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Joaquin Miller Park

Date: (Sun.) Aug. 6, 2006
Location: Oakland, CA
Event Director: - 510.681.6181
Course Setters: Rex Winterbottom, Joe Scarborough
Type: C; White, Yellow, Orange, Brown, Green, and USOF Sprint courses

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Event Write-Up

By Rex Winterbottom

We had thrills aplenty at Joaquin Miller, because this park is such a smorgasbord of stuff, and the courses went all over it. Well, almost. Some places, you just don't want to go there. Best to avoid the nastiest of the nasty. Fine weather blessed us, for it was sunny, but not too hot. Again, no fog. And surprisingly, all the fences and goats were gone, invalidating significant swaths of out-of-bounds areas on the map.

This was the first event I have been to or done with two "event centers." Interesting, certainly an experience, but not recommended if you can avoid it in the planning process. All in all, I'm glad we were able to have the event and have success down below in the meadow and up above in the subtle redwood terrain. Also, it seems the turnout was significantly lighter than usual on the White, Yellow, and Orange courses; perhaps preregistration discouraged a few from coming. To be able to collect cash for an event, you need to reserve Roberts Park and run the event from there, because while the City of Oakland doesn't allow money to be exchanged, you can do so in the East Bay Regional Parks territories.

In the fair meadow, where we staged the White, Yellow, and Orange courses, we ran with pretty much a barebones crew, because most of the available helpers run advanced courses and needed to get "upstairs." Ev and Jean Beuerman took over starts after awhile, as well as handling registration, but because of the light turnout, it was manageable. Meanwhile, I held down the finishes for most of the time, and took care of results during the lulls.

The White, Yellow, and Orange courses took advantage of the variety of man-made landscapes and areas intermingled with wilderness in the southern half of the map. Interesting route choices, monuments, cascading waterfalls, and a few dramatic viewpoints were there to tempt you from concentrating on your course. Six-year-old sensation Julia Doubson triumphed on the White course, which was in danger of not having any participants until about 12:00! Adventure racer Frank Vegh beat out his racing partner Jason Scharpf on the Yellow course before heading up to do the Green course. Junior Jukka Karras and Margaret Longstreth were tops on Orange. Upstairs at Redwood Grove, a big thanks to Harold and Penny DeMoss for coordinating all the action with the assistance of Joe Scarborough and Trinka Gillis holding down the Epunch.

The Sprint. This was the destination course, the prime course of the event. Joe Scarborough freshened up the map, sprinkled a few "Kansas boulders" and tripods onto it, and concocted a tricky course to challenge those of you who have been running on this map since 1978. Joe did a fine job accentuating the subtlety of the terrain in the design of his legs, which required careful map reading and accurate bearings. Certainly, the large spread in the results demonstrates how technical this course was, and hopefully you found it a rewarding experience.

Expert navigator Vladimir Gusiatnikov took the crown for the men, followed by a few other guys who navigate as well as they sprint — Mikkel Conradi and Mattias Eriksson. Clare Durand, Maree-Josee Parayre, and Trinka Gillis topped it for the women. All participants deserve congratulations for finishing, especially since BAOC is contributing $5 on behalf of each of them to the U.S. Orienteering team, supporting them by helping them not dig too far into their own pockets to attend events like the World Orienteering Championships this summer in Denmark, where BAOC's own James Scarborough and friend-of-BAOC Eric Bone are competing.

The Green and Brown courses started in the nice subtle Redwood stuff, and then descended into harsher territory, but not for too long. The Green course even went over to the White, Yellow, and Orange areas, giving its participants a grand tour of the park. Success on these courses involved some long route-planning legs, bouts of fine navigation, and dealing with a fuzzy map — focusing on contours, large and clear features, and distances — rather than thinking too seriously about how vegetation is shaded on the map. Penny DeMoss and James Wilson emerged victorious on Green, and Russell Nielson showed up pretty well on Green for his second course. The Pierce and Erin Magers group took the Brown prize, and Kent Hetherwick and Clare Durand made strong showings on Brown for their second courses.

Volunteers

Thank you everybody for a good cooperative spirit in making this event run smoothly and work well, considering the difficult operating conditions.

Course Setters: Joe Scarborough (Sprint)
Vetting: Harold DeMoss
Setup: Brad Wetmore, Kent Hetherwick, Andrejus Masalkovas, Clare Durand, Jim Fish
Maps: Bob Cooley
Starts: Brad Wetmore, Greg Khanlarov, Harold and Penny DeMoss
Finishes: Andrejus Masalkovas, Mikkel Conradi
Beginners Clinics: Brad Wetmore
Takedown: Andrew Masalkovas, Jukka Karras, James Wilson, Mattias Eriksson, Mutsumi Sugizaki, Joe Maffei
Epunch: Trinka Gillis, Jeff Lanam
Registration: Ev and Jean Beuerman, Harold and Penny DeMoss
Control Pickup: Joe Maffei, Mattias Eriksson, Natasha Doubson, Masha Konkov, James Wilson, Mutsumi Sugizaki


Results

Joaquin Miller Park

Oakland, CA
Sunday, August 6, 2006



  Pl  Name(s)                              Time


White Course

   1  Julia Doubson                        24:15
   2  Barbara Robben                       29:31


Yellow Course

   1  Frank Vegh                           30:32
   2  Jason Scharpf                        39:06
   3  B. Dameron                           46:08
   4  Todd Bertolone                       53:47
   5  Masha & Natasha Konkov               58:11
   6  Michael Gallardo, Calvin Ngo         66:02
   7  Garrett Morano, Vincent Ngo,
        Anthony Gallardo                   84:13
   8  Thomas Go                           118:57
   9  Nina Schindler group                123:33

   Second Course

      Seder group                          76:48


Orange Course

   1  Jukka Karras                         33:51
   2  Margaret Longstreth                  41:52
   3  Rick Boyer                           44:40
   4  Greg Ehrensing                       48:25
   5  Seder group                          50:35
   6  Kotturi, Paul Anneck, and Legall     51:06
   7  Terry Englehart                      53:03
   8  Suzy Murphy                          53:48
   9  James Firestone, Jennifer Marinelly  82:04

  Second Course

      Todd Bertolone                       31:36


Brown Course     (1.8 km, 7 controls)

   1  Pierce, Erin Magers                  46:47
   2  Jackie Wong                        1:04:36
   3  Jason Hogan                        1:19:25

  Second Course

      Kent Hetherwick                      32:44
      Clare Durand                         45:55
      Marina Keating                     1:01:13


Green Course     (3.9 km, 10 controls)

   1  Penny DeMoss                         45:32
   2  James Wilson                         47:57
   3  Piers Newbery                        48:42
   4  Bob Strauss                        1:04:49
   5  Joe Maffei                         1:10:56
   6  Todd Paulsen, Anne Deucher         1:14:17
   7  Annick Legall, Paul Kotturi        1:17:19
   8  Wes Erck                           1:21:50
   9  Theo Verhoeven                     1:35:53
  10  Julie Tsai, Mark Prior             1:37:53
  11  Mark Rice                          1:46:27
  12  Jason Scharpf                      1:56:31
  13  Frank Vegh                         1:58:23

  Second Course

      Russell Neilson                      44:03
      Brad Wetmore                         50:21
      Francois Leonard                     52:11
      Peter Graham                         55:11
      Jim Fish                           2:07:29


Sprint Course    (0.0 km, 12 controls)

   1  Vladimir Gusiatnikov                 21:15
   2  Mikkel Conradi                       22:14
   3  Mattias Eriksson                     23:43
   4  Mattias Vangbo                       25:39
   5  Tapio Karras                         28:10
   6  Ido Green                            28:15
   7  Andrejus Masalkovas                  31:49
   8  Brad Wetmore                         35:19
   9  Greg Khanlarov                       35:43
  10  Peter Graham                         35:55
  11  Bob Cooley                           37:02
  12  Clare Durand                         37:06
  13  Russell Neilson                      38:52
  14  Ingert Svard                         39:53
  15  Joe Maffei                           42:30
  16  Francois Leonard                     45:02
  17  Marie-Josee Parayre                  53:02
  18  Mutsumi Sugizaki                     56:20
  19  Jim Fish                             56:25
  20  Trinka Gillis                        58:55
  21  Kent Hetherwick                      59:24
  22  Fyodor Konkov                      1:01:38
  23  Jeff Lanam                         1:04:49
  24  Pat Wong                           1:04:52
  25  Marina Keating                     1:07:48
  26  Margaret Longstreth                1:43:28

  Second Course

      Mark Prior                           25:53