Emerald Hills
Date: (Sat.) Feb. 12, 2005
Location: Redwood City, CA
Event Director: 
- 206.913.3790
Course Setter: Terry Farrah
Type: C; AFTERNOON White and Score-O courses; night Vampire-O; potluck social
Writeup by Trinka Gillis
It was a dark and stormy night, just the kind of evening where vampires crouch behind gnarled oaks, waiting for an unsuspecting orienteer to pass by. Not quite. Actually, Emerald Hills events tend to fortuitously fall on a clear day in an otherwise rainy month. About 75 people ran/walked/biked in at least one course; many people participated in more than one.
Terry Farrah designed courses that required no controls. Instead, for each control, participants had to circle the number they saw on an electrical pole. On the freestyle courses, the controls could be taken in any order, but participants had to return within the time limit.
The 70-minute afternoon freestyle course had the most participants and the stiffest competition. Mattias Vangbo was the first-place winner, with Graeme Ackland and Mattias Kohler close behind. Steve Gregg crushed his competition on the Bike freestyle course. Efren Alba won the 50-minute freestyle course, while 7-1/2 year old Anita Yerneri competed on her own (with a shadow). The first-place winners on the White course were Trevor and Gery Swallow.
The Vampire-O was the most exciting and unpredicatable course of the day. The team of Michael Hall and Chris Pinney took first place, followed by Tapio Karras (who completely evaded the vampires). Eric Bone, Brad Wetmore, and Jackie Wong came in next. In many cases, leaders were determined by the last vampire attacks. Here are some first-hand accounts:
Steve Gregg
- "My main goal was to enjoy a nice 75-minute training run, unencumbered by vampires. I almost made it...
- "My plan was to stay completely clear of what I assumed would be the prime vampire hangout between the start/finish and the pond. So from the start I headed directly NE and along the road to 109. A group of teenagers also started in that direction (the same group that eventually got Eric??? I have no idea), but I left them shortly after leaving 109, and was blissfully alone as I hit all the northeastern controls. I took a chance and went to 104 after 118 and almost paid for that, as Dan Greene was standing there with a funny look on his face, and it seemed as though something had happened or was about to happen. Dan told me later that he had just 'vampired' Trinka there, if I remember the story correctly.
- "But I survived that encounter and then saw no one at all as I was getting 103-141-119-123-114-137. Eric came charging down the hill in the opposite direction as I was heading up to 115 (soon to be vampired himself, I assume?). Strangely enough, all the way out at 136 I saw a couple of suspicious people with flashlights hanging out at the intersection when I was about 75 m away, so I turned my light off and waited in the dark for whoever it was to leave. (It might have just been locals--I was surprised to see so many non-orienteers out on the streets with flashlights after dark, going on evening walks.)
- "Then I thought I was home free as I got 117-135-126-125-124. However, it appears I made the fatal mistake of going for 'one more control' (113) before heading back in, as Brad got me at the 5-way intersection between 113 and the finish. There were less than 4 minutes to go at this point and I disgustedly headed in via 131, thinking I might run into someone else but alas, only saw another poor vampire also jogging back in.
- "Looking back on my route, I should have done exactly the same loop, but in the opposite direction. Surely no vampires would be hanging out on the road from 109 to the finish, looking for victims."
Brad Wetmore
- "Two kids hung out near the finish and got Eric Bone, Eric in turn got me, I in turn got Steve Gregg. Steve had this huge headlight (aka vampire magnet), so it made him really easy to see.
- "I thought I was being clever by taking a back way in. As I passed the corner I could have turned down for one last control, I saw a vampire (Trinka?), so I knew going straight was the right way, until Eric jumped out of the bushes about 25 yards down the road and just about gave me a heart attack.
- "The kids went into first, Eric dropped from first to third, I dropped from third to fourth, Steve remains walking the earth as an undead."
Eric Bone
- "I can add that the two teenagers actually nailed me pretty close to the middle of the course, although I was tired from earlier and had no light, so I was on my way back in at the time.
- "I visited 16 (upper/southern) controls before those guys got me, and they scored 27, meaning that they must have been to the other (lower) side of the course and remembered a bunch of the answers. Earlier, as I was running the course, this very scenario had come to mind when I thought about how the event might be won.
- "After I was bitten, I then tried to bite three other parties, all of whom were already vampires. Since there were only three vampires, one of my would-be-victim vampires must have bitten someone else that I then tried to bite."
The event went amazingly smoothly, in large part to the generous volunteers. Many thanks to Brian Hart, Chuck Spalding, Dan Eggerding, Dan Greene, Ev and Jean Beuerman, Frank Markowitz, John Turner, Lakshmi Yerneri, Mark Blair, Mattias Vangbo, Nancy Lindeman, Nick Corsano, Robert Lewis, Neal and Shirley Pierce, Steve Beuerman, Steve Gregg, Tapio Karras, Terry Farrah, Eric Bone, Bjorn Widerstrom, Bob Cooley, and Rosemary Johnson.
Results
Emerald Hills
Redwood City, CA
Saturday, February 12, 2005
White Course
Pl Name Time
1 Trevor & Gery Swallow 14:49
2 John Turner 20:00
3 Harry Hall 29:17
4 Joanne Thiel, Tracy & Tony Kobayashi,
Sue Salituro 34:55
5 Brian & Jonas Christian, Sheryl Regester 40:40
6 Jeremy Curtis, Eileen Candelaria 41:01
7 Diane Hall 41:55
8 Cati Munic, Michelle Leberknight 53:00
9 Elizabeth & Xavier Loinaz; Todd, Pamela,
Spencer & Creighton Morgenfeld 56:19
10 Troop 466B 58:12
11 Kris, Ben, Owen, & Scott Peterson 58:25
12 Angelina Orlando, Marina Bond 1:07:59
13 Troop 466A 1:21:22
14 Sabrina Orlando, Meri Riddle 1:57:04
Second Course
Jake Niebaum 8:49
Scoring for all the Score-O courses:
10 points per control recorded
-5 points per incorrect answer
-5 points per minute overtime
50-Minute Afternoon Score-O Course
Correct Wrong Total Over-
Pl Name Answers Answers Minutes time Score
1 Efren Alba 10 0 52 2 90
2 Brian & Jessica Kirshner 8 0 47 0 80
3 Murray Wilcox 10 0 54 4 80
4 Anita Yerneni 8 0 53 3 65
Not Eligible
Eric Bone 21 0 48 0 210
70-Minute Bike Score-O Course
Correct Wrong Total Over-
Pl Name Answers Answers Minutes time Score
1 Steve Gregg 27 1 70 0 265
2 Jake Niebaum 18 1 68 0 175
3 Joe Maffei 18 0 84 14 110
Second Course
Murray Wilcox 14 1 69 0 135
Efren Alba 18 2 84 14 100
70-Minute Afternoon Score-O Course
Correct Wrong Total Over- Actual
Pl Name Answers Answers Minutes time Score Time
1 Mattias Vangbo 26 0 64 0 260 1:03:32
2 Graeme Ackland 29 0 76 6 260 1:15:01
3 Matthias Kohler 25 0 70 0 250 1:10:00
4 Brad Wetmore 22 0 63 0 220 1:02:19
5 Chuck Spalding 22 0 65 0 220 1:04:48
6 Eric Rosenzweig 28 0 84 14 210 1:23:57
7 Frank Markowitz 19 0 66 0 190 1:05:42
8 David Cairo 21 0 77 7 175 1:16:29
9 Mark Prior, Carolyn Whitesell 17 0 70 0 170 1:09:31
10 Adam Ruskin 16 0 63 0 160 1:03:00
11 Denis Trapido 15 0 60 0 150 59:55
12 Vladislav Skvortsov 15 0 61 0 150 1:00:38
13 Frederick Lee 16 1 71 1 150 1:10:51
14 Henrique Miranda, Andre Marta 18 0 77 7 145 1:16:45
15 Alex Krechetov, Helenda Eydelberg 14 0 62 0 140 1:02:00
16 Karl & Cynthia Royer 14 0 68 0 140 1:07:32
17 Yulia Yukina 14 0 68 0 140 1:08:00
18 Yelena Krasnov 13 0 58 0 130 57:29
19 AJ Onalfo, Tammy Nguyen,
Brian Hart 13 0 63 0 130 1:02:48
20 Tony Pinkham, Carol Powers 13 0 68 0 130 1:07:04
21 Craig Benson 13 0 70 0 130 1:09:22
22 Erin Magers 15 0 74 4 130 1:13:51
23 Bjorn Widerstrom 17 0 78 8 130 1:17:24
24 Alex Solomatnikov 12 0 68 0 120 1:07:55
25 Marina Keating 16 0 78 8 120 1:17:52
26 Shirley Pierce 11 0 68 0 110 1:07:36
27 Trevor Swallow 15 1 77 7 110 1:16:57
28 Cathy Bolger 10 1 67 0 95 1:07:00
29 Chuck & Heidi Fancher; Brandon &
Darcy Nugent 12 1 74 4 95 1:13:29
30 Phillip Hoare 12 0 75 5 95 1:14:50
31 Suresh Yanamadala 7 1 71 1 60 1:10:31
32 Landau & Mackenzie 8 0 76 6 50 1:15:24
33 Janet Kan, Stella Law, Kelvin Ng 5 0 72 2 40 1:11:53
Vampire-O (Evening 75-Minute Score-O)
Correct Wrong Over- Finish
Pl Name Answers Answers time Score Time
1 Michael Hall, Chris Pinney 27 0 1 265 19:00:14
2 Tapio Karras 22 0 1 215 19:00:58
3 Eric Bone 21 0 0 210 18:56:38
4 Brad Wetmore 21 0 0 210 18:59:45
5 Jackie Wong 21 0 0 210 19:00:00
6 Dave Marwood 20 0 0 200 on time
7 Dan Greene 19 1 0 185 18:55:55
8 Mark Blair 18 0 0 180 18:59:00
9 Dan Dwyer 17 1 0 165 18:59:39
10 Mattias Vangbo 15 0 0 150 18:44:48
11 Ian Tidswell, John Brown 14 0 0 140 18:53:21
12 Adam Ruskin 15 2 0 140 18:57:49
13 Nancy Lindeman 11 0 0 110 18:44:00
14 Shirley & Neal Pierce 9 0 0 90 18:42:00
15 Goutham Mallareddy 9 0 0 90 18:56:59
16 Tony Pinkham 9 1 0 85 18:48:30
17 David Caeiro 9 2 0 80 18:51:45
18 Joanne Thiel 8 0 0 80 18:58:00
19 Jeff Lanam 12 0 8 80 19:07:32
20 Mark Haw, Brandon Reed 5 0 0 50 18:45:00
Graeme Ackland 0 0 Vampire
Sonja Struben 0 0 Vampire
Steve Gregg 0 0 Vampire
Mikkel Conradi 0 0 DSQ (OVT)
Trinka Gillis 0 0 DSQ (OVT)
_______________
DSQ = Disqualified
OVT = Overtime