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Mills College

Event #2 of 6 in the BAOC 2022 Summer Series

Date: (Sun.) Jun. 26, 2022
Location: Oakland, CA
Event Director: - 510.681.6181
Course Setter: James Roney
Type: C; This is the second event of the 2022 Summer Series. Beginners are welcome!

Related Event Information

Event Results Event Announcement 2022 Summer Series


Course Setter's Notes

By James Roney
(June 20, 2022)

I’m putting the finishing touches on the courses this week after walking the Mills College Campus and verifying the control locations. I had never seen the campus prior to last weekend, and the three courses have been laid out without any consultation of prior courses on this map. Hopefully the legs are challenging, but they are guaranteed to be original!

Statistics

Here are the course details: 

    Course     Distance      Climb     Controls
    Beginner    1.9 km    26 m (1.4%)     14  
    Short       3.4 km    56 m (1.7%)     19  
    Long        5.1 km    67 m (1.3%)     30

The distances for the Short and Long courses are the “shortest legal route choice” (i.e., per Sprint rules), not the straight-line distances between controls.

Course Designs

The courses attempt to send the competitors to every part of the map. There should be a good variety of leg length and a good number of controls, which should allow for some decision-making and route-choice opportunities to prevent the competitors from being lulled into a rhythm. Direction changes and quick map reading should be valuable assets.

For those who desire to complete both courses, the Short and Long courses share some, but not all controls; and few, if any, legs between controls are duplicated.

This year the maps are not split as was done in 2019​—​that is, all the controls have been put on one map, and there will not be a map exchange/flip.

Fair Competition Rules

Please note that under Sprint competition rules, features marked on the map as uncrossable are not to be crossed, regardless of the actual physical difficulty/ability to cross the feature. “Uncrossable” features include fences, walls, hedges, and olive-green vegetation areas. There is often very little distinction (in reality) between what is marked (on the map) as uncrossable vegetation (e.g., a yard) and what is not; please do your best to avoid trampling gardens and cultivated areas where so marked.

There is the distinct possibility that a herd of Goats will be on-site on the day for vegetation management. The goats will be penned within an electric fence. Please do not touch the fence or antagonize the goats. If the goats are present in an area of the map, the fenced-in area will be made out of bounds, and affected controls will be adjusted accordingly.

Footing/Shoes

From previous years’ visits to this location, and still applicable: Hybrid trail/road-running shoes would be ideal footwear; urban running shoes would probably be fine as well. There are a few off-trail legs on each course course, where leaf litter makes the footing a bit slippery, and the lugs on a trail shoe would be helpful. Shoes with metal studs are not allowed.

Miscellaneous

There will not be any water placed on the courses, so if you think you will need it, please carry it with you.

Unfortunately, Mills College does not allow dogs on the campus.