Tilden Park — 2006 BAOC Club Championships
Date: (Sun.) Dec. 10, 2006
Location: Berkeley, CA
Event Directors: 
, - 510.409.9285
Course Setters: Evan Custer, Jay Hann
Type: B; 2006 BAOC Club Championships on a NEW MAP
Course Setter's Notes
By Evan Custer
The 2006 version of the BAOC Club Championships will be held this coming Sunday at Tilden Park in Berkeley on a new map. It has been fun designing courses in this park, which is almost in my backyard. Hopefully you will find them interesting and challenging. Here is what some of the pre-runners have said about these courses.
Dennis Wildfogel wrote about his test run of the Green course, "I think it's a good course. It was reasonably runnable (I can imagine that those grasses in the open areas would have been bad a month ago, but they weren't much trouble today) and not overly physical" and "it was fun, and exciting and challenging to be on a new map." George Minarik wrote, "I think it [the Green course] is an excellent course with good route choices." Rex Winterbottom wrote regarding the Blue course, "Overall, nice job with variety in leg length, terrain, and types of orienteering. This is definitely a challenging place to set. There are some nice areas and I like the map quality."
Here are the final course statistics:
Course Length Climb Controls
White 1.1 km 60 m 9 Yellow 1.8 km 75 m 6 Orange 2.2 km 150 m 10 Long Orange 4.2 km 280 m 17 Brown 2.7 km 175 m 10 Green 3.9 km 285 m 13 Red 5.3 km 475 m 19 Blue 6.9 km 540 m 24
The White and Yellow courses will be printed at 1:5000, while the Orange and advanced courses will be printed at 1:10000.
I have tried to design the winning times to agree with USOF A meet standards, namely:
Blue 75-80 min Red 60-65 Green 55-60 Brown 45-50
These winning times are for the mythical 100-point runner, of which we have none. However, our top Blue runner (except for James Scarborough, who lives in Colorado) is Vladimir Gusiatnikov, who I hope will be able to do the Blue course in 85-90 minutes. I also hope Thorsten Graeve can finish the Red course in 70-75 minutes, and Matthias Kohler the Green in 60-65 minutes. Because of the relatively steep terrain in Tilden, all of the courses have a large amount of climb, about 7% to 8%. However, the distances have been shortened to try to compensate for the climb. The Blue course is a full-fledged Blue, and I would expect many Blue runners to be over 2 hours. The Red course may be a little long, but hopefully not overly so. I think the other courses will be quite close to the guidelines.
The White course is relatively short, but it does have a path along the lake that is quite rocky and has a number of exposed roots, and requires climbing over some relatively steep rock faces, so running speed here, especially for the smaller children, may not be great. It does meet the guideline of having a control at every decision point, however.
The map is generally quite good, and we have also made numerous map corrections, particularly in the region of the control circles. However, as with all maps, vegetation is extremely difficult to map accurately, and although Vladimir Zherkov did a very good job, keep in mind that it may not be entirely precise. In particular, a good share of the map is rough open. The emphasis is on the rough. The thistles, foxtails, and other stickers have been particularly tall and thick this year, and although the rain has beaten them down somewhat, I still strongly advise you wear long pants and gaiters. I have found duct taping my pants legs to my shoes saves me a lot of time not having to pick out the stickers from your socks. I also put a second pair of pants over my gaiters so I don't have to pick the stickers out of the elastic. The poison oak is mainly in reentrants, and has lost all of its leaves this time of year. Be suspicious of a clump of leafless twigs coming out of the ground however. It can still cause a rash, and I would use Tecnu after your run.
Many of the trails have been modified since the original mapping. Some have been deleted because they were completely overgrown, and others have been made indistinct. A few new trails have been added. However, there are many unmapped animal trails, which can be a great help, particularly in going through the thicker vegetation. The bottom line is that you should carry a reasonable degree of suspicion that the map may be incorrect if you see a small trail and it is not mapped, or vice versa.
The start triangle is very close to the GO control. In fact, they overlap on the map. This is not a desirable situation, but I wanted the finish to be at the assembly area, and I needed a loop trail for the White course, and this was the best configuration without having two start areas. Take care that you are going to the correct first control, and do not forget to punch the final GO control. I apologize for this situation, but I did not really appreciate the potential confusion it might cause until too late.
Tilden is steep, so be careful on the slopes. Although the grasses are not as slippery now as they were a few months ago, the hillside is still steep, so wear cleats and take care.
All of the courses except White and Yellow will cross Wildcat Canyon Road twice. Take care when crossing. Although the speed limit in the park is 25 mph, it is frequently exceeded. Since the road is narrow with multiple bends, there is a potential danger in crossing the road if you do not slow down and look both ways before crossing. Give the cars the right of way. There will be warning signs to the motorists, but no crossing guards. You are on your own to cross when it is safe to do so.
Finally, do a complete-body tick check when you get home. I found a tick on my shoulder once after doing some field work. Fortunately, it was a big dog tick, not the small deer tick that carries Lyme Disease.
I want to thank the many people, including Jay Hann, Dennis Wildfogel, Rex Winterbottom, and Ian Tidswell, who have made constructive comments about the courses. However, I particularly want to thank George Minarik, who has served as a very able course consultant and vetter. In addition to vetting all of the controls, he has test run most of the courses himself. Although he deserves much of the credit for improving the course design, the final decisions were mine, and I take responsibility for all of the errors and omissions that may occur. Hopefully, there will not be many, but I can't think of an orienteering course where someone hasn't complained about something. We did our best with the terrain we had to work with, and I think you will enjoy yourselves.
See you in the woods this Sunday.
Evan