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Relay Event

Bedwell Bayfront Park

Date: (Sun.) May. 21, 2023
Location: Menlo Park, CA
Event Director: - 408.313.3753
Course Setter: Misha Kreslavsky
Type: C; You get to have fun doing a Relay, and we get to practice administration of a Relay in anticipation of the NAOC Relay at the California Orienteering Festival


Course Setter’s Notes

By Misha Kreslavsky

The terrain is mostly open, with some trees and bushes. The grass is tall and thick. Small trails are overgrown with grass, and often hard to see.

The Map

The scale is 1:5,000, with a 2 m contour interval. The map is not fully compliant with the current mapping standard​—​it is like a classic (ISOM) map, not a Sprint (ISSprOM) map. The map is rather good, but old; I fixed it only near the controls. Many trees that have fallen this spring are not shown.

A brown × denotes a fallen tree or a stump. Many of them don’t exist anymore; others are hard to see. They are not used as control features. Ignore all brown ×s.

An oriented green T denotes a fallen tree in the standard way. Some of them don’t exist anymore or are hard to see. One is used as a control feature​—​it is recently fallen and prominent.

A green dot denotes a small tree or a bush. The control descriptions give the heights for small trees.

A grey dot denotes a patch of gravel. Such patches are not used as control features.

A brown triangle denotes a small, low, man-made mound covered with a lid, often with a post with a streamer next to it. In control descriptions they are shown as X.

A blue × denotes a gas well. Some gas wells are similar to the brown triangles, but with some pipes; some of them are more cumbersome. In control descriptions they are also shown as X.

Courses

There are two, 3-leg relays with forking (i.e., each runner has a personal course, but after the finish every team will have run the same course). I did my best to make them both fun and real, technical orienteering.

Relay 1 (10:00 AM mass start), each leg:     2.0 km, 30 m climb (1.5%), 9 controls
Relay 2 (12:00 noon mass start), each leg: 2.6 km, 50 m climb (1.9%), 10 controls

From the mass-start/map-issue point, follow a marked route to the orienteering start point (“triangle”)​—​do not shortcut. Run between two control signs at the end of the marked route. There is no punch at the Start.

There is a spectator control on both courses. From the spectator control, follow a marked route​—​do not shortcut. Run between two cones at the end of the marked route.

From the last (“GO”) control, follow a marked route to the Finish. Don’t forget to punch the Finish.

Some controls are close to each other (I violated the rule about closeness of controls: violations add fun. 😉) Don’t forget to check control numbers. The control numbers are both in the control descriptions and next to the ordinal number on the map.

Enjoy!