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Emerald Hills

Date: (Sat.) Feb. 24, 2007
Location: Redwood City, CA
Event Director: - 650.302.4835
Course Setter: Steve Beuerman
Type: C; Sprint, a Western Massachusetts Rules Score-O, and a Potluck dinner

Course Setter's Notes

By Steve Beuerman

I hope everyone can make it to Emerald Hills next Saturday for the Sprint, Score-O and, Pot Luck dinner. The weather forecast right now says that Saturday will be the break between storms, so hopefully it will be a good day.

For the advanced-beginner and better orienteers there will be two courses offered, and I'd expect a lot of people to run both.

The Sprint is a little over 3 km, with 12 controls, and is probably a little easy as sprints go. It's hard to design a course with lots of quick route changes when you need to stay on the streets. The challenge will be in making sure that you pick the right street at intersections. "Punches" will be multiple-choice questions with three answers to choose from. The questions were written with the Sprint in mind—the right answers should be quick to spot, and not at all ambiguous. Many of them are "What's the number on the mailbox ...?".

The Score-O follows the same rules as my previous Score-Os here. There will be 22 controls, and four classes. Get any 5, 10, 15, or 20 controls in any order, and you don't need to decide which you want to do until you are out on the course. The only time requirement is to make it back by 5:00 P.M. Because of the Sprint, the Score-O is shorter than normal. It does not make it into Edgewood Park or to the northern (downhill) reaches of the map. It does not share any controls with the Sprint, and only minimally uses the same streets, so please run them both. The multiple-choice questions on the Score-O are also as unambiguous as possible, but do involve looking at things a little more closely (e.g., "What's on the mailbox?" or "How many deer in the front yard?").

If you intend to run both courses, please run the Sprint first. Although I really don't think it matters, it would be the fair thing to do.

There is also a roughly 3-km, 14-control White course for beginners, with questions similar to the Score-O.

Starts are open from 1:00–4:00 (4:30 for the Sprint), and the Finish closes at 5:00 (5:15 for the Sprint). Registration will be open around noon, and the starts may open earlier than 1:00 P.M. if we have our act together.  :-) The pot luck starts at 5:30; the multi-use room will be open all day.

A side note for the handful of Geocachers in the club: There are four caches on the map, but they are somewhat routine. If you really wanted to combine caching and orienteering this weekend, come a little early and get the "Five Senses" plus the Sixth Sense that are nearby. They are very well done. Especially SIGHT and TOUCH.

See you next Saturday,

Steve