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Diablo Valley College

Event #5 of 6 in the BAOC 2019 Summer Series

Date: (Sun.) Aug. 11, 2019
Location: Pleasant Hill, CA
Event Director: - 925.516.7622
Course Setter: François Léonard
Type: C; This event will be part of the 2019 Summer Series — one course for Beginners, who are very welcome, and one "advanced" course — the courses will be "easier" than usual because of the nature of the campus.

Related Event Information

Event Announcement 2019 Summer Series


Course Setter’s Notes

By François Léonard

Diablo Valley College is a small campus with many different features that make it an excellent Sprint venue. As such, the courses and the map will follow Sprint rules as described further below. The climb is minimal and consists of stairs and small inclines.

Safety Note: When driving into or out of the parking lots near the assembly area, please drive slowly and be aware that runners might be crossing your path. Runners should pay attention to vehicular traffic.

The Courses

Two courses are offered: a “beginner” course, and an “advanced” course. The course statistics are as follows: 

          Course      Length     Climb    Controls 
          Beginner    2.4 km    Minimal      14   
          Advanced    4.5 km    Minimal      29
Beginners should be aware that the lengths shown are the cumulative straight-line distances between controls. Your actual distance will be somewhat longer.

The Advanced course will be the ranking course for the Summer Series.

The controls will be set up to respond to SPORTident SIAC "contactless" electronic-punching fingersticks. That type of fingerstick will be available for rent at the event, but note that the charge for a lost stick will be $80, not the normal $25. (SPORTident SIAC fingersticks will also be available for purchase from Western Race Services for $80.)

Note that some electronic-punching finger sticks have a maximum capacity of 30 controls. The Advanced course has 29 controls to allow for one unintentional punch when a 30-control finger stick is used.

The Start and Finish are near the assembly area, with no climb.

Road-running shoes are best, since almost all the running is on pavement or hard surfaces. Metal studs are not allowed.

There will not be any water placed on the courses, so if you think you will need it, please carry it with you.

The Map

The map is quite good, and has been updated by several people through the years, particularly since the campus has undergone significant renovations. The map has also been updated by the course setter for this event. There are two areas under construction on the campus​—​these areas are bounded by fences, so they have been indicated with impassable fences on the map, filled in with the olive-green color (out of bounds).

There are sections of the map with multi-level buildings; the multiple levels are often indicated as grey areas (covered), sometimes combined with the dotted tunnel symbol to indicate that it is possible to run under. Stairs that link the different levels are mapped and can be useful. Note that there is only one control where knowing on which level the control is located is important. Since the map is not sufficient to distinguish which level, the “top” or “beneath” symbol is used.

Note that participants will need to deal with the multi-level structures more frequently than just at that control. Also, you may encounter doors and gates throughout the course. Don’t try to open the doors or gates​—​this is not allowed and will not help you even if you succeed. If you come to an open door/gate and are tempted to go through, read the map very carefully to make sure that it is permitted, i.e., remember that you cannot go through a building unless a passage is indicated on the map, or through a gate if it is indicated as impassable on the map. See further below for more details.

The map scale is 1:4000, and follows Sprint standards. Please note that means the following special rules apply at this event:

  • Anything on the map marked olive-green or with red/pink vertical lines is out of bounds, and must not be run across or through.
  • Linear, dark-green features are hedges, and must not be crossed.
  • As Dennis W. recently pointed out in this BayONet posting (https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/baoc/conversations/messages/15954), on a Sprint map, “certain objects (fences, walls, streams, ponds, hedge rows, flower beds) can be designated as uncrossable or impassable. In such instances, it means that you are forbidden to cross it, go through it, climb it, jump over it, crawl under it, reach over or through it, etc.” In other words, you must not cross those objects even if you are physically able to do so.
The International Specification for Sprint Orienteering Maps (ISSOM 2007) is available as this document (PDF/285KB).
By the way, a new edition of the Sprint Specification (ISSprOM 2019) will take effect January 1, 2020. (The new file on the IOF website is "huge"; a reasonable-size copy is available here [PDF/1.9MB].)

Another feature of Sprint maps is that a light-gray area in a (dark-gray) building indicates a covered passageway going through the building or underneath the edge of the building. Going through a light-gray area is permitted; going through a dark-gray area is not permitted.

Map Exchange for Advanced Course

Because of the small campus size, the Advanced course will be divided in two sections, printed on two separate maps. The first map will show the Start Triangle up to control 15 (inclusive). At control 15, the competitors will switch to the second map. That map will show controls 15 (inclusive) to the Finish. Competitors need to punch control 15 only once.

The second map will be available in two ways:

  1. At the Start, so that competitors can put both maps in the same map case; or
  2. At control 15, if competitors prefer to carry only one map.

In either case, it will be possible to discard the first map at the map switch (i.e., at control 15).