When I pulled up to the park the morning of the event, things did not look too promising, as it was pouring rain. Then the ranger told me she had me down for tomorrow and that there was another event. Since this was a beginner's event and my first as a meet director, I thought things were not looking very good.
However, I was wrong, and we worked things out with the ranger (she had misread the application), and by the end of the day 88 hardy souls had run through either the White or Pink courses. This does not count Peter Rexler and Carol Chan and their 11-month-old son, Jack, who came after registration closed but ran the Pink course anyway. Of course, they may have come because we had treats for all finishers, but I like to think they showed up because they had the chance to do some orienteering when they could have sat indoors and stayed dry. Below are the complete results.
Unfortunately we had to cancel the Start-O due to some necessary construction that the park was performing right in the middle of the route. Even so, everyone seem to have a good time especially once the rain stopped around 11:00.
While the White course was a standard format, the Pink course was run as a Memory-O. Each control had a segment of the map with the next control on it. Enough of the map was shown so that some route choice could be made. This seemed to work pretty well. Since this was a beginner event, I did not want to make it too difficult to do, but I still wanted to provide some challenge. In the end the weather assisted as the rain amnaged to smear the maps slightly despite our efforts to protect them. However, we did learn that blue and green seem to run easily although the back seems to be enhanced by the rain.
The winners of the courses were Bryn Oh, who completed the White in 18:52 on her first time orienteering, and David Miles, who completed the Pink in a very fast 26:20. Even I was only able to complete the course in 28:15 and I knew where all of the controls were. Congratulations to the winners and to everyone who braved the elements to have a good time and some Easter candy.
No meet director does everything on his own, so I need to thank the many volunteers that helped out. Dox Doxiadis and Sarah Edwards ran registration very efficiently. Mike Poulsen did the beginners' clinics and answered people's questions almost the entire time. Nancy Lindeman, Tony Pinkham and my wife Carol stepped in to run the starts and finishes, and Roberta Pitsenbarger helped with results. Nancy and Tony also did a great job of publicity, which I believe is one of the main reasons so many showed up for the event.
Thorsten Graeve came through and printed all of the maps for me, and Tony Pinkham also found the Start-O maps from last year and got them to me. I also want to thank Tapio Karras, who came with two of his sons after registration closed and picked up the White course controls. We also need to thank the City of Mountain View, which, when the paperwork wasn't right, patiently worked with myself and Rosemary Johnson to get it corrected.
WHITE 9 controls 1.8k 10 m
1. Bryn Oh 18:52
2. David Oh 20:09
3. Mika, Evan, Jeanne, Roland Chan 22:40
4. Jack, Joan, Athena, Philip Myers 24:55
5. Joanne Westendorff, Mary Wilbourn
Lia Economos 27:06
6. Roger King, Steve King, David Jahns 28:28
7. Bill and Billy McWood 28:40
8. Deena, Brian, Matthew, Ian Ferry
and Jimmy Nguyen 32:35
9. Tom and Leslie Rogers 34:20
10. David and Lauren Klipp 34:55
11. Garrett and Kristen Pitsenbarger
and Mom 36:58
12. Bill Dudley and Linn BrownMiller 37:35
13. Virginia Fujii, Carolyn Fujii and
Girl Scouts 55:00
Unofficial Time
Ryan Sawyer 37:58
PINK 13 Controls 3.3k 20m memory format
1. David Miles 26:20
2. Vicki Woolworth 36:36
3. David Modiano 39:32
4. Troop 221 48:12
5. Bryn and David Oh 52:40
6. Nancy Lindeman 54:45
7. Matt and Patrick Rabuzzi 56:59
8. Roberta and Kristen Pitsenbarger 57:04
9. Diane R and Harry H Hall and
Garrett Pitsenbarger 1:11:27
10. Richard Bothwell and Kelly Melsen 1:23:45
11. Boris Schatalow and Melissa Kauth 1:32:37
12. Troop 774 1:44:10
13. Lloyd 1:50:50
14. Thorsrud 1:52:10
15. Bill and Bobbi Beardsley and
Kristen Allison 1:53:20
16. Deckert family - Reeves - Debbie,
Jessica, Libby 1:53:25
Unofficial Time
Tony Pinkham 19:48