By Scott Aster

Well, we held the first event at Spring Lake in five years last weekend, and it had its ups and downs.

The weather was cool, with the sun not coming out until about 1 PM, which was great for runners. All in all, people seemed to enjoy getting back onto the very unusual and non-Bay Area type terrain, i.e., the extensive exposed rock and pit-and-ridge system. There is an amazing amount of detail on the map, which makes it far more interesting (in my opinion), than our other, urban/semi-urban parks.

I could have called the event a success, except that I mis-hung two controls on the "adventure" course, causing all sorts of problems for participants. I had to hang all the controls the morning of the event (park rules), and obviously didn't do so carefully enough in my haste to get them all hung in time. Bill Cusworth went out and corrected the two controls, but not until after more than half of the participants had already been affected by my errors. I appreciated that everyone seemed to not be too bothered by this problem, but the event would have been a very good one had it not been for my failures!

The event was as successful as it was only thanks to the great help I received!

• Jay Hann, handled E-punch all day, and even helped me pick up controls at the end of the day.
• Bill Cusworth gave beginner clinics in the morning, replaced the two "problem" controls, and then went out and picked up the five toughest (to reach) controls at the end of the day.
• Mark and Mel, locals who have been coming out to Spring Lake events since the 90s, volunteered to set up and run the early starts.
• Johanna Merris helped me out a lot by hanging the last four controls for me in the morning (and she placed them correctly!).
• Steve Haas came up from the South Bay to do registration.

The results are available below.

I'm looking forward to a much better event at Spring Lake next year!

Editor's note: Scott failed to mention that the event's "Cinco de Mayo flavor" was created by small sombreros on the Start and Finish E-punch units. 🙂

White Course         (2.2 km, 30 m climb, 7 controls)  
                                                              Time
   Pl  Name                    Club        Time    Behind     Lost
    1  Matt Parks                          42:37              0:00

Yellow Course        (3.0 km, 60 m climb, 11 controls)  
                                                              Time
   Pl  Name                    Club        Time    Behind     Lost
    1  Stefan Kinell       IFK Göteborg    20:29              1:18  2nd course  
    2  Hideharu Tanaka         QOC         37:16    16:47     5:29  2nd course
    3  Marsha Jacobs           GCO       1:07:17    46:48     6:43
    4  Rutwik Patel                      1:12:48    52:19    37:51
    5  Wabbits                           1:31:51    71:22    23:45
    6  Matt Parks                        1:49:54    89:25    41:12  2nd course
    7  Alison Phillips                   1:57:36    97:07    52:43
    8  Nancy Lindeman          BAOC      2:58:05   157:36    60:06
       Judy Koehler            BAOC        DNF                       
       Mark Burchill                       DNF   
       Payton Strom                        DNF

Adventure Course     (4.9 km, 125 m climb, 14 controls)  
                                                              Time
   Pl  Name(s)                 Club        Time    Behind     Lost
    1  Bill Cusworth           NAVX        49:37              1:34  
    2  Anastasiya Gordeeva     BAOC        55:31     5:54     4:00
    3  Tobias Toernqvist       BAOC        56:33     6:56     5:26
    4  Stefan Kinell       IFK Göteborg    59:38    10:01    19:33
    5  François Léonard        BAOC      1:01:43    12:06     9:13
    6  Deron van Hoff          BAOC      1:05:15    15:38    11:16
    7  Marie-Josée Parayre     BAOC      1:14:34    24:57    14:33
    8  Chuck Spalding          BAOC      1:17:27    27:50    15:57
    9  Lori Huberman           BAOC      1:18:29    28:52    18:56
   10  Matthias Kohler         BAOC      1:23:51    34:14     1:38
   11  Russell Green           BAOC      1:31:46    42:09     4:33
   12  George Minarik          BAOC      1:37:18    47:41     8:31
   13  Hideharu Tanaka         QOC       1:39:46    50:09    27:07
   14  Steve Haas              BAOC      1:43:39    54:02    29:44
   15  Randy Robinson          GCO       2:07:10    77:33    32:46
   16  Johanna Merriss         BAOC      2:20:42    91:05    19:25
   17  Ahbeck                  BAOC      2:35:05   105:28    54:19
   18  Leslie Minarik          BAOC      2:40:36   110:59    51:16
   19  Tom & Judy Cronin       BAOC      2:44:32   114:55    23:48
       Bill Murphy             BAOC        DNF                       
       Jennifer Kerr           GCO         DNF
       Linus Toernqvist        BAOC        DNF
       Robert & Debra                      DNF