Willow Glen Holiday Lights 2010

By Brad Wetmore

The second annual BAOC invasion of the Willow Glen neighborhood was another success — at least from the positive comments I've received so far: "BEAUTIFUL!" "INCREDIBLE LIGHTS!" "CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT YEAR!" If you had been following the weather reports from the previous week, you were probably expecting a soggy event, but the weather really cooperated for the entire day. Even with the threat of rain, I was pleasantly surprised that so many braved the possible inclement weather. We tried not to disappoint with the both the courses and potluck dinner.

The Holiday Lights were, of course, the biggest draw. This year, there were 60 controls spread throughout a large area. This year's 90-minute division winner Rex Winterbottom visited 45, and got the extra-credit question correct for a grand total of 460 points. He avoided many of the outlying control clusters I added to draw people away from an optimum route. Kyle Peter gave Rex a run for his money, but returned 8 minutes late and ended up 100 points behind Rex. The Mighty Santa Hats knew they were "a little late" in returning, but were having too much fun looking at the lights! At least they stayed in positive numbers!

In the 60-minute division, Jay Hahn (140 points) narrowly bested both Steve Harrison and the team of Trinka Gillis/Bjorn Widerstrom (120 points). Jay had also put on the Vasona Park event earlier in the day, which made for a full day of navigation for the club.

I really wanted both runners and walkers to enjoy the evening, and put a number of controls right by the event center. Every team visited at least 8 controls.

The Extra Credit question was designed to see who was paying attention to their map or compass. At control 28, there was a directional sign pointing to the North Pole, and the question was "What direction is the North Pole from here?" The answer was South, which had me chuckling when setting the rest of the course.

There were some penalties assessed for incorrect answers. One team reported they visited control 81 (bird under the basketball hoop), but none of the given answers matched. After they described what they had seen, I returned to the control area, and it appears they visited the house directly across the street and not the correct control. There was another answer that had two answers circled, but we couldn't determine which was the intended answer. One team apparently had the wrong question circled: the control marked was not near any of the other controls they visited.

As with any event, there were a couple of things we can do better for next year. I didn't keep track of the seconds, so in a couple of cases, we had to declare a tie. We will also use a digital clock, as it was somewhat difficult to read the minutes on the clock at the event center.

If you can, please add your courses to RouteGadget. It's very educational for me to see how people approached the courses.

Following the courses, the club sat down to our annual potluck dinner. Event Director Nancy Lindeman did a great job of organizing a wide variety of salads, entrees, and desserts, and she had several hot drink options available for those who needed a little warming. Following dinner, Club President Trinka Gillis finally began the announcement of the 2010 BAOC Club Service Award winner. She kept the crowd in suspense by listing the many behind-the-scenes accomplishments of this year's award winner, Chuck Spalding.

Many thanks to everyone who helped put on this year's event:

• Event Director: Nancy Lindeman
• Map Printing: Bob Cooley
• Registration: Trinka Gillis and Chuck Spalding
• Finishes: Chuck Spalding
• Scoring: Jim Fish and Trinka Gillis

Apologies if I've forgotten anyone!

-- Penalties --    Final
Pl  Name(s)                Time   Raw Score  Incorrect  Late    Score

1  Jay Hann                57       140         0         0     140
2  Steve Harrison          61       130         0        10     120
2  Trinka Gillis,          60       120         0         0     120
     Bjorn Widerstrom
4  Speed Racer             62        90         0        20      70
5  Jane Melia              64        80         0        40      40
5  Medha Somayoyi,         64        80         0        40      40
     Gabrielle DelForge

90-Minute Division

-- Penalties --    Final
Pl  Name(s)                Time   Raw Score  Incorrect  Late    Score

1  Rex Winterbottom        88       460         0         0     460
    2  Kyle Peter              98       440         0        80     360
    3  Steve Haas              90       330         0         0     330
    4  Jeremy Gabe,            86       320         0         0     320
         Rob Slolberg
    5  Jason Reed              92       390        60 (2)    20     310
    6  Tina Le                 91       290         0        10     280
    7  Penny DeMoss            89       270        30 (1)     0     240
    8  Mark Blair              87       230         0         0     230
    9  Erika Kikuchi           91       230         0        10     220
   10  Gee & Graham            85       200         0         0     200
   11  Blonstein Group         81       170         0         0     170
   11  Jeff Lanam              86       170         0         0     170
   13  Brosseau & Gentry       87       160         0         0     160
   13  Robert Lewis            91       170         0        10     160
   15  Conway                  86       150         0         0     150
   16  Finch, et al            91       150         0        10     140
   17  Nancy Lindeman          84       120         0         0     120
   18  Nick Corsano,           93       140         0        30     110
         Esther Heller
   19  Devoy Group             92       140        30 (1)    20      90
   19  Barbara Robben          90        90         0         0      90
   21  Pierre Delforge         70        80         0         0      80
   22  Crooks                  92        90         0        20      70
   23  Mighty Santa Hats      107       180         0       170      10

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Comments on RouteGadget for This Event

Since this is a Score-O setup with no e-punch, RouteGadget only knows about the Start and Finish locations. All the control circles are included directly on the map image. When drawing your route, be sure to visit the Finish only when you have completed your route. That is, the blue line pointing to the Finish should follow you throughout your route.

You need to enter your name and total time in MMMSS format before drawing your route. For example, 89:52 is entered as 8952.

For the animation, each competitor's speed is averaged out over the whole length of their route. For Score-O this works out just fine as competitors often end up taking very different routes anyway.