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Shell Ridge Open Space

Date: (Sun.) Feb. 14, 2010
Location: Walnut Creek, CA
Event Director: - 510.407.1876
Course Setters: Gavin Wyatt-Mair, William Morris, Jay Hann
Type: B; "Open" event in conjuction with a BAOC COOL (Junior) event

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Event Write-Up

By

When it rains, it pours; and when it stops raining everyone wants to get outside and have some fun. So when it cleared up on Sunday, many more than expected made it to the meet at Shell Ridge — with the unfortunate consequence of map shortages. About 175 people attended the event, including 74 attempting some very physically challenging advanced courses, and 24 COOL competitors.

Francois Leonard finished first on the Blue course, twenty minutes ahead of Piers Newbery and Rex Winterbottom. On the Red course, Rebecca Minty beat out both Tapio Karras and Steve Gregg. Peter Graham finished first on Green, followed by Dan Greene and Matej Sebo (a junior from SDO); 4th through 7th places were tightly clustered within 2 minutes. Brown was led by Ingvard Jakobsen, with Bill Follette and Hani and Gwen Juha not far behind. The fastest on Orange was Joe Knapp, then the team of Brent and Matt Adams, with Harold DeMoss not far behind. On Yellow, veteran Gary Kraght edged out COOL runners William Morris and Gavin Williams. White was led yet again by the elementary-school girls: Julia Doubson came in first, followed by Hannah Kopisch and Natalie Kim.

A consequence of running out of Brown maps was that some folks ran Green instead. This probably caused some extra DNFs on the Green course. The courses were designed to have winning times of W-20, Y-30, O-50, Br-60, G-70, R-70 and Bl-70 minutes ±10%. All the courses were in range except Brown, which was probably a bit too physical. The running conditions were excellent, as demonstrated by Francois' awesome 65-minute run on Blue.

One thing to note, especially for COOL runners, is that there is a big increase in difficulty when going from the Yellow to the Orange course. The Shell Ridge Orange course provided a Yellow-navigational-level trail option for about 90% of the course, but taking the trails was definitely not the fastest choice. Once a runner ventures off-trail, navigation becomes much more important, and much more difficult.

As usual, it took many human-hours to make this happen, and I am grateful for all who helped. Jay Hann initially got this meet going by scheduling a COOL event, which then evolved into a B-event when Gavin Wyatt-Mair offered to set a full range of courses. Gavin spent many hours in the rainy season designing and checking courses on an aging map. Jay attended to many details, helping set out controls, coordinating COOL activities, setting up the registration/download area, and making his famous nachos. Middle-school COOL competitor William Morris set the White course, and is looking forward to setting both White and Yellow next year when he moves up to Orange as his competitive course. William also helped set up the Finish area, and not only climbed the hill once more after his run to take over at the Start, but also took down the Start equipment with the help of his dad David Morris.

Despite the unexpected crowds, our volunteers kept things running. Scott Aster ably handled starts at the crest of the ridge. Beginners’ clinics were held by Rex Winterbottom, with Nancy Lindeman stepping in to help. Rex also brought goodies, which were greatly appreciated. Rosemary Johnson not only set up the e-punch equipment and ran the download table when she returned from her run, but also posted results that very night. Greg Ehrensing and Wes Erck also helped out at e-punch. For registration, once James Wilson got things set up, Kevin Walker jumped in to help and kept things going until Ben Legg and Jim Fish were able to take over. Bob Cooley printed maps both before and during the meet. Control pick-up was again coordinated by Penny and Harold DeMoss; the team included Jim Fish, Theo Verhoeven, Mark Blair, Steve Haas, Steve Gregg, Scott Novotny, Peter Graube, Nancy Lindeman, Kathie Wiegant, and Max Wiegant. Ranger Dan Bylin helped arrange for the permit; thanks are due to him and the City of Walnut Creek for the use of this beautiful open space.

Apologies for running out of Brown course maps and running low on Yellow, I should have checked on supplies as the registrations came in. Experience — it’s what you get just after you need it.

Lost and Found

Some items are from previous meets. Let me know if you know anything about any of these:

Empyre olive green acrylic knit hat
Red nalgene water bottle, 16 oz, "Life is Good"
Hello Kitty water bottle
Ecco running shoe (1) size 10.5 US 46M EU, gray with black and red
Gray wool(?) gloves with blue Brooks logo
Baseplate compass with magnifier
Fork

I'll try to make it to Bayfront Park, definitely to Pt Pinole; will bring the stuff


Results

Shell Ridge Open Space

Walnut Creek, CA
Sunday, February 14, 2010

Also see control-by-control timing in the WinSplits results (http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/show_event.asp?id=13494). You can see the event map with the actual routes traveled by participants, and draw your own route for comparison, in RouteGadget (introduction; this event (http://baoc.org/gadget/cgi/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=213)).


  Pl  Name(s)                           Time

White Course   (2.8 km, 85 m climb, 12 controls)

   1  Julia Doubson (COOL)              22:48
   2  Hannah Kopisch (COOL)             23:47
   3  Natalie Kim (COOL)                24:38
   4  Daniel Sebo                       28:21
   5  Andrew Kim (COOL)                 30:29
   6  Susan Tanner                      31:54
   7  Davy Williams (COOL)              32:19
   8  Luke Martin                       43:00
   9  Johanna Karras (COOL)             46:22
  10  Natalie Pelayo (COOL)             51:01
  11  Braden Killeen                    56:29
  12  Mac Killeen                       56:33
  13  Preston Vana                      57:04
  14  Zion Garcia                     1:09:14
  15  Sam Cowles                      1:11:04
  16  Penelope Cox                    1:11:46
  17  Gwyn Smith                      1:14:13
  18  Danielle Leeman, Jennifer
        Schmukler                     1:14:18
  18  Bill Leeman, Carol Butler       1:14:18
  20  Mario Dona, Emma Morgan         1:15:44
  21  Ella & Ezra Van Horn            1:34:00

      John Martin                       DNF


Yellow Course  (3.0 km, 85 m climb, 12 controls)

   1  Gary Kraght                       28:50
   2  William Morris (COOL)             30:35
   3  Gavin Williams (COOL)             31:56
   4  Maxwell Wiegant                   36:25
   5  Carolyn & Jim Scacchetti          36:30
   6  Irena Stefanova                   40:11
   7  Michael & Sarah McCohen           42:40
   8  Olga Seredenko                    45:15
   9  Ben Hallsted (COOL)               46:34
  10  Kol Soum & Morgan                 55:15
  11  Nadine & Rina Skinner             56:53
  12  Kopec                             57:05
  13  Joe Danielson                     58:32
  14  Sara Danielson                  1:05:11
  15  Daniel Kim (COOL)               1:05:50
  16  Garett Vana                     1:06:14
  17  John & Jeff Skinner             1:06:18
  18  Sasha Iakovlev                  1:06:49
  19  Jack & Kassy Batcheller         1:08:16
  20  David Johnson, Debbie Fields    1:16:54
  21  Masha Konkov (COOL)             1:17:03
  22  Barbara & Steve                 1:18:07
  23  Kate Tennant                    1:20:25
  24  Michael Williams                1:21:39
  25  Cassandra Pelayo (COOL)         1:26:08
  26  Nancy Lindeman, Rosemary
        Johnson                       1:29:09
  27  Angela Hunter                   1:34:16

      Stephenie Wang                    DNF
      Katy Robinson                     DNF
      Maxine Jacoby, Blithe Brandon     DNF


Orange Course  (4.7 km, 180 m climb, 12 controls)

   1  Joe Knapp                         52:57
   2  Brent & Matt Adams              1:20:45
   3  Harold DeMoss                   1:28:03
   4  Jeff Samuels                    1:31:03
   5  John Batcheller                 1:40:51
   6  Mike & Vanessa Meyers           1:45:08
   7  Max Wiegant                     1:45:48
   8  Don & Jon Gee                   1:57:37
   9  Michelle Daher                  1:59:07
  10  John Marold                     2:04:32
  11  Paul & Kathy Jeanne Li          2:31:35

      Lauren Sanders                    DNF
      Nancy & Betty Abruzzo,
        Dave Woodd                      DNF
      Kevin Walker                      DNF
      Jeremy Willison                   DNF
      Kenneth Adelsperger               DNF
      Dillon Graben                     DNF
      Emily Osbourne                    DNF


Brown Course   (4.3 km, 190 m climb, 12 controls)

   1  Ingvard Jakobsen                1:25:04
   2  Bill Follette                   1:25:56
   3  Hani & Gwen Juha                1:32:27
   4  Paul Polewaczyk                 1:35:02
   5  Stefan Stefanov                 1:44:11
   6  Michael Robinson                1:47:13
   7  Charles Yates, Pam Murnane      1:57:23
   8  Jim Fish                        2:22:21
   9  Scott Novotny                   2:29:49
  10  Brian Tennant                   2:32:17
  11  Dawna Komorosky, Mike Stanton   2:38:36
  12  Nigel Killeen                   3:22:46

      Lena Eydelberg                    DNF
      Sanders-Hughes                    DNF
      David Hallsted                    DNF
      Caedmon Haas, Dan Shu             DNF
      Scott Aster                       DNF


Green Course   (5.4 km, 230 m climb, 15 controls)

   1  Peter Graham                    1:18:13
   2  Dan Greene                      1:21:40
   3  Matej Sebo (SDO)                1:23:54
   4  Fyodor Konkov                   1:30:06
   5  Jason Lorenz                    1:30:31
   6  Chuck Spalding                  1:31:11
   7  Steve Haas                      1:31:19
   8  George Minarik                  1:33:10
   9  Evan Custer                     1:37:15
  10  Shura Krechetov                 1:37:48
  11  Greg Ehrensing                  1:45:50
  12  Bob Cooley                      1:47:33
  13  Joe Saba                        1:48:06
  14  J.T. Sketchley                  1:49:29
  15  Marie-Jose Parayre              1:49:41
  16  Kelly Wells                     1:55:31
  17  David Morris (COOL)             1:58:53
  18  Johanna Merriss                 2:04:49
  19  Jonathan Hallsted (COOL)        2:05:50
  20  Marina Keating                  2:09:20
  21  Tom & Judy Cronin               2:25:43
  22  Patty Clemo                     2:29:31

      Jennifer Kerr (GCO)               DNF
      Joan Roos                         DNF
      Billy Nichols                     DNF
      Daniel Russell                    DNF
      Vic Revenko                       DNF
      Andrejus Masalkovas               DNF
      Bronwen Caplinger (COOL)          DNF
      Wes Erck                          DNF


Red Course     (6.3 km, 295 m climb, 18 controls)

   1  Rebecca Minty                   1:09:32
   2  Tapio Karras                    1:14:27
   3  Steve Gregg                     1:14:50
   4  Matthias Kohler                 1:17:21
   5  Lubomir Sebo                    1:27:29
   6  Manfred Kopisch                 1:29:04
   7  Misha Lipatov                   1:40:37
   8  Michael Behrens                 1:45:53
   9  Eric Rosenzweig                 1:47:10
  10  Theo Verhoeven                  1:49:17
  11  Margaret Longstreth             2:01:21


Blue Course    (7.1 km, 350 m climb, 20 controls)

   1  Francois Leonard                1:05:11
   2  Piers Newbery                   1:25:30
   3  Rex Winterbottom                1:25:37
   4  Mark Prior                      1:35:24
   5  Deron van Hoff                  1:38:50
   6  Greg Favor                      1:42:48
   7  Penny DeMoss                    1:47:49
   8  Peter Graube                    1:57:32
   9  Mark Blair                      2:13:24
  10  Byran Hann                      2:29:49
  11  Nick Giori                      2:33:58

_______________

DNF = Did not finish (missed one or more controls)