A large crowd of close to 200 orienteers gave up an hour of sleep (Daylight Savings Time kicked in that morning) to participate in our inaugural event at Point Pinole. I certainly discovered that it is much more nerve-wracking than usual to set courses in an area at which you also made the map! Normally if a competitor complains about a bad map after running their course, the course-setter can listen sympathetically and offer condolences (although it was probably the course-setter's fault, for putting a control in a poorly mapped area in the first place). Here, however, I was 100% responsible for both the map and the courses. Thus it was a great relief to me when most everyone returned with positive comments and fast times! It's clear that we will want to make this an annual event on our orienteering calendar.
Point Pinole is a open, flattish area and the times were fast on all courses. Sarah Minarik and Jenny McKnight were among the early starters and knocked off the White course in 29:02, and then Jenny went on to run a Yellow course by herself and won that course as well, in 41:23. Do we have a potential new orienteering star here, Sarah? Only three people ran the Pink course (I definitely won't bother to set that course next year), won by Michael Melyk in 71:45. The Long Yellow course was better received--it attracted many of the non-competitive hiking folks--and was won by Larry Breed in 84:00. And in what must be a BAOC record, no one DNFd on the Orange course, and only one group took more than two hours to finish! Matti Laavainen blazed through the course in 28:46, and Leslie Minarik also had a great run, finishing second in 38:38.
Most of the advanced runners tackled the Long Orange course and it was interesting to see how the best runners in our club compare with each other head-to-head. It was sobering to me, though, to see just how FAST the top runners in our club are on this type of terrain! My test run time before the event was 43 minutes, and I knew ahead of time exactly where all the controls were. Four people bested this time, headed by Neal Barlow in 35:41. Also noteworthy is James Scarborough's time--he declared himself unofficial due to prior knowledge of the terrain, and also inadvertently failed to punch control #13, but nevertheless finished the course in 31:36 (which works out to about 4.8 min/km!) Yes, this was definitely a runner's course, but even the non-runners seemed to enjoy the area (or at least were too polite to complain much).
A couple of points that should be mentioned: At least two people DNFd because they lost their punch card halfway through the course. Please note that if that ever happens to you, don't quit in disgust--just punch right through your map at the remaining controls. This is perfectly OK and your punches can be checked and time taken as usual. Also, two other unlucky folks started their courses with mismatched maps and clue sheets (i.e. one was Yellow, the other Long Yellow), and did not discover the error until they were well out on the course. Especially now that we are heading towards premarked maps at many of our events, it's a good idea to check your map at the very start of the course, to make sure it's the correct one.
As usual, meets like this just do not happen without a lot of help. Evan Custer vetted my Long Orange course and gave me a huge list of suggested map additions and corrections. Rex Winterbottom also vetted courses and helped me hang bags on Saturday. George Minarik, Leslie Minarik, and Shirley Parlan ran registration. Neeme Loorits, Scott Aster, and Wyatt Riley handled the starts. Gavin Wyatt-Mair and Tony Pinkham manned the finish line. Vicki Woolworth made the Start-O map and ran the event. Gary Carpenter, Tapio Karras, and Anne Rock helped with bag pickup. Finally, a special thanks to Bob Cooley for patiently teaching me OCAD, loaning me his computer for a couple of months, and printing out all the maps we needed for the event on his printers at home. I enjoyed my first real mapping work a great deal.
- Steve Gregg
WHITE 3.2 km 45 m 10 controls 1. Jenny McKnight & Sarah Minarik 29:02 2. Ed DeAvile 41:59 3. Leslie and Blancke 49:28 4. Eric Nastronatteo 53:13 5. Pagendarm group 64:23 6. Sarah Kutner and Sara Sachs 68:12 7. Jean Lichtenstein 71:47 8. Susan and Laura Gravens 72:20 9. Dean Lukes 104:16 10. Diana & William McKennett 110:20 Leadbetter/Woolworth group DNF Derek Johnson DNF PINK 5.6 km 65 m 14 controls 1. Michael Melyk 71:45 2. Joe Walowski 73:49 3. Greg & Sherrie Gilmore 129:30 YELLOW 3.4 km 50 m 11 controls 1. Jenny McKnight 41:23 2. Joe Walowski 42:49 3. Jim Cassady 53:06 4. Cobb, Ihrig, Hamilton, Gray 53:42 5. Hanna Aavikko 54:45 6. M. Pedron 57:24 7. Josh Tullos 58:53 8. Shavonna, James, Cris, Calton 69:43 9. Ransone, Lofwall, Roberts 70:11 10. Falkowitz group 70:50 11. Barbara Scott & Phil Belisle 71:40 12. Butterfield, Keag, Satyam 74:10 13. Frank Kuhn (FLO) 88:16 14. Quaife, Shier, Kyser 94:10 15. Explorer Post 111 101:14 16. Englehart group 106:55 17. Ed Rosser & Eva Lieben 154:20 Jessica Woods & Renee Comer DNF (#5,8) LONG YELLOW 5.7 km 80 m 17 controls 1. Larry Breed 84:00 2. Anne Rock 85:58 3. Lacefield group 97:18 4. Johnson & Hoffman 99:50 5. Shirley Parlan 100:59 6. George and Pat Aster 106:06 7. Dick and Judy Koehler 106:50 8. Weydemayer group 135:50 9. Thomason & Kirsch 146:01 10. Diane Hall 163:05 11. Melinda Haslam 176:00 Casillas & Margolin (MBOC) DNF ORANGE 3.5 km 55 m 9 controls 1. Matti Laavainen 28:46 2. Leslie Minarik 38:38 3. Nick Corsano 40:44 4. Racnel Yoter & Eric Mehlhaft 43:13 5. Dwight Freund 44:00 6. Kathleen Lennon 46:15 7. Marsha Jacobs 46:40 8. Joe Walowski (2nd course) 49:26 9. Rick Boyer 50:58 10. Cobb group 58:19 11. TJ, Dawn, Victor, Rachael 59:56 12. Aileen Abernathy 60:08 13. Jeff Lanam 61:42 14. Gravens group 63:30 15. Beth Dameron 63:49 16. Nancy Lindeman 69:15 17. Ransom, Roberts, Lofwall 94:32 18. Ev and Jean Beuerman 94:52 19. Ed Rosser & Eva Lieben 95:20 20. Brown group 133:25 John Pagendarm MSP (#1) LONG ORANGE 6.6 km 90 m 17 controls 1. Neal Barlow 35:41 2. Neeme Loorits 37:37 3. Mikko Laavainen 37:50 4. Wyatt Riley 43:22 5. Steve Jankowski 44:15 6. Derek Maclean 44:36 7. Van Baughner 45:47 8. Gary Carpenter 46:35 9. Dan Clark 47:16 10. Syd Reader 47:34 11. George Minarik 47:47 12. Tapio Karras 50:10 13. Dennis Wildfogel 52:24 14. Bill Papendick 52:26 15. Jay Montgomery 53:09 16. Sarah Minarik 53:45 17. Gavin Wyatt-Mair 54:10 18. Bob Cooley 57:46 19. Adam Smith 58:46 20. Bill Banker (MBOC) 59:54 21. Tony Pinkham 60:10 22. Joe Scarborough 60:42 23. Matti Lainema 61:55 24. Doug Stein 64:10 25. Scott Aster 65:38 26. Josh Friedericks 65:54 27. Joe Papendick 67:10 28. Mark Blair 70:49 29. Michael Poulsen 71:14 30. Stephanie Maclean 79:31 31. Charles Brenner 85:20 32. Mike Maughmer 86:09 33. Phillip Hoare 89:43 34. Andrew Hertz 90:26 35. Steve Beuerman 98:58 36. Steve O'Keefe 108:54 37. Terry Gleason 110:38 38. Martin Weiss 117:13 39. Don and Jon Gee 146:04 40. Staley group 170:30 David Meredith DNF Johnson group DNF Victor and TJ DNF Evan Custer (Vetter) 47:16 James Scarborough (Unofficial) MSP #13--Time 31:36