The Schedule ↑
The Summer Series will include the following events:
- June 2: U.C. Berkeley Campus, Berkeley
- June 16: Oyster Bay, San Leandro
- July 7: Presidio of San Francisco (Fort Scott), San Francisco
- July 21: Mills College, Oakland
- August 11: Diablo Valley College, Pleasant Hill
- August 25: Bedwell Bayfront Park, Menlo Park
Note: The July 21st event was originally planned for Golden Gate Park, but that permit could not be obtained. Thanks to the scrambling of our Event Coordinators, we were able to have the event at Mills College that day.
Note to Beginners ↑
BAOC welcomes beginners to events with "clinics" that introduce orienteering and with "beginner" courses. We hope you will come to one or more of the Summer Series events (there is no requirement to attend all the events), and/or to our "regular" events listed in the schedule.
Important Note to All ↑
Everyone must observe out-of-bounds areas indicated on the maps. Please note, in particular, that olive-green areas are out of bounds.
Failure to stay out of out-of-bounds areas could jeopardize our ability to get permission to hold events at the venue, as well as being unfair to those participants who go around the areas.
Some of the events will use maps with ISSOM (International Standard for Sprint Orienteering Maps) symbols, which indicate impassible features like buildings, fences, vegetation, and walls. Note that the rules forbid crossing (including reaching over or through) any feature shown on the map as "impassible", even if it's physically possible to cross.
Scoring and Awards ↑
To make things a little more interesting, participants can accumulate points throughout the series based on their results. Some of the best minds in the world's greatest database companies, and in the nation's finest research labs have deliberated carefully, and arrived at a scoring system for the Summer Series. (It's the same system that was used in 2017 and last year, crafted by François and Dennis.)
The scoring system for the Summer Series will combine all participants into one category by making adjustments, based on age and gender, to each person's performance. The person with the best adjusted performance in a given race will be awarded 1000 points. Everyone else will be awarded points in proportion to how their own adjusted performance compares to that of the person given 1000 points.
At each event in the Series, there will be an identified ranking course, which will be used for scoring. The other course(s) offered at the event will have no affect on the Series scoring.
Here are the details.
- We will use tables developed by USA Track and Field that make adjustments to 10 km road-race times based on age and gender.
- Each participant in the Summer Series has a fixed reference time based on those tables.
- For a given race, each person's adjusted performance ratio is calculated as their actual time for that race divided by their reference time.
- The person with the best adjusted performance ratio for the day is the leader and is awarded 1000 points.
- For anyone else, their point score is the leader's adjusted performance ratio divided by their own adjusted performance ratio, then multiplied by 1000, and rounded off to the nearest whole number.
This means it is possible for someone who finishes with the slowest legal time in a race to still have the highest point score for the day. So, don't give up!
Now that you've studied the methodology for scoring in minute detail, perhaps an example is in order.
Suppose there is an event with just three people: a 45-year-old male who we'll call "F"; a 70-year-old male called "D", and a 25-year-old female called "T". Suppose their times on the course are as follows:
F 45:51
T 49:30
D 57:20
Given their ages and genders, their reference times are as follows.
F 28:50
T 30:20
D 36:09
Dividing course time by reference time gives the adjusted performance ratios for the course:
F 1.59017
T 1.63187
D 1.58598
So, D is the leader (despite having the slowest time) and gets 1000 points. To get the points for the others, divide their ratios into D's, multiply by 1000, and you get F with 997 points and T with 972.
Conclusion: If you want to win in the Summer Series, either (a) get fast, or (b) get old fast.
By popular demand, final standings will be based on each person's four best scores in the six-event Series.
For the record, note that François Léonard is the Official Scorer, so all queries and compliments should go to him. Complaints should be sent to DeptOfComplaints@whitehouse.gov (Good luck with that!).
We need to know everyone's age in order to make these calculations. As usual, your orienteering age is your age at the end of the calendar year. So what we really want is your year of birth. There will be sign-up sheets at either registration or at the E-punch download at each event. Please put down your name and year of birth.
Some "fine print":
- Everyone who has a valid finish for that day's full ranking course will be awarded points (except group entries will not earn points). However, to be eligible for the cumulative awards, you must be a BAOC member in good standing as of the date of the final event of the series.
- If you don't tell us your year of birth, we will assume you are a 21-year-old male. If you like that idea better than you like getting more points, well, that's up to you.
- If we find out your age after some of the point calculations have been made, we will try to go back and recalculate your point scores for the earlier events. In no case, though, will such retroactive point adjustments exceed 1000 points for a given race. (In other words, if you don't tell us your year of birth in time, and you should have been the leader that day, you won't quite get all the credit you might have gotten.)
- Course Setters for events in the Series will be given points for their own event equal to their best other point score in the series. Event Directors (some of whom may be able to run in their own event) will be given the higher of (a) their actual score in the event or (b) their best other point score in the series.