Diablo Valley College
Event #3 of 6 in the BAOC 2024 Summer Series
Date: (Sun.) Jul. 7, 2024
Location: Pleasant Hill, CA
Event Director: 
- 925.516.7622
Course Setter: François Léonard
Type: C; This is the third event of the 2024 Summer Series. Everyone is welcome, including beginners, with free short clinics to explain orienteering.
Related Event Information
Course Setter's Notes
By François Léonard
Diablo Valley College is a small campus with many different, dense features that make it an excellent Sprint venue. As such, the courses and the map will follow Sprint rules as described further below. The climb is minimal on all the courses, and consists of stairs and small inclines.
Note: We will be using a different assembly area this year, on the south side of campus, accessed by Viking Drive (37.9665,-122.0711).
Parking, registration, E-punch, Start, and Finish are all at this location. Restrooms will be available about 200 m from the assembly area, maybe closer if we are lucky.
Safety Note: When driving into or out of the parking near the assembly area, please drive slowly and be aware that runners might be crossing your path. Runners should pay attention to vehicular traffic.
Map
The map has been created and updated by several people throughout the years to keep pace with the morphing campus and evolutions in Sprint mapping. The map was just updated by the course setter, including a newly constructed section of the campus.
The mapping takes full advantage of the new Sprint mapping standards, in particular for multi-level structures. Please read Matej Sebo’s excellent description of the new standard with examples from the Berkeley event here. The following are more specific details for this event:
- There is a new bus loop in the Northeast part of the map that is marked as out of bounds. The courses go close to it, but there is no reason to cross this area.
- Anything marked olive-green is out of bounds, and must not be run through.
- Linear dark-green features are hedges — they must not be crossed.
- Thick black lines denote impassable walls. Even if you think you can pass the wall, it is not permitted.
- Thick black lines with double ticks are impassable fences. Don’t try to climb, open, or put your arms through such fences.
- Further details on Sprint orienteering standards can be found in the following documents:
- A sheet showing all the symbols used on Sprint Orienteering maps is available as this file (1.0MB PDF).
- The latest edition of the International Specification for Sprint Orienteering Maps (ISSprOM 2019-2) is in this file (8.0MB PDF). (The identical document on the IOF website is a much larger file.)
- These related IOF documents are available: ISSprOM - Guidelines For Complex Urban Structures (2.6MB PDF) and What Has Changed In ISSprOM 2019 (764KB PDF).
- There are sections of the map with multi-level buildings. The new mapping standard allows us to capture this complexity more clearly. In addition to the link above, it is recommended that you review and understand this chart (the ID numbers at the left are referenced below; you can ignore "45°", "0.6", and "0.3"):
The middle column indicates how an upper level (i.e., where you can go under) is represented on the map: diagonal lines with the color indicating the characteristic of that level. For example, if the second level is covered, you would see an area mapped with the middle column of 522. If the second level is paved and open to the sky, it would be 501. If the second level is out of bounds, it would be 709. Here’s an example showing several of these in action:
There is a tunnel that starts at the two black triangles on the left and goes to the two black triangles on the right. The tunnel also has a branch going South after the building, with an exit at the two black triangles at the bottom. The diagonal lines indicate where you can be on top of the tunnel.
Where the lines are beige, you would be standing on pavement. Where they are light green, you would be in light-green vegetation. Note the area with diagonal olive-green lines is out of bounds on top. On the North side of the map, you will notice purple diagonal lines — this also means that the area is out of bounds on top. Finally, there are dotted lines through the building, indicating that the tunnel goes under the building (but since you cannot be in a building, that area has no diagonal lines for the level above the tunnel).
In the control description, the “lower” or “upper” symbol is used to indicate if the control is on the upper or lower level:
Sometimes the multi-level structure is best described as a bridge, in which case the control description uses the “bridge” symbol, with the “beneath” (upper example) or “on top” (lower example) modifier:
Note that participants might need to deal with the multi-level structures more frequently than just at controls. Also, you may encounter doors and gates throughout the course. Don’t try to open the doors or gates — this is not allowed and will not help you even if you succeed. If you come to an open door/gate and are tempted to go through, read the map very carefully to make sure that it is permitted, i.e., remember that you cannot go through a building unless a passage is indicated on the map, or through a gate if it is indicated as impassable on the map.
Despite the power of the new mapping standard, there are situations at DVC that cannot be appropriately presented:
- The most important is that IOF does not recommend mapping and using structures with more than two levels. DVC has buildings with up to four levels! To use as much of the campus as possible, only the first two levels are represented on the map in such situations.
- In some cases, the new symbols for multi-levels cannot be added without making the map unreadable. Here is an example (which is greatly enlarged):
The small diagonal, white and beige area (i.e., 501) indicates that there is a second level. That level ends on the upper part of the building on the right side. It is possible to run under that upper part of the building as indicated with the red arrow, but you cannot be on top of this, so there is no diagonal stripping. In principle, this light grey area should be mapped as part of the building, with dashed lines underneath to indicate that it is possible to run under. Also, it is possible to run under the second level between the impassable wall (very think black lines) and the grey area (blue arrow). In principle this has to be indicated with triangles on both sides. Adding these symbols makes the map cluttered, and it was decided to map the area as indicated in the figure. There are not many situations like these.
Courses
Three courses are being offered: a Beginner course, a Short course, and a Long course. The Short and Long courses count for the Summer Series. The course statistics are as follows (distances measured along the best route that avoids impassable obstacles):
Course Length Climb Controls
Beginner 1.6 km Minimal 12
Short 3.1 km 30 m 23
Long 5.6 km 50 m 35 (See the comments below!)
E-punch Finger Sticks
Note that some electronic-punching finger sticks (E-sticks) have a maximum capacity of 30 controls. The advanced course has 35 controls, so please verify that your E-stick has the necessary capacity. You can check this by looking at the E-stick serial number:
- If it is less than 500,000 (i.e., 6 digits or less), it is an SI-5 or older and will not have enough capacity.
- If it has more than 6 digits:
- If the first digit is “2”, it is an SI-8 with max capacity of 30 controls — not enough.
- If the first digit is “1”, it is an SI-9 with 50-control capacity.
- If the first digit is “8”, it is an SIAC with 128-control capacity.
If your E-stick does not have enough capacity (i.e., SI-5 or SI-8), we will have rental sticks available at Registration.
Miscellaneous Comments
Road-running shoes are best, since almost all the running is on pavement or hard surfaces. Metal studs are not allowed.
The map will be printed at 1:3000 scale to take advantage of the richness of details.
Be careful of traffic everywhere on this map.
There will be no water placed on the courses. So, if you think you will need it, please carry it with you.
Map Flip for Long Course
Because of the small campus size, the Long course will be divided in two sections, printed on the two sides of the same piece of paper. The first map will show the start triangle up to control 27 (inclusive). At control 27, the competitors will flip over to the second map. That map will show control 27 (inclusive) to the finish. Competitors only need to punch control 27 once (but don't forget to punch it!).