What is it? A fun map race
exploring the hill neighborhoods and regional parks
surrounding Merritt College. Use your trail shoes, your
wits, a custom-made adventure map, and maybe your bike to go
for the gold! Race solo or in a
team!
Which course will you
do?
The
Whole Enchilada About 25 km total distance, hilly!
2:30 winning time?
9:00 Mass Start, be registered by 8:45!
Stages: 1. Scatter, 2. Technical run, 3. Campus roundup, 4.
Neigborhood navigator (bike option), 5. Park roundup. Team prizes: $100 1st place, $75 2nd place, $50 3rd
place. Registration
fee per person: $25 by Jan. 24, $30 by Jan. 28, $35
after Jan. 28.
The Taco About 15 km total distance, hilly!
1:45 winning time?
9:30 Mass Start, be registered by 9:15! Stages: 1.
Campus roundup, 2. Neighborhood navigator (bike
option), 3. Park roundup. Registration
fee per person: $15 by Jan. 24, $20 by Jan. 28, $25
after Jan. 28.
Chips and
Salsa About 5 km total distance, hilly!
0:45 winning time?
9:00 Mass Start, be registered by 8:45! Stages: 1.
Scatter, 2. Technical run, 3. Campus roundup. Registration
fee per person: $10 by Jan. 24, $12 by Jan. 28, $15
after Jan. 28.
The
Map: Exclusive, custom-made 1:15000 scale adventure map
by terraloco with 20 foot contours on 11 x 17" paper.
Clear plastic map case provided!
Mandatory gear!
1. cell
phone2.
two
pencils3.
helmet, bike lock (if biking)
Other details: Two aid
stations with water and snacks. Second aid station is a
manned remote bike drop; if biking, you will
lock your bike there and pick up later. Checkpoints are
pin-punch or Q&A, passport card provided. No bushwacking
necessary, shorts are good if weather allows. Solo entries
ok. Rain or shine, let's do this! 8:00
Registration open, 1:00 Courses close. In addition to
Whole Enchilada money prizes, all courses will have
awards certificate winners. Pizza or burger joint
social nearby afterwards. To save on entry costs,
preregister
@ terraloco.com - preregister individually, declare
your team if you have one at event day
registration.
Directions: Hwy 13. south
to Redwood Rd., turn left onto Redwood, turn right onto
Campus Drive, park in front of Merritt College campus on
Campus Drive. Address: 12500
Campus Drive, Oakland, CA 94619.
Bus: AC Transit
line 54.
Event notes
published Thursday, January 28th: (go to top
of page)
Weather: Current forecast is sunny, mid
50's. The event will be held in any weather, so dress
accordingly.
Gear: When I test ran the course Monday,
the trails were muddy enough in parts it was hard to keep a grip with
my trail runners. Studs may be good. It's drying out, and was better
yesterday, but we may see some more rain tomorrow and Saturday. Need:
___ Cell phone (for safety / emergency) ___ Pencil for recording
answers. That's it. Recommended: ___ Change of clothes and shoes. I
don't believe a compass is absolutely necessary, but bring your own
if you'd like to use one.
Biking gear: Bikes are highly
recommended for the Taco/15k and Whole Enchilada/25k courses, and not
needed at all for the Chips and Salsa/5k. A road bike is fine, it's
all paved, something with good gearing for hill climbing is a plus.
Helmet and bike lock are mandatory. You will lock your bike at the
start, unlock it for the bike leg, drop it at the second aid station
and lock it there... in both locations, there will be staff (Dennis
and I are covering.) You'll need to retrieve your bike from the aid
station soon after you finish - it's almost a three mile drive from
Merritt College. Share a ride with another if you biked to the
event.
Aid: Bananas and granola bars and water
will be at both aid stations. You shouldn't have to carry food or
water, but you're welcome to do so, including grabbing something to
go from the aid station.
Horses and Cows: The 15k and 25k courses
will probably see a horse or two. Horses have the right of way in
East Bay Parks. Correct procedure is to slow to a walk in advance of
encountering the horse, then walk past it before speeding up again.
Cows will also be encountered, very likely - I did Monday, but not
Wednesday. You can spook them from afar and they will go as a group,
but things get trickier if you get between a mother and a calf, as I
discovered Monday- let's just say the closest cow to the calf was not
the mother. And I just walked in the direction away from both of them
(real mother and calf) and everything was fine.
Social? After the event, any interested
can get together for burgers or pizza, we'll see what the group
thinks. The restaurants are at the corner of Redwood Rd. and Mountain
Blvd. just off Hwy 13. Very close to the college.
Registration is open at 8:00. For the
25k/Whole Enchilada and 5k/Chips and Salsa, be registered by 8:45.
Mass start for those courses happens promptly at 9:00 - not a second
later. 15k/Taco mass start is at 9:30 - be registered by
9:15.
Registration will be by the AC Transit bus stop
in front of Merritt College. Park along Campus Drive at the edge of
campus, and walk to the center of the loop drive where the bus
stops.
See All
Photos (note: if you
rejected photo permission on your registration form, I did not
add photos with you to the web page!)
What an epic adventure - although the weather
was sunny, the trails had not dried out so folks got a bit mucky.
First, we started off the Whole Enchilada participants,
whisking them off to the secret start location via the
AC Transit 54 bus and a short hike along Mountain Blvd. to the
York trailhead in Leona Heights Park. After the mass start, they
grabbed four checkpoints in the neighborhood, around the trout
casting pools, and in the narrow strip of park along Highway 13. That
was the "Scatter" stage. The next stage, the Technical Trail
Run, had participants embarking on the York trial up Leona Heights
park. Somewhere along the creek with the redwoods there was an
unmapped checkpoint to be found. And then you had to use your wits
and an aerial photo to find your way out of the canyon to Merritt
College. By this time, the Taco participants were starting on
their course and joining the Whole Enchilada folks on the
"Campus" stage, grabbing five checkpoints on foot in any order. Jonas
Kjall was first coming out of the canyon and the campus loop, but
decided not to take his bike. Kyle Peter, in second place, quickly
overtook Jonas after the first checkpoint on the bike stage, so Jonas
came back to get his bike. Kyle stayed in the lead past the end of
the bike stage, through the aid station / bike drop, and into Anthony
Chabot Park for the four of the last five checkpoints on the last
stage. Jonas observed Kyle's route choice to go for checkpoint P1
first before the others, and Jonas decided to skip that one at first
and come back for it later. Careful planning was necessary to pick an
efficient order to grab the four checkpoints down in the park and
escape to Skyline Blvd. to cross and go for P5. It was Jonas who
ended up first back at the finish after the long trek into Leona
Canyon Park (not Leona Heights Park!) for the final checkpoint.
Jonas bagged the $100 cash prize for first finisher, followed by Kyle
in second with $75, and Steve Gregg came back from the middle of the
pack during the last stage to claim third place and $50. Penny DeMoss
and Jim Fish were the sole participants on the Chips and Salsa
course, which consisted of the first 3 stages of the Whole
Enchilada, ending after the campus loop. Bruce Wolfe was the first
finisher on the Tacocourse. First to finish each course with
out a bike: Greg Favor on the Whole Enchilada, and Gavin
Wyatt-Mair on the Taco. Top team on the Taco course was The
Tree.
Thanks everybody for coming and pouring your
efforts into the challenging course! Makes it all worth it. Vladimir
Gusiatnikov vetted the course and generated contours using the
USGS online data - a big help in making the map! Dennis
Wilkinson staffed registration and the remote aid station and took
splits and pictures. Kyle Peter encouraged many folks to come out -
thanks! Ben Legg placed the last checkpoint - quite a
hike!
The
Whole Enchilada
9:00 Mass Start, be registered by 8:45!
The Taco
Chips and
Salsa
The
Map: Exclusive, custom-made 1:15000 scale adventure map
by terraloco with 20 foot contours on 11 x 17" paper.
Clear plastic map case provided!
