Point Pinole Regional Shoreline
Date: (Sun.) Apr. 21, 2013
Location: Richmond, CA
Event Director: 
- 925.862.2978
Course Setter: Steve Gregg
Type: C; Annual sprint event, with a THOMASS course again this year, plus point-to-point beginner and intermediate courses — BAOC Annual General Meeting including officer elections
Course Setter's Notes
By
Once again, the "main event" at Point Pinole this year will be what the Canadians call a Thomass course. A Thomass race is a mass-start event in which all runners compete on the same course. However, in the middle of the regular course there is a Score-O section called the Thomass Box, in which runners may take the controls in any order, and in which the number of controls you must find depends on your age and sex. The details of the course are almost exactly the same as last year, and are given below:
- There will be a mass start at 11:30 AM for all runners interested in competing in the Thomass event.
- Right before the mass start, all runners will be given a map case with two maps inside, both facing outwards. Runners who do not like running with their maps in a case will have to figure out for themselves how to carry two different maps with them during the race. Both maps will be printed at 1:5000 scale, with 2.5-meter contours.
- One of these maps is the regular orienteering course, for which all the controls must be taken in order.
- The other map is the Thomass Box, which is the Score-O course.
- When the race begins, all runners will find controls #1 through #3 on the regular orienteering course, in order.
- After punching control #3, runners will flip over to the Thomass Box (Score-O) map, which will contain ten controls. (Control #3 on the regular course is shown on the Score-O map as the Start.) Runners must find 2, 4, 6, 8, or all 10 of the controls, based on their age and sex. Here are the age and sex categories:
Gender & Age Controls
M21–39  All 10
M16–20, M40–49  Any 8
F21–39, M50–59 Any 6
F16–20, F40–49 Any 4
M1–15, M60–64 Any 4
Everyone else Any 2
- After finding the required number of Thomass Box controls, all runners will then punch the "Finish" on the Thomass Box map, which is control #4 back on the regular orienteering course, and then proceed to find the rest of the controls on the regular course in order to the Finish. First across the Finish line wins!
Your total running distance will be somewhere between 3.6 km and 5.0 km, depending on how many controls you have to find in the box. On the top end, this total running distance is almost a kilometer shorter than last year, which means that the club's younger runners will have a better chance of crossing the Finish line in first place.
For beginners and others not interested in the Thomass course, there will also be regular White, Yellow, and Orange courses at the event. For these courses, all the controls must be visited in order, as usual. The maps will be printed at 1:5000 scale. Here are the details of those courses:
Course Length Climb Controls
White 3.2 km 55 m 13 Yellow/Scout/JROTC 3.0 km 60 m 12 Orange 3.6 km 80 m 16
Due to this winter's record-low rainfall, there is virtually no standing water in the park, so for once, you will not have to worry about unmapped swamps, or even about getting your feet wet. However, the open fields are still covered in tall grass, and between that, the uneven footing, and the fallen eucalyptus trees, I suggest you run with cleated shoes or spikes.
There is a significant amount of poison oak in some of the forested regions of the park. The courses stay out of this area for the most part this year, but there are one or two controls on the Orange and the Thomass courses where you will have to make detours from the most direct route to the controls if you want to completely avoid the stuff. You'll be able to easily avoid the largest clusters, but you might not even notice the individual ankle- to shin-high shoots until you have already run through them. So if you are very sensitive to poison oak, be sure to take the usual precautions.