up. If you can see far enough and it looks runnable, go for it, otherwise consider an alternate (and sometimes, quicker and easier) route. With so many controls out there, you gotta be smart which way you go each time.