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Presidio of San Francisco, Main Post

Date: (Sat.) Feb. 16, 2019
Location: San Francisco, CA
Event Director: - 415.566.7990
Course Setter: Vladimir Gusiatnikov
Type: C; Sprint event, and beginner’s course, at this popular park


Course Setter's Notes

By Vladimir Gusiatnikov

Three courses have been planned; the Prologue and the Chase are of the Sprint format, while the Beginners' course is a White. The Prologue, measured around impassable obstacles, is 3.4 km with 15 controls and 60 m climb. Don't let the extra length bother you​—​the newest IOF standard requires that the distance supplied be the shortest possible while going around the impassables. As the crow flies (if a crow flies into an impassable wall, what does the crow say?), the course is closer to the usual just-under-3-km. The Chase is similar​—​3.5 km (measured around impassable obstacles) with 17 controls and 45 m climb.

The map is a 2016 ISSOM product by Matej Å ebo. It's a fine map. I updated it just enough for the event to be fair. Most importantly:

  1. Know and study your ISSOM uncrossables. If I feel like it, I'll go out there and enforce. If I see you doing very ... bad ... things in the Prologue, you'll get a DNF and start the Chase at 13:30, with 30 minutes allowed for your course until closing time. If that happens in the Chase, well, you are just DNF.
  2. The mapper preferred the "fourth-green" symbol over the olive-green. It's still uncrossable. The darkest-color green is not allowed to be crossed. Physically, it sometimes is crossable; usually it is not. How can you tell the fourth-green from the third-green? Don't. Treat all dark green as no-go.
  3. Some of the gaps between uncrossables on this map seem just under the minimum regulation; it is also definitely true that some of the fourth-green fingers are narrower than the minimum that the standard requires. The olive-green is more compliant. If you see a thin green line, usually going along a path or another linear feature, assume it's not crossable. If you just couldn't see it on the map ... well ... we'll deal with it as we go.
  4. There is car traffic. Be safe; also, mind your direction as you weave among parked cars, and as you pick a good place to cross a street with traffic. Check your compass/location upon exit.
  5. Footwear/pantswear: Both the Prologue and the Chase are ... fifty-fifty. I personally have separate "Forest Sprint" and "Urban Sprint" shoes, and with this one, I am puzzled as to what to optimize for. There is no mud, the ground in the "woods" is solid; at the same time, there is plenty of grass in various degrees of wilderness. One thing for certain, you will want long pants and/or gaiters even if you never go through any green.

That's all for now!