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Briones Regional Park
Date: (Sat.) May. 14, 2005
Location: Lafayette, CA
Event Director: 
- 510.658.4327
Course Setter: Penny DeMoss
Type: C; Advanced courses only; No beginner or intermediate courses
Event Write-Up
By course setter Penny DeMoss (since the old curmudgeon [Editor's Note: Harold] doesn't want to get blamed for anything...)
Thanks from Harold and me to all who came to Briones on Saturday. It was a perfect day to put on a race, but too warm for running such difficult courses. Over 100 competitors showed up, which was quite a bit more than the 65 or so that we figured (told the rangers) would come. Thanks for car pooling, it kept the parking lot from filling up, so the rangers were happy. There never was a problem with numbers of runners, just numbers of cars. We went over today to pick up the farthest Blue controls and talked to the parking lot attendant from yesterday, and he could not stop talking about how nice you all were! What do they usually get there anyway? Thugs and hooligans? Anyway, way to keep on the good side of the park people.
Well, all the "self this" and "self that" came off without a hitch. Very cool, I've never had so much free time on race day. Why I even had time to put up with, I mean play with Rory. Seriously, as Gary Carpenter was saying to me, if we've got the E-punch equipment, we may as well make use of the advantages. The self registration was a big help, too. James didn't have much to do ... he made a good suggestion also. We should get in the habit of taking an envelope home with us, then we can bring it to a meet already filled out, drop it in the box and head to the E-punch tent. (I'm sure we'll all get used to going to the tent before we run -- it's part of registration.) All in all, the format yesterday was very relaxing (well, compared to usual) for Harold and me, and we really enjoyed putting on the meet. Thanks everyone for doing your part and doing everything exactly like you were supposed to.
So, shall we talk about the races? I overheard someone describe the course setter as "psychotic". Hmmm... Truth be told, the courses were very much harder yesterday than they were over a month ago when Harold, Steve Gregg, Steve Beuerman, and I vetted the courses. I cannot remember a year when the grass has grown so long, so fast. Plus it was about 20 degrees warmer than when we ran. I was actually very impressed with the results. The conditions made what I had warned you were difficult to very, very, very difficult courses really gruelling. On paper the times look awful, but you were there and you know how tough the going was. Congrats to all participants and thanks for not hanging me by my thumbs.
On the Brown course (3.4 km, 220 m climb, 9 controls), Dennis Wildfogel led from start to finish and had 6 of the fastest splits. His time of 53:49 was 3:18 quicker than 2nd place Gary Carpenter (57:07). Gary had 2 quickest splits, including that death defying descent to the finish. George Minarik was 3rd in 58:49 and posted the quickest split by going around from #5 to #6. George thought the course was too long for Brown. These first three guys, being the only ones to break an hour, were well clear of the rest of the field, but Stephanie Maclean had an impressive 5th place overall finish to take top honors for the women. Her time was 1:14:50. Second place was Beth Dixon in 1:28:28 and 3rd was Jackie Wong in 1:35:06. Brown was certainly the course of choice on the day with 37 runners.
The Green course, at 4.8 km, 325 m climb, 12 controls, was my favorite course of the bunch. Good thing I suggested going down from Red if in doubt, because it was too long and tough under Saturday's conditions compared to usual Greens. What a good run Dan Greene had to best the 24 runners who gave it a go. He started slow, had the lead briefly and lost it but regained it again at the 6th control and won going away. His time of 1:25:21 shows how difficult 4.8 km can be! Second place went to Misha Lipatov in 1:29:11, and Chuck Spalding had a good showing with a solid run of 1:30:57 for 3rd. The women's race was a classic. Johanna Merriss and Jennifer Kerr swapped leads near the start, but by the "GO" control Johanna had built up a very comfortable 20 minute lead ... but, oh dear, haven't we all done this, Johanna went "walk-about" on the run to the finish and ended up with a mere 23 second victory! Holy cow! Her time was 2:36:13 to Jennifer's 2:36:36. Trinka Gillis also had a strong run to finish 3rd in 2:49:25.
The Red course was 6 km, 445 m climb, 13 controls. Martin Kunz opted to run the Red rather than the Blue after taking my warnings to heart. His winning time of 1:13:06 was truly remarkable. He led from start to finish over 2nd place Matthias Kohler 1:32:32. At least Matthias has bragging rights to having the quickest split from #2 to #3. Third place finisher Peter Graham was 1:44:32 and had the quickest split on #11 to #12. Martin claimed all of the other quickest splits. There were no women finishers on the Red course.
The Blue course was 7.25 km, 545 m climb, 15 controls. Matthias Mahr's winning time of 1:34:42 was amazing. It's interesting to note though that he had only 4 of the quickest splits, as compared to 2nd place finisher Mike Prindeville's 7, and Matthias didn't take over the lead until the 5th control. Once he got it, he was never challenged. Mike Prindeville made a strong showing with his time of 1:42:23. Mark Prior was 3rd in 1:52:48. How's that scottish thistle rash doing? (Mark ran in shorts!) I'll tell you, the worst leg on any course all day had to be the last 1/2 km approach to the 10th control on Blue. The grass was soooo long and the cow ruts were sooo deep, I about swooned after putting out that control. Really awful. Well done Blue runners for hanging in there. There were no women on the Blue course.
So, all that's left are the thank yous. Thanks to the park rangers at Briones, who were very helpful and accommodating as always. Thank you Bob Cooley for printing the maps. Thanks Harold for helping me vet and put out and pick up the controls. Thanks to James Wilson for doing registration. Thanks to Rosemary Johnson for getting all necessary permits (which is starting to be a real challenge). Thanks to Rory Maclean for helping Harold take down the Start, and to Dennis Wildfogel for helping take down and clean up the Finish. Thanks to the following people who helped pick up controls even though you can just imagine how much they really felt like doing it! Martin Kunz, Will Gilmore, Peter Graube, Brian Kirshner, Matthias Kohler, and Jim Fish. Thanks guys, I owe you. Special thanks to Trinka Gillis and her E-punch crew of Evan Custer, Mark Rice, Terry Farrah, and Jeff Lanam.
Penny DeMoss, course setter, over and out.
Results
Briones Regional Park
Martinez, CA
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Pl Name(s) Time
Brown Course (3.4 km, 220 m climb, 9 controls)
1 Dennis Wildfogel 53:49
2 Gary Carpenter 57:07
3 George Minarik 58:49
4 Zbigniew Pisanski 1:13:58
5 Stephanie MacLean 1:14:50
6 James Wilson 1:15:27
7 John Turner 1:21:24
8 Rob Gendreau 1:27:07
9 Beth Dixon 1:28:28
10 Jackie Wong 1:35:06
11 Mark Rice 1:39:49
12 Julia Pushkar 1:40:44
13 Terry Gleason 1:44:40
14 Wes Erck 1:46:01
15 William Straka 1:53:25
16 Rosemary Johnson 1:56:08
17 Jeff Lanam 2:00:16
18 Ernest Kimme, Tom Olson 2:07:57
19 Jim Fish 2:08:10
20 Brian Kirshner 2:15:03
21 Maria & Chelsea Hastings 2:19:55
22 Dan Sakai, Pat Gonzales,
Mike Beaver 2:21:12
23 Alan Houser 2:22:01
24 Katherine Baylor 2:42:01
25 Judy Koehler 2:48:33
26 Nancy Lindeman 2:55:41
27 Anne & Ed Severs, Terry
Farrah, Dan Dickinson 3:47:12
Chris Delp DNF
Dwight Freund DNF
Shirley Pierce DNF
Dean French DNF
Leslie Minarik DNF
Olga Krupina DNF
Bevan & Chelsea Waite DNF
Karl & Cynthia Royer DNF
Anna Zaster DNF
Green Course (4.8 km, 325 m climb, 12 controls)
1 Dan Greene 1:25:21
2 Misha Lipatov 1:29:11
3 Chuck Spalding 1:30:57
4 Peter Pensotti 1:33:18
5 Donatas Zigmantas 1:36:46
6 Evan Custer 1:39:41
7 Werner Haag 1:42:11
8 Bill Strauss 1:44:32
9 Gary Kraght 1:45:45
10 Bob Cooley 1:46:38
11 Chris Roper 1:50:06
12 Theo Verhoeven 1:54:45
13 Bill Wright 1:57:36
14 Alex Saltman 2:05:19
15 Chad Davis 2:21:26
16 Johanna Merriss 2:36:13
17 Jennifer Kerr 2:36:36
18 Andrew Barrows 2:37:19
19 Todd Edwards 2:43:43
20 Trinka Gillis 2:49:25
21 Alak Ghosh 3:14:43
Annaliese Steuben DNF
Bjorn Widerstrom DNF
Joe Saba DNF
Red Course (6.0 km, 445 m climb, 13 controls)
1 Martin Kunz 1:13:06
2 Matthias Kohler 1:32:32
3 Peter Graham 1:44:32
4 Dan Dwyer 1:49:01
5 Eric Rosenzweig 1:53:32
6 Russell Neilson 1:57:30
7 Peter Graube 2:01:31
8 Brad Wetmore 2:06:24
9 Mutsumi Sugizaki 2:08:03
10 Brian Ridgway 2:22:03
11 Tommer Wizansky 2:42:23
12 Bob Strauss 3:10:47
Jim Waite 1:50:26 Lost epunch, self-timed,
unconfirmed manual punch
Greg Favor MSP
Tapio Karras MSP
Kristen Stinger DNF
Derek MacLean DNF
Kent Ohlund DNF
Tim Dreby DNF
Blue Course (7.3 km, 545 m climb, 15 controls)
1 Matthias Mahr 1:34:42
2 Mike Prindeville 1:42:23
3 Mark Prior 1:52:48
4 Vladimir Gusiatnikov 1:54:23
5 Mikkel Conradi 1:56:39
6 Mattias Eriksson 1:58:51
7 Francois Leonard 2:14:17
8 Andrejus Masalkovas 2:15:16
9 Travis Parker 2:21:35
10 William Gilmore 2:26:32
11 Brian Hart 3:05:29
12 Gavin Wyatt-Mair 3:05:37
Rod Jaehn, Brett Lehigh DNF
Thomas Bastis, Kristi Ridgway DNF
Roger Pruett DNF
_______________
DNF = Did not finish (missed one or more controls)
MSP = Mispunched (one or more controls wrong)