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Dimond Park

Date: (Sun.) Jul. 31, 2005
Location: Oakland, CA
Event Director: - 510.681.6181
Course Setter: Rex Winterbottom
Type: Short and Long courses, and "Urban Goat" combination


Course Setter's Notes

By Rex Winterbottom

I have only 4 helpers so far. If you're showing up and can spare some time, please let me know when! If you have signed up to help and have an idea of when you can help, also refresh me on that. Everything kinda depends on whether or not you are doing the exciting mass start.

Terrain

Urban residences and streets, with some urban parks and trails. Many staircases and paths between streets. A few busy streets. Lovely gardens. Quirky looking houses, and a few palatial mansions. Undulating hills. I encountered two lemonade stands while surveying the courses.

Map

Selection from a huge color OCAD master map that now includes Lake Temescal — 1:15000, 20 ft. contours.

Hazards

Traffic. The old adage "look both ways before crossing the street" applies here! I would like to add "don't read your map while crossing the street." Use all your senses. Safety first. The Short and Long courses each cross Park Boulevard twice, that's the major thoroughfare on the map that is the only street with a thin divider line marked on the map. So Urban Goat runners get to cross it four times. The Long course (and Urban Goat) cross Oakland Ave. It is two blocks past Piedmont High School, and cars tend to speed up and down that street. The other streets don't carry as perceptibly a high volume of traffic.

Some staircases in the areas of the courses have fences, because they are in disrepair and overgrown. Fenced off staircases are marked on the map. One staircase that is not fenced off (but was) is marked out of bounds, because it has deteriorated wooden steps that could fail underneath your feet.

Take care not to endanger other pedestrians and four-legged friends.

Course Formats

All the courses feature the Q&A format. All the controls are street signs. Since there aren't control bags to tell you that you are there, make sure you know where you are on the map! You could get an answer wrong if you're not careful.

Short — 4.8 km, 100 m climb, 10 controls — required first control, then pick any 8 of the 9 clustered, non-labeled control circles. At each of those controls, write on your answer sheet the smallest street number from the street sign. Then visit the required last control, and head for the finish.

Long — 7.3 km, 250 m climb, 8 controls — a point-to-point course with 8 controls. Most control answers are "circle the smallest number from the street sign," but 3 street-sign controls don't have numbers, so you have to pick the word that you would make from the first letters of each name on the sign. For example, Evans Circle & Percy Ave. would make "PACE" or "CAPE" on your answer sheet, but not "CAKE"!

Urban Goat — 12 km, 320 m climb, 18 controls — the Short course followed by the Long course. Do not check in at the finish between courses — proceed directly from control S11 to control L1. You have the option to bail out at control S11, return to the finish, and elect to be in the results for the Short course.

Coping Strategies

Need water? Find a fountain on the map. The Long course especially passes by almost all the free water fountains on the map. The only water stop will be control S11, which might be too late for the Short course runners, but will probably be a necessary stop for most of the Urban Goaters.

Crossing busy streets like Park Blvd. or Oakland Ave. — plan your route to "hit" the street sooner rather than later. Then you can "ride" up or down the street in the direction toward your control as you wait for the appropriate break in traffic.

Use the staircases and footpaths if they are part of the shortest route.

The Start Control

Registration, Start, and Finish will be in the middle of Dimond Park. If you are coming from Fruitvale Ave. or Dimond Ave., walk through the park towards the pool and find us in the center of the park. The closest street corner (and gate) to the gathering area is Wellington St. and Cañon Ave. Try it in an online map page (http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?addr=Wellington+St.+and+Ca%F1on+Ave&csz=oakland%2C+ca&country=us&new=1&name=&qty=) and you can nab a parking spot closer to the action.

The Mass Start

Anybody on any course can do the Mass Start. No one is required to do it. Be registered by 9:50 AM and you, too, can join the Mass Start!