By Vicki Woolworth (Regional Event Coordinator — East Bay)
When it rains, it pours; and when it stops raining everyone wants to get outside and have some fun. So when it cleared up on Sunday, many more than expected made it to the meet at Shell Ridge — with the unfortunate consequence of map shortages. About 175 people attended the event, including 74 attempting some very physically challenging advanced courses, and 24 COOL competitors.
Francois Leonard finished first on the Blue course, twenty minutes ahead of Piers Newbery and Rex Winterbottom. On the Red course, Rebecca Minty beat out both Tapio Karras and Steve Gregg. Peter Graham finished first on Green, followed by Dan Greene and Matej Sebo (a junior from SDO); 4th through 7th places were tightly clustered within 2 minutes. Brown was led by Ingvard Jakobsen, with Bill Follette and Hani and Gwen Juha not far behind. The fastest on Orange was Joe Knapp, then the team of Brent and Matt Adams, with Harold DeMoss not far behind. On Yellow, veteran Gary Kraght edged out COOL runners William Morris and Gavin Williams. White was led yet again by the elementary-school girls: Julia Doubson came in first, followed by Hannah Kopisch and Natalie Kim.
A consequence of running out of Brown maps was that some folks ran Green instead. This probably caused some extra DNFs on the Green course. The courses were designed to have winning times of W-20, Y-30, O-50, Br-60, G-70, R-70 and Bl-70 minutes ±10%. All the courses were in range except Brown, which was probably a bit too physical. The running conditions were excellent, as demonstrated by Francois' awesome 65-minute run on Blue.
One thing to note, especially for COOL runners, is that there is a big increase in difficulty when going from the Yellow to the Orange course. The Shell Ridge Orange course provided a Yellow-navigational-level trail option for about 90% of the course, but taking the trails was definitely not the fastest choice. Once a runner ventures off-trail, navigation becomes much more important, and much more difficult.
As usual, it took many human-hours to make this happen, and I am grateful for all who helped. Jay Hann initially got this meet going by scheduling a COOL event, which then evolved into a B-event when Gavin Wyatt-Mair offered to set a full range of courses. Gavin spent many hours in the rainy season designing and checking courses on an aging map. Jay attended to many details, helping set out controls, coordinating COOL activities, setting up the registration/download area, and making his famous nachos. Middle-school COOL competitor William Morris set the White course, and is looking forward to setting both White and Yellow next year when he moves up to Orange as his competitive course. William also helped set up the Finish area, and not only climbed the hill once more after his run to take over at the Start, but also took down the Start equipment with the help of his dad David Morris.
Despite the unexpected crowds, our volunteers kept things running. Scott Aster ably handled starts at the crest of the ridge. Beginners' clinics were held by Rex Winterbottom, with Nancy Lindeman stepping in to help. Rex also brought goodies, which were greatly appreciated. Rosemary Johnson not only set up the e-punch equipment and ran the download table when she returned from her run, but also posted results that very night. Greg Ehrensing and Wes Erck also helped out at e-punch. For registration, once James Wilson got things set up, Kevin Walker jumped in to help and kept things going until Ben Legg and Jim Fish were able to take over. Bob Cooley printed maps both before and during the meet. Control pick-up was again coordinated by Penny and Harold DeMoss; the team included Jim Fish, Theo Verhoeven, Mark Blair, Steve Haas, Steve Gregg, Scott Novotny, Peter Graube, Nancy Lindeman, Kathie Wiegant, and Max Wiegant. Ranger Dan Bylin helped arrange for the permit; thanks are due to him and the City of Walnut Creek for the use of this beautiful open space.
Apologies for running out of Brown course maps and running low on Yellow, I should have checked on supplies as the registrations came in. Experience — it's what you get just after you need it.
Lost and Found
Some items are from previous meets. Let me know if you know anything about any of these:
Empyre olive green acrylic knit hat
Red nalgene water bottle, 16 oz, "Life is Good"
Hello Kitty water bottle
Ecco running shoe (1) size 10.5 US 46M EU, gray with black and red
Gray wool(?) gloves with blue Brooks logo
Baseplate compass with magnifier
Fork
I'll try to make it to Bayfront Park, definitely to Pt Pinole; will bring the stuff
RouteGadget