Almost 150 people came out to enjoy the first day of spring at our Knowland Park event. It's a beautiful close-in area with green hills, wildflowers, and views of the bay. Thanks for coming out to spend the day with us.
Many people who came to the event had never been to Knowland Park before, and had never even heard about it before.
Thanks to Rex Winterbottom, who suggested to the BAOC board that we map this area, and thanks to Bob Cooley for making the map. Bob expanded the map this year so we could offer a Brown course this time.
So many people ran more than one course that we ran out of maps on Orange and Brown, even though we checked the numbers from our last event at Knowland Park and had Bob print many more maps this time. I guess that Jim's warning about the poison oak on the Brown course didn't scare people off. We did have plenty of White, Yellow, and Sprint maps left. Registration, the Start, and the Finish were all in the same place, so it was easy to run another course that day.
After setting some of the courses for Joe Grant just the week before this event, Jim Fish set all five courses and put out all the controls! Thanks Jim.
James Wilson handled the registration the whole time by himself! Thanks James. Many of the BAOC members used the self-registration box, but I noticed that some members had to go though the regular registration process because they needed to rent e-sticks. Some people took advantage of the day's offer for BAOC members to bring one or two newcomers to try orienteering for free. Five individuals or families joined the club that day.
Thanks to everyone that helped out at this event.
Early in the morning the day of the event, while Jim was out setting out the last controls, I was very happy to see Jay Hann and Greg Ehrensing show up to help me set everything up! Jim Fish came back to help and James Wilson was there early to set up registration, so we were ready when the first people walked up the hill!
At the end of the day, it seemed like everyone that was still there started pitching in to load everything into the cars. Thanks.
Everything was great until we ran out maps for the Orange and Brown courses. I'm always the one that says that we should print extra maps and never run out of maps, so I hated to have it happen at my event. I'm sorry. People that finished shared their maps, so everyone got to go out on their course. Bob printed out extra maps of the Brown and Orange courses after the event, so let me know if you want one.
The GeBe Printer was "acting up", and Jim had to spend quite a bit of time working on the results.
Tapio Karras put this event on RouteGadget, and I noticed that 11 of the brown runners have entered their routes. Thanks Tapio for taking the time to do this for this event and other events.
Also, I wanted to mention that Alex Finch and the regional event coordinators do quite a bit of work behind the scenes working to schedule the events. Thanks. I know it's not easy, but we do appreciate your hard work.
Dr. Joel Parrott, the director of the Oakland Zoo, made it so easy to schedule and reschedule the event. At so many of our venues, we wait and wait to get permission, but for Knowland Park I was able to get permission within 24 hours!
Jorge Urbina from the Oakland Zoo was very cooperative in opening the gate for the toilet delivery on Friday, control placement on Saturday, and for our event on Sunday.
Dina from Far West Sanitation worked with me to be sure that the toilet was placed in the right place. To make up for the toilet being placed over off Golf Links Road last time by mistake, where we couldn't use it, they gave us two toilets this time.
Thanks
Helping to schedule the event – Alex Finch and Steve Gregg
Vetting the courses – Bruce Wolfe
Making the map, enlarging the map this year, and printing the maps – Bob Cooley
Web updates – Chuck Spalding
Set-up – Jay Hann and Greg Ehrensing
Starts – Maria Keating, Chuck Spalding, and Greg Ehrensing
Intermediate Clinic and follow-up – Rex Winterbottom
Scout Clinic – Steve and David Harrison
Beginner clinics – Johanna Merriss and Judy Koehler
Registration – James Wilson
Greeter at registration – Judy Koehler
E-punch crew – Jim Fish and Don Gee
Control Pickup – Peter Graube (coordinator), Chuck Spalding, Mark Blair, Steve Hass, Scott Novotny, John and Elizabeth Wilson
Tear down and clean-up – Wes Erek, Rex Winterbottom, Dennis Wilkinson, Mark Blair, Don Gee, and many others
Results – Jim Fish with help from Mark Blair and Chuck Spalding
Putting the courses on RouteGadget – Tapio Karras
Thanks to everyone else who pitched in to help when they saw a need. I really appreciated all the help!
Intermediate Workshop
Here are links to the literature we used for some of the intermediate pointers:
RouteGadget