The first rains of the season arrived just days before our 19th annual Golden Goat. The showers settled the trail dust and softened the ground ever-so-slightly, but the threatening clouds vanished overnight leaving sunny skies and cool, crisp autumn air at the Morgan Territory Regional Preserve, north of Livermore California. Nearly 100 runners showed up for the end-of-year orienteering endurance event that featured three course choices this year: a rugged 12.6 km Golden Goat, a 7.8 km Golden Kid, and a beginner-friendly 4.8 km Golden Pygmy Goat.
The Pygmy Goat, set by Katie Petersen, provided runners with a kinder, gentler Goat experience featuring somewhat less challenging terrain and navigation, but still offering a long, hard run nevertheless. Martin Kunz, the Goat and Kid course-setter, made strategic use of some of the finest orienteering terrain in Northern California to break up the mob leaving the mass start. The early legs of the Goat and Kid courses were long and rugged. The runners were later split up by "butterfly" loops sending half the pack clockwise, and the other half counter-clockwise through the same series of controls. Near the end, runners were offered a "forked control" choice to further separate them. The design was evidently effective as soundly-exhausted finishers returned at widely spaced intervals. BAOC Goat veteran Tapio Karras remarked that this was his "Loneliest Goat" (wasn't that a song by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass?).
The winner of the Golden Goat was Mikkel Conradi with a finishing time of 1:46:29. Mikkel was followed by Matej Šebo arriving about 4½ minutes later. Tori Borish was the first woman runner, with a time of 2:18:47. Fillan Swift was the first finisher on the Kid course, with an impressive time of 1:09:02, followed by first woman runner Nadja Rutz (BAOC visitor from Switzerland) in 1:12:30. Julia Doubson dominated the Pygmy Goat with a blistering time of 32:19 (which translates to a 6.3 min/km pace!), with second place going to Daniel Šebo, who finished at the head of a tight pack in 43:51.
Top male and female runners in each of the three courses were honored with their choice of prizes: Bottles of "Flying Goat" Pinot Gris (photo ID required), the ever-popular "Goats in Trees" 2015 calendars, Goat Milk Bath Soap, or Pygmy Goat Christmas ornaments.
We also want to mention that the winners of the spirited "underground" competition for fastest time from the last ("GO") control to the Finish (in this case, a brutal uphill leg complicated by a cattle gate) was a tie between Gavin Williams and Katie Petersen at 45 seconds.
We are most grateful for the assistance of the many dedicated BAOC club members who helped in the 2014 Goat. The courses by Martin Kunz and Katie Petersen were well-planned and well-received (dare we say, enjoyed?). We also would very much like to thank: Marie-Josée Parayre and François Léonard for vetting the Goat and Kid courses; Martin Kunz (again) for setting and later collecting controls and running the Goat & Kid starts; Chuck Spalding for "real-time" updating of the BAOC event website; Bob Cooley for publishing course maps and helping us get into the equipment storage locker(!); Jeff Lanam for full-time staffing of the E-punch downloads and results operations and posting times on-line; Mark Blair for assisting with E-punch & results; Steve Haas for registration of the mass-start mob; Sarah Petersen for Pygmy course vetting, registration assistance, and control pickup; and Matej Šebo, Gavin Williams, and Katie Petersen for control pickup. A special thanks goes to Ranger Patrick McIntyre and the East Bay Regional Park District for assisting us in procuring park access, and for allowing the club use of this wilderness oasis so near our Urban Jungle.
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