Discussion: Team Trials Sprint & Relay details for Sunday at Mills College
in: Run Black Diamond (Mar 21–23, 2014 - Concord, CA, US)
Mar 20, 2014 9:22 AM
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All event details are available at terraloco.com which has this published update on the event page.
-Rex
Mills Sprint & One Person Relay event update
Weather looks quite agreeable. It’s a nice, old campus, and we’re fortunate to have an event at a private college. Please be considerate of the campus population. The campus won’t be crowded Sunday, but you may surprise someone used to having a quiet walk around. Give a friendly verbal greeting and a wide enough berth. Many should know you are coming as I have asked the campus liaison to put out an APB about our presence (with a picture of a control flag, so they know what they’re for.) They know (and now you know) that the main grassy area is a good place to spectate both the sprint and one-person relay courses. Enjoy the venue and courses.
The map. Brand new. First usage. 1:5000, 2.5 meter contours, ISSOM standard. If you haven’t run on many “sprint maps” pay attention to:
1. Thick black lines are uncrossable fences or uncrossable walls. Even if you think you can cross them, they are mapped as uncrossable for a good reason, so don’t cross.
2. Olive green is used to show areas that are nicely landscaped and not to be trampled, and there may be other good reasons they were mapped as such. Go around any olive green.
3. Many buildings have covered passageways that you will go through. Buildings are mapped as dark grey and the passageways are light-grey.
The terrain. Part urban campus, part wild forest and grassland. A river (or creek) runs through it, which you may only cross via the bridges. They are mapped.
Gear up. For the sprint only, all participants would benefit from rubber-studded shoes to deal with a foresty hillside. Rubber studs are less necessary for the one-person relay but they help for it as well. Shorts are okay for both courses.
Hazards. Not too much traffic, but sometimes you will cross roadways open to vehicle traffic. No poison oak was spotted during mapping. Yay. Some of the covered passageways are tight - I had to duck a little bit. I am 6 feet 2 inches tall.
The creek. Did I mention you may only cross it on the bridges? Do not go up and down the embankments. The college forbids it.
Parking and registration. After passing through the entrance station (they might ask you what you are coming for), turn right and then turn right immediately again to park in the visitor lot. Walk back to the main campus road, and turn right, walking into campus. Haas Pavilion will be the first large building on the left. Go around the building to the back and enter a door and go down some stairs to room 8. It is about 300 meters from your parking spot to the registration room.
Warmup areas: You will receive a campus map at registration with some warmup areas marked. Do not go in the other areas. They are out of bounds unless you are on a course.
Start procedures: Standard call ups, be present 5 minutes before your scheduled start time. For team trial participants, both adult and juniors, your start time is your start time, even if you show up late. The start is a 300 meter walk from the event center.
Finish procedures: After you finish, you must go immediately to the download station at the registration center. After you finish the sprint, your map will be collected, and you may not return to the “active” area of the map (non-warmup area) unless you are not participating in the one-person relay. Sprint maps will be made available at the download station after the one-person relay has begun. The finish is a 500 meter walk from the event center.
Download procedures: Even if for some reason you don’t finish your course, report to the finish, and after you go to the finish, please go immediately back to the download station after you are done.
The courses.
Sprint M21 Blue 3.0 km, 23 controls, 80 meters climb
Sprint F21 Red 2.6 km, 21 controls, 75 meters climb
Sprint Masters/Juniors Green 2.2km, 19 controls, 60 meters climb
One Person Relay - Four loops - 24 permutations “A” through “X” - total 2.6km, 20 controls, 65 meters climb
“S” The Social Studies loop: 0.6km, 5 controls, 25 meters climb
“A” The Art loop: 0.7km, 4 controls, 10 meters climb
“C” The Clock Tower loop: 0.7km, 4 controls, 10 meters climb
“M” The Music loop: 0.6km, 4 controls, 20 meters climb
The extra 3 controls on the One Person Relay? There will be two controls at the Start/Finish to verify that you came back from each loop. On the last loop, just punch the Finish, you don’t have to punch the “loop delimiter control” again.
All 4 loops will be printed on your map. The order you do the loops will be marked very clearly. Again, there are 24 possible permutations of those 4 letters, and your map will have a big letter A through X which standards for one of those 24 loop orders. If you neglect to go in the correct loop order or forget to punch the “in between” control between any of the loops (except after completing the last one) it will be a DQ.
One Person Relay Mass Starts
11:00 All Male Adult and Junior Team Trial participants
11:15 All Female Adult and Junior Team Trial participants
11:30 everybody else
-Rex
Mills Sprint & One Person Relay event update
Weather looks quite agreeable. It’s a nice, old campus, and we’re fortunate to have an event at a private college. Please be considerate of the campus population. The campus won’t be crowded Sunday, but you may surprise someone used to having a quiet walk around. Give a friendly verbal greeting and a wide enough berth. Many should know you are coming as I have asked the campus liaison to put out an APB about our presence (with a picture of a control flag, so they know what they’re for.) They know (and now you know) that the main grassy area is a good place to spectate both the sprint and one-person relay courses. Enjoy the venue and courses.
The map. Brand new. First usage. 1:5000, 2.5 meter contours, ISSOM standard. If you haven’t run on many “sprint maps” pay attention to:
1. Thick black lines are uncrossable fences or uncrossable walls. Even if you think you can cross them, they are mapped as uncrossable for a good reason, so don’t cross.
2. Olive green is used to show areas that are nicely landscaped and not to be trampled, and there may be other good reasons they were mapped as such. Go around any olive green.
3. Many buildings have covered passageways that you will go through. Buildings are mapped as dark grey and the passageways are light-grey.
The terrain. Part urban campus, part wild forest and grassland. A river (or creek) runs through it, which you may only cross via the bridges. They are mapped.
Gear up. For the sprint only, all participants would benefit from rubber-studded shoes to deal with a foresty hillside. Rubber studs are less necessary for the one-person relay but they help for it as well. Shorts are okay for both courses.
Hazards. Not too much traffic, but sometimes you will cross roadways open to vehicle traffic. No poison oak was spotted during mapping. Yay. Some of the covered passageways are tight - I had to duck a little bit. I am 6 feet 2 inches tall.
The creek. Did I mention you may only cross it on the bridges? Do not go up and down the embankments. The college forbids it.
Parking and registration. After passing through the entrance station (they might ask you what you are coming for), turn right and then turn right immediately again to park in the visitor lot. Walk back to the main campus road, and turn right, walking into campus. Haas Pavilion will be the first large building on the left. Go around the building to the back and enter a door and go down some stairs to room 8. It is about 300 meters from your parking spot to the registration room.
Warmup areas: You will receive a campus map at registration with some warmup areas marked. Do not go in the other areas. They are out of bounds unless you are on a course.
Start procedures: Standard call ups, be present 5 minutes before your scheduled start time. For team trial participants, both adult and juniors, your start time is your start time, even if you show up late. The start is a 300 meter walk from the event center.
Finish procedures: After you finish, you must go immediately to the download station at the registration center. After you finish the sprint, your map will be collected, and you may not return to the “active” area of the map (non-warmup area) unless you are not participating in the one-person relay. Sprint maps will be made available at the download station after the one-person relay has begun. The finish is a 500 meter walk from the event center.
Download procedures: Even if for some reason you don’t finish your course, report to the finish, and after you go to the finish, please go immediately back to the download station after you are done.
The courses.
Sprint M21 Blue 3.0 km, 23 controls, 80 meters climb
Sprint F21 Red 2.6 km, 21 controls, 75 meters climb
Sprint Masters/Juniors Green 2.2km, 19 controls, 60 meters climb
One Person Relay - Four loops - 24 permutations “A” through “X” - total 2.6km, 20 controls, 65 meters climb
“S” The Social Studies loop: 0.6km, 5 controls, 25 meters climb
“A” The Art loop: 0.7km, 4 controls, 10 meters climb
“C” The Clock Tower loop: 0.7km, 4 controls, 10 meters climb
“M” The Music loop: 0.6km, 4 controls, 20 meters climb
The extra 3 controls on the One Person Relay? There will be two controls at the Start/Finish to verify that you came back from each loop. On the last loop, just punch the Finish, you don’t have to punch the “loop delimiter control” again.
All 4 loops will be printed on your map. The order you do the loops will be marked very clearly. Again, there are 24 possible permutations of those 4 letters, and your map will have a big letter A through X which standards for one of those 24 loop orders. If you neglect to go in the correct loop order or forget to punch the “in between” control between any of the loops (except after completing the last one) it will be a DQ.
One Person Relay Mass Starts
11:00 All Male Adult and Junior Team Trial participants
11:15 All Female Adult and Junior Team Trial participants
11:30 everybody else
Mar 20, 2014 6:55 PM
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The two controls at the end of each loop, you only need to punch one of them with the code 35, but two are there to accommodate more punchers, lest the participants start punching each other.
Mar 20, 2014 7:32 PM
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Will control codes be printed on the map next to the control numbers?
Mar 21, 2014 12:54 AM
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I would imagine the map would become a jumbled mess, but will let Rex answer...
Mar 21, 2014 5:00 AM
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So there will be one physical sheet of paper with four loops marked on it (numbered 1-20?) and four separate sets of descriptions?
Mar 21, 2014 6:07 AM
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Oh, and if all of this is going to be explained in an Army-proof way before the start on Sunday then I can stop asking questions and wait until then.
Mar 21, 2014 8:02 PM
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It will be made very clear at the start. Not numbered 1-20 but lettered A-X that is 24 letters and 24 course variations.
Mar 22, 2014 1:42 AM
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Oh, I meant the controls. Will the controls be numbered 1-20, or 1-4, 1-4, etc.?
This discussion thread is closed.