Nisene Marks - Results
Date: Sunday, January 11, 2004
Location: Soquel, CA.
Event Director: 
Course Setter: Vladimir Gusiatnikov
Event Type: B; Regular BAOC Event
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Writeup by Jim Waite and Vladimir Gusiatnikov
On Sunday, January 11 at about 7 AM, the day dawned clear and warm, and the 2004 BAOC Nisene Marks B-meet was in motion. It was an auspicious moment for the rookie Event Director... who had some worries about parking, the prospect of yet another rain cancellation, controls that would not have e-punch units in time for the first few runners, and more...
Related Information
2004 WinSplits online 2004 Announcement 2003 Results 2002 Results 1998 Results 1997 Results 1996 Results 1995 Results(On Saturday, said Event Director offered e-punch unit placement services to the Course Setter, and despite a valiant effort and climb to the upper reaches of Nisene Marks, was unsuccessful in finding the location of two Black controls). Fortunately the Course Setter is training for a marathon, and made yet another pass through the high control area on the morning of the event, letting the rookie Event Director off the hook...
The event entertained 110 paying runners over the course of the day, many of whom responded gallantly to the call to carpool from the Los Gatos city lot. Even at the height of the morning rush, the number of parked cars never exceeded 30. Though last year's event at Nisene Marks reinforced the reputation the park has for difficult travel (and the Course Setter's reputation for setting technical controls), 54 competitors ran advanced courses (76% completion rate), and 12 ran the two Orange courses (92% completion). It's clear from the results that the shorter advanced courses as well as the intermediate level courses were much more pleasurable to run this year.
Those that ran the Black or Blue courses may not have found their experience pleasurable, with the whopping 580 meter climb, though they were amply warned. (When was the last time BAOC had a Black course?) As the Event Director was dismantling the Finish, beyond a reasonable grace period for late finishers (no one had completed the entire Black course by that time), the first two Black runners came striding down the steep bank toward the go control. Thorsten Graeve and Mark Prior raced from the almost packed up go-control to the Finish neck and neck. Mark won the dash and the Black course by persevering long beyond what is sane (3:26:07), though not as long as Thorsten (3:50:58).
Eric Bone (see from the results how far ahead he was on Black until control number 13) exited the course so that he would not be late on his commitment to pick up controls! This is just one example of how the meet went so smoothly due to the tremendous volunteer effort.
The other eight competitors (including two groups) on the Black course also ran out of steam and/or time, and made their way back to the e-punch download area. But all had the smiles that come from spending an enjoyable day in the redwoods, having made the observation around hour #2 of their 3 or 4 hour effort that the Black course was less about competition than meditation on the nature of gullies and how not to go too deep within.
Travis Parker ran an excellent course on Blue. Finishing in 2:27:57, he consistently hit controls and did not have the problems that plagued the others on the Blue course. Travis was the only Blue finisher on Sunday.
Finishes became more consistent and times more compressed on the Red course. BAOC regulars Tapio Karras, Hannu Haarma, Dan Greene, Matthias Kohler, and Steve Gregg all finished within about 15 minutes of each other, in that order. Starting late in the day, Tapio finished in a time of 1:39:31 (barely within the grace period for the pack up of the finish), five minutes ahead of Hannu. Eight of the 11 Red runners finished the course and visited every control.
Brad Wetmore and Doug Kennedy hotly contested the Green course, especially for top honors. Brad edged Doug by just 17 seconds out of just less than 90 minutes, after exchanging the lead several times over the last few controls. Brad pulled ahead by reaching the go- control #199 with the fastest overall split. David Jorgensen captured third place with a very respectable 1:37:11. Fourteen of the 17 Green runners finished the course.
Each of the nine competitors on the Brown course completed the course, which was the only advanced course with less (slightly) than 100m climb. Gary Kraght edged Dennis Wildfogel with a time of 29:24 to win the course. E-punch download assistant Bjorn Widerstrom finished third and promptly returned to the download table to support volunteer Trinka Gillis in understanding the intricacies of the e- punch system. Not a single one of the 36 e-punch controls failed to work at the first meet where Trinka has been responsible for the system.
Another meet volunteer (control pickup), Eric Prestemon, won the Long Orange with a time of 1:53:31. He won by 6 minutes, but second place finisher Maria Hastings took the prize for winning the most splits, 6 over Eric's 5 including having the fastest split on the last five controls.
On Short Orange, even though Dewey Du Mond had four legs that resulted in the best overall split time among the 10 competitors (including groups), Marie-Josee Parayre won the course because of Dewey's mistake on control #2 (118).
Marshall, Koah, and Quinn Doud won the Yellow course with a time of 61:30, and Becky Wong aced her peers on the White course, coming in at 57:57.
Once again the Event Director greatly appreciates the people that took the time to combine into the multiple car pools that arrived at the event. Though it certainly made for a longer day for some, it avoided the situation in which we could have overwhelmed the road end with our vehicles.
Special thanks go to those that volunteered to help out (or were volunteered in the case of two who happen to live in the same house as the Event Director). Beth Dixon and Tanya Gusiatnikov setup the Start area and Tanya ran the starts for much of the day, assisted by Eric Bone. Ev & Jean efficiently got everyone registered and up the hill to the 40-minute remote start. Trinka Gillis, assisted by Bjorn Widerstrom ran the e-punch equipment the entire day Sunday, not to mention the many hours getting ready for the event on Fri/Sat and post-processing later. Trinka also taught a beginner's clinic, and Thorsten Graeve did a second.
Louise Madrid, and Steph Maclean shared duties at the Finish, and had many opportunities to watch the repeated performance of the last 50 meter "run" to the finish (with a net elevation loss of at least 10 meters).
Special thanks go to the control pickup crew, which was even more appreciated given the previous day's experience in setting out the e-punch units. Chuck Spalding came to the event to help in any way he could, and got assigned the task of collecting many of the upper Red/Blue controls. This time Vladimir decided to collect the upper Black loop to make sure things were tidied up by dusk, which was just barely the case. Terry Farrah, Eric Bone, and Eric Prestemon rounded out the control pickup crew, all of whom had run physically challenging courses shortly before.
Nisene Marks State Park
Soquel, CA
Sunday, January 11, 2004
Preliminary Results
Pl Name Time
White Course (1.65 km, 15 m climb, 7 controls)
1 Becky Wong 57:57
2 Marsha & Parker Hill, Brian Jansen 93:45
Larry, Zrc, Jeremy, Devin DNS
Nancy, Jill, Taylor, Sydney DNS
Yellow Course (1.60 km, 40 m climb, 6 controls)
1 Marshall, Koah, & Quinn Doud 61:30
2 Rotem Degani 63:00
3 Jessica Zhu, Jakob Heitz 63:45
4 HS group (8) 88:00
Jeff Dunker, S Waher MSP (#3)
Marlon Pearson DNF (#4)
Joanne & Robin Leadbetter,
Audrey Davis DNF (#4)
Short Orange Course (1.92 km, 110 m climb, 8 controls)
1 Marie-Josee Parayre 51:44
2 Dewey DuMond 52:34
3 Mark Cichonski 1:08:56
4 Adam Redfield, Brandon M 1:45:47
5 Jim Hayes 1:49:58
Chelsea Waite DNF
Long Orange Course (3.20 km, 230 m climb, 10 controls)
1 Joseph Hohmes, Fabris 1:45:06
2 Eric Prestemon 1:53:31
3 Maria Hastings 1:59:20
4 Terry Farrah 2:42:02
Brown Course (1.75 km, 90 m climb, 8 controls)
1 Gary Kraght 29:24
2 Dennis Wildfogel 32:55
3 Bjorn Widerstrom 36:14
4 Jeff Lanam 49:25
5 Bob Clima, Laura McKeegan 56:57
6 Kamini Singha 57:58
7 Nancy Lindeman 1:39:42
8 Dean French 1:41:46
9 Rod Jaehn 2:40:24
Green Course (3.20 km, 200 m climb, 12 controls)
1 Brad Wetmore 1:29:24
2 D Kennedy 1:29:41
3 David Jorgensen 1:37:11
4 Bernhard Hiller 1:44:38
5 Sergei Rodionov 1:48:21
6 Jeff Patrick 2:01:35
7 Mark Irwin 2:01:38
8 Phillip Hoare 2:01:40
9 Johanna Merriss 2:10:59
10 Bob Strauss 2:12:30
11 Nick Corsano 2:21:18
12 Denis Kourakin 2:25:04
13 Hellyer 2:35:17
14 West Gass 3:01:07
Bob Heady DNF
Vicki Woolworth DNF
Theo Verhoeven DNF
Red Course (5.28 km, 390 m climb, 17 controls)
1 Tapio Karras 1:39:31
2 Hannu Haarma 1:44:09
3 Dan Greene 1:51:07
4 Matthias Kohler 1:52:06
5 Steve Gregg 1:55:04
6 Joe Papendick 2:15:50
7 CJ Powers 2:25:02
8 Thiago Ghilardi 2:42:55
Oliver Pohl DNF
Penny DeMoss DNF
Derek Maclean DNF
Blue Course (6.42 km, 490 m climb, 20 controls)
1 Travis Parker 2:27:57
Van Boughner DNF
Francois Leonard DNF
Mutsumi Sugizaki DNF
Black Course (8.12 km, 580 m climb, 24 controls)
1 Mark Prior 3:26:07
2 Thorsten Graeve 3:50:58
Eric Bone DNF
Doug Bass DNF
Andrejus Masalkovas DNF
Steve Rubin group DNF
Jason Quinn, Bob Reed DNF
_______________
DNF = Did not finish (missed one or more controls)
DNS = Did not start
MSP = Mispunched (one or more incorrect controls)
