Golden Gate Park Results

March 8, 1998

by Dwight Freund, meet director

The weather turned out nice. The map looked nice. A lot of people showed up. Most finished their selected course. Thanks to the use of permanent-feature controls and the recent park sweeps by Hizzoner, we had no missing controls this year. What more could you want? Below are the complete results.

Last year I begged off any organizational duties because I was too busy getting the map out. This year I was also very busy, mostly with course planning, especially the Trail-O (permits, wheelchair slope restrictions, learning the concepts). In fact, I was so busy I forgot to farm out the organization, with noticeable results. Fortunately, enough family members and club members pitched in at the last moment to save my bacon, at least partially.

There were some hassles with computing finishing times. I forgot to put blanks on the custom clue/control sheets for names and start/finish times. This was corrected rather quickly, but greater problems were caused by having a number of first-timers begin the course without obtaining a start time. If this has been a problem at other meets, we probably need to have newcomers advised of the existence of a starter's table upon registration.

There were a few problems with the orange courses: a control slightly off-center was one minor problem, but bigger problems were caused by inadequate mapping of vegetation. No doubt a number of runners were penalized (physically and temporally) for selecting a rational route which just happened to have a bit more fight than indicated. Wait 'til next year.

Candidate for bizarre control of the year: Normal controls have a identification on them, so you can check that it is the right one before punching. For verifying fixed features in urban settings, I gave people information about the feature ("statue of Burns") or a multiple choice answer to a fact about the feature: one right anwer and three completely false. For Orange #2, there was a sprinkler in the center of the control circle. As the verification feature, I listed the city of manufacture (Glendora) and three other, impossible alternatives (Azusa, Monrovia, and Fresno). Trouble already: almost everyone knows that our own G. Kraght hails from Glendora, the sprinkler manufacturing capital of the universe. But worse: a large number of runners decided to pass up the intended sprinkler in favor of the some other kind of sprinkler-thingie on the periphery of the control circle, which was actually manufactured in Fresno, of all ridiculous places!

The Trail-O was lightly attended, but well worth it by the accounts of the few who tried it out. Unfortunately, the turnout from the wheelchair-using community, for whom the course is designed, was nonexistant. Wait 'til next year. I have lots of advice for anyone else wishing to try setting such a course. Also a nice kit of markers I made up for the purpose, and will donate to the club.

On the Trail-O, several contestants may have had trouble with control #3 (stream bank whose correct marker blew down), control #5 (spur, one control fell down, or more probably, tampered with) and  control #7 (apparently one control blew down later in the day). Surprisingly, many people missed #2, vegetation boundary.

Regretfully incomplete list of helpers: Ev'n'Jean and the Asters for registration; Sam'n'Dwight Freund, Wyatt Riley, Angelika Gerlach and Fabian Meyerfor starts; Leslie Minarik, Gary Kraght and Steve Gregg for finishes; Bob Cooley for fixing and preparing the Trail-O map and printing all the other course maps; Steve Beuerman for picking up some of the Orange controls; and especially to Gary Kraght for course consultation, setting out the Orange controls, covering the finish line, and providing the only organization visible. Also special thanks to Rachel Freund, who vetted the White and Yellow courses, worked registration from 9:30 to closing without being asked, then did finishes, and then helped me pick up Trail-O and the rest of the Orange course.


Results

LONG ORANGE	16 controls  	7.9 km

Wyatt Riley		 50:36
Erik Ohlund		 53:15
Neal Barlow		 54:28
James Scarborough	 55:17
Steve Gregg		 55:46
Gavin Wyatt-Mair	 63:44
Bill Papendick		 66:08
Bob Cooley		 75:08
Mark Blair		 75:49
M. Kohler		 76:05
Michael Fleishman	 80:54
Charlie Graham		 81:23
Mariell Svensson	 87:54
Jenni Barclay		 88:06
Jim & Brian Michaels	 94:48
Bill Straka		104:43
Swarts/Moore		111:17
Fabian Meier		117:29
Steve Beuerman		122:59
J. Roos			130:33
D. & H. Madsen		  OT
A. Gerlach		 DNF
P. Hoare		 DNF
Mary Peter		 DNF

ORANGE		12 controls	5.4 km

George Minarik		 46:23
Jeff Emery		 47:47
Peter Rexer		 51:31
Dennis Wildfogel	 59:19
David Miles		 67:53
Oleg Shakhnovsky	 69:44
Marsha Jacobs		 71:40
Aileen Abernathy	 72:08
Jorian Riley		 74:55
Robert Lewis		 76:09
Drew Keeling		 76:13
Carol Cher		 76:58
Jodie Little		 77:15
Day/Sun			 78:22
Tim & Brian Thurgate	 83:47
David Modiano		 86:22
Douglas/Warmuth (3)	 91:59
D. Ellis/D. Meredith	112:20
Nancy Lindeman		114:57
Hahn/Booth	(4)	117:59
Belanger/Looby		124:16
Pat Roth		127:34
Thurgate/Wedwig (4)	129:03
Allison/Enomoto	(6)	132:13
Bayshore/Whiteman/Dowse	148:30
Walsh/Fernandez (3)	   DNF
Snyder/Bach		   DNF

YELLOW		12 controls	4.5 km

Jeff Emery		 54:49
Fraga/Cuttitta		 59:53
Zack/Kiner		 62:00
M. & P. Rabuzzi		 63:57
Khan/Grinspan		 65:22
David Klipp		 66:30
Barbara Straka		 72:19
Tom Soskin		 74:40
Bob & Jackie Buhl	 82:45
Skanderson gp. (6)	 83:20
Bob & Glenna Ingersoll	 84:53
GEorge & Pat Aster	 88:02
Pascal & Kirsten Vin	 90:53
Suderow/Griffin (3)	 92:50
BSA Troop 12 (McDonnell) 95:10
Lauren & Ray Parker	 98:25
Lindsay & Greg Arthur	 98:25
C. Bulleri scout gp.	 99:58
Galena Shakhnovsky	102:30
Ev'n'Jean Beuerman	104:06
Bonnie & Clyde		104:37
Gustely (5)		104:46
A. Bulleri scout gp.	104:51
J. Bulleri scout gp.	105:08
V. & J. Ryerson		105:25
N. Bulleri scout gp.	106:08
Weydemeyer/Holder	109:40
Daniel Bulleri		131:20
Booth/Michaels	(4)	133:37
Beavers/Robinson	136:37
Williams (3)		138:58
Zippin/Miller/Jaeger	144:50
Friedman (3)		151:10
Terry/Butler/Coghlan gp.152:34
Regalado/Grebitus (4)	154:22
Ballatore/Colby (7)	160:40
Clark/Melhler/Korpell	173:37
1 group                 No Start Time

WHITE		9 controls	2.6 km

Brian Darr		 37:56
Bunting/Zawada gp. (4)	 48:10
Bob & Molly Mehaffey	 52:00
Martin/Bunting gp. (5)	 52:15
M. & A. Levie		 54:00
Myers (3)		 54:35
John & Marie Dennan	 58:00
Allen/Brasch	(4)	 62:40
Coustier (4) 		 64:05
Homa & Jesse Lee	 70:16
Stricker (4)		 71:04
Lopez/Coustier (3)	 72:27
Kristen & Dana Snider	 72:19
Care/White		 72:30
Brown/Pollock  (4)	 74:35
Robinson/Samuels (9)	106:12
Al & Meredith Satake	106:35
8 groups  		No start time

TRAIL-O
			Number Wrong

Steve Beuerman			1
Manfred Kopisch			1
Gary Kraght			1
Aileen Abernathy		2
Carol Chen			2
Evan Custer			2
Robert Lewis			2
Rachel Freund			3
K. Friedman			8