By Mark Blair
It was a dark and stormy, uh, day and ... Oh come on. Ahem. Let's try that again.
After being cooped indoors by three days of Spring rain, an astonishing 214 people apparently decided they could no longer stand it, and headed to Sunol Regional Wilderness for the BAOC event on March 20, even though intermittent showers continued to drench the Bay Area that morning. As it turned out, rain at the park was only brief and spotty during the morning, but shortly after noon it began to pour steadily, and many folks ended up their courses with a good soaking. Even so, the early wildflowers were spectacular, and damp smiles were seen on almost every face.
Except for the Rogaine put on by Harold and Penny DeMoss last year, we always set the "standard 8" point-to-point courses at Sunol. And that's what we did this year. The White and Yellow courses traversed the central flat area between the two major bridges, with the Yellow course venturing into the surrounding hills a bit. Participants on the Orange, Long Orange, and advanced courses were sent on a half-hour uphill trudge to a remote start from which they then had the pleasure of cruising mainly downhill on their courses to a finish back at the point where they'd started their hike.
On the White course, the top three finishing teams were (I believe) all from a group of about 20 Boy Scouts who had told me they planned to come. Their times were very close, with Robert Gibson and Jay Van Syoc finishing first, followed by Jonathan Chiappa, then Matt Walsh and Josh Luther. The Yellow course was a bit tougher than usual. But that didn't stop the winner Joe Maffei from buzzing through it in a mere 37 minutes. Only a minute behind him was Daniel Kopisch, shadowed by his dad and longtime BAOC member Manfred Kopisch. Finishing third with her companion Vince Witwer was BAOC's sweetheart Anneliese Steuben, who is still hobbled by a ligament problem that we all hope continues to improve.
John Turner loved the 43 minutes he spent blitzing all his competition on the Orange course so much that he then ran the Yellow course and nearly won that one too. Trevor Swallow and Gary Martinez finished second and third on Orange. The long version of the Orange course, designed with adventure racers in mind, went considerably north of the remote start to the other side of Welch Creek Road before heading back downhill toward the finish. But Roy Malone somehow managed to blast through it in 52 minutes, winning the Long Orange course easily. I think Roy may be ready for advanced-course duty. Thomas Bastis sped to second place in just over an hour, and Jake Niebaum bagged third place.
Competitors on the advanced courses reported them to be somewhat easier than usual. Times on all these courses were indeed a bit shorter, and more tightly spaced, than we typically see. But diabolical course setter Gary Carpenter had thrown them all a curve: In BAOC local events, the middle portion of the four advanced courses is almost always shared by all those courses. Based on a suggestion by Kelly Wells, Gary had forked this common portion to four different, but closely spaced, control points for the four different courses in a delightfully technical little area of the Sunol map. (No USOF control-separation regulations were violated.) Apparently a couple of our expert navigators were tripped up by this little gambit.
On the Brown course, Dennis "I Live To Sprint" Wildfogel did exactly that to top the finish list with an impressive time of 34 minutes. But this was no shoo-in; second place finisher Mikkel Conradi was only a minute behind. In third place was BAOC veteran Gary Kraght. After accompanying his son on the Yellow course, Manfred Kopisch set a good example by winning the Green course. He was followed by Chris Roper, and 40 seconds later by BAOC's own master of the bovine lullaby, George Minarik. (When I tried George's technique of serenading feisty cattle to calm them, they did retreat a little but did not seem to be registering what I would call contentment. I guess George just has "the gift".) Something truly amazing happened on the Red course when Pierre Delforge, an apparent newcomer to BAOC, blistered his way across the finish line in an incredible 49 minutes, beating all other competitors by at least 13 minutes. But this was a good race: The next five finishers were all spaced only about a minute apart, starting with top-notch BAOC regulars Tapio Karras and Bruce Wolfe in second and third place. On the Blue course, three familiar BAOC pros Syd Reader, Francois Leonard, and Doug Stein flew over the terrain to finish 1, 2, 3 in close times just over an hour.
Oh my God! This humble author has just discovered that Mikkel Conradi, who almost beat professional sprinter Dennis Wildfogel on the Brown course, had apparently already run the Blue course and finished fourth, just a few minutes behind Doug Stein. What an animal!
My army of volunteers deserves special appreciation, not only for the tasks they performed, but for performing those tasks in the relentless rain that made event operations difficult for everyone. James Wilson handled the overwhelming crowds that showed up early at Registration and was aided by Peter Graube who stepped forward on the spot to help him. Terry Farrah took over the Registration later on. Chuck Spalding and Francois Leonard ran the White and Yellow course starts. Special thanks to Marie-Josee Parayre for helping out before Chuck arrived. Steve Gregg educated the masses with his beginner's clinics. Matthias Kohler and Gavin Wyatt-Mair manned the finish line. Many thanks to Bob Cooley, not only for keeping the maps in good supply, but also for stepping in to help at the finish line when it was badly needed. E-Punch is a particularly labor-intensive operation that functioned smoothly all day long due to the efforts of Trinka Gillis, Evan Custer, Jeff Lanam, and Tony Pinkham. Galena Shakhnovsky helped me process White/Yellow results. Jim Fish and Bob Heady helped put up and take down tents. And Jim, along with Harold & Penny DeMoss, Bob Cooley, Marina Keating, and Joe Maffei marched out into the steady rain at the end of the event to pick up controls.
Finally, I'd like to shine the light on industrious Sunol course setter Gary Carpenter, who was always one step ahead of the game. Gary designed and set the Orange, Long Orange, and all the advanced courses. He also worked the remote start all day long at the event, and picked up the farthest controls.
Thanks for coming, all participants and volunteers. Stay dry and we'll try to drench you with sun instead of rain at Sunol next year.