Willow Glen Holiday Lights
Date: (Sun.) Dec. 19, 2010
Location: San Jose, CA
Event Director: - 650.302.4835
Course Setter: Brad Wetmore
Type: C; Light-O: Walk/Run through Willow Glen while enjoying the festive decorations!
Related Event Information
Event Announcement Last Year's Event RouteGadget – Introduction RouteGadget – This Event (http://baoc.org/gadget/cgi/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=241&kieli=)
Event Write-Up
By
The second annual BAOC invasion of the Willow Glen neighborhood was another success — at least from the positive comments I've received so far: "BEAUTIFUL!" "INCREDIBLE LIGHTS!" "CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT YEAR!" If you had been following the weather reports from the previous week, you were probably expecting a soggy event, but the weather really cooperated for the entire day. Even with the threat of rain, I was pleasantly surprised that so many braved the possible inclement weather. We tried not to disappoint with the both the courses and potluck dinner.
The Holiday Lights were, of course, the biggest draw. This year, there were 60 controls spread throughout a large area. This year's 90-minute division winner Rex Winterbottom visited 45, and got the extra-credit question correct for a grand total of 460 points. He avoided many of the outlying control clusters I added to draw people away from an optimum route. Kyle Peter gave Rex a run for his money, but returned 8 minutes late and ended up 100 points behind Rex. The Mighty Santa Hats knew they were "a little late" in returning, but were having too much fun looking at the lights! At least they stayed in positive numbers!
In the 60-minute division, Jay Hahn (140 points) narrowly bested both Steve Harrison and the team of Trinka Gillis/Bjorn Widerstrom (120 points). Jay had also put on the Vasona Park event earlier in the day, which made for a full day of navigation for the club.
I really wanted both runners and walkers to enjoy the evening, and put a number of controls right by the event center. Every team visited at least 8 controls.
The Extra Credit question was designed to see who was paying attention to their map or compass. At control 28, there was a directional sign pointing to the North Pole, and the question was "What direction is the North Pole from here?" The answer was South, which had me chuckling when setting the rest of the course.
There were some penalties assessed for incorrect answers. One team reported they visited control 81 (bird under the basketball hoop), but none of the given answers matched. After they described what they had seen, I returned to the control area, and it appears they visited the house directly across the street and not the correct control. There was another answer that had two answers circled, but we couldn't determine which was the intended answer. One team apparently had the wrong question circled: the control marked was not near any of the other controls they visited.
As with any event, there were a couple of things we can do better for next year. I didn't keep track of the seconds, so in a couple of cases, we had to declare a tie. We will also use a digital clock, as it was somewhat difficult to read the minutes on the clock at the event center.
If you can, please add your courses to RouteGadget. It's very educational for me to see how people approached the courses.
Following the courses, the club sat down to our annual potluck dinner. Event Director Nancy Lindeman did a great job of organizing a wide variety of salads, entrees, and desserts, and she had several hot drink options available for those who needed a little warming. Following dinner, Club President Trinka Gillis finally began the announcement of the 2010 BAOC Club Service Award winner. She kept the crowd in suspense by listing the many behind-the-scenes accomplishments of this year's award winner, Chuck Spalding.
Many thanks to everyone who helped put on this year's event:
- Event Director: Nancy Lindeman
- Map Printing: Bob Cooley
- Registration: Trinka Gillis and Chuck Spalding
- Finishes: Chuck Spalding
- Scoring: Jim Fish and Trinka Gillis
Apologies if I've forgotten anyone!
Results
Willow Glen Holiday Lights
San Jose, CA
Sunday, December 19, 2010
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=241)). (See the comments below.)
60-Minute Division
-- Penalties -- Final Pl Name(s) Time Raw Score Incorrect Late Score
1 Jay Hann 57 140 0 0 140 2 Steve Harrison 61 130 0 10 120 2 Trinka Gillis, 60 120 0 0 120 Bjorn Widerstrom 4 Speed Racer 62 90 0 20 70 5 Jane Melia 64 80 0 40 40 5 Medha Somayoyi, 64 80 0 40 40 Gabrielle DelForge
90-Minute Division
-- Penalties -- Final Pl Name(s) Time Raw Score Incorrect Late Score
1 Rex Winterbottom 88 460 0 0 460 2 Kyle Peter 98 440 0 80 360 3 Steve Haas 90 330 0 0 330 4 Jeremy Gabe, 86 320 0 0 320 Rob Slolberg 5 Jason Reed 92 390 60 (2) 20 310 6 Tina Le 91 290 0 10 280 7 Penny DeMoss 89 270 30 (1) 0 240 8 Mark Blair 87 230 0 0 230 9 Erika Kikuchi 91 230 0 10 220 10 Gee & Graham 85 200 0 0 200 11 Blonstein Group 81 170 0 0 170 11 Jeff Lanam 86 170 0 0 170 13 Brosseau & Gentry 87 160 0 0 160 13 Robert Lewis 91 170 0 10 160 15 Conway 86 150 0 0 150 16 Finch, et al 91 150 0 10 140 17 Nancy Lindeman 84 120 0 0 120 18 Nick Corsano, 93 140 0 30 110 Esther Heller 19 Devoy Group 92 140 30 (1) 20 90 19 Barbara Robben 90 90 0 0 90 21 Pierre Delforge 70 80 0 0 80 22 Crooks 92 90 0 20 70 23 Mighty Santa Hats 107 180 0 170 10 _______________
Comments on RouteGadget for This Event
Since this is a Score-O setup with no e-punch, RouteGadget only knows about the Start and Finish locations. All the control circles are included directly on the map image. When drawing your route, be sure to visit the Finish only when you have completed your route. That is, the blue line pointing to the Finish should follow you throughout your route.
You need to enter your name and total time in MMMSS format before drawing your route. For example, 89:52 is entered as 8952.
For the animation, each competitor's speed is averaged out over the whole length of their route. For Score-O this works out just fine as competitors often end up taking very different routes anyway.