Race 12-03 Oakland Streets 'n Ladders 25k

15.32mi. - 2:26 - 1st/2
Garmin Tracking here.

This Saturday I ran another orienteering event – this one put on by Terraloco in the Lake Merritt section of Oakland. It was held of out Leaning Tower of Pizza which is only a block from the lake. Several storms were forecasted to hit the Bay Area from Thursday to Monday but fortunately it cleared up in time for Saturday so we ran in dry weather. Still, I think the event was less well attended due to the forecasted bad weather.

There were 3 distances available – 5k, 10k, and 25k and of these all had bike or no-bike options. Those that chose the bike option had a mandatory run portion. In the 10k it was 5k run and 5k bike. In the 25k it was run the 10k course then bike the other 15k. I’m not sure what the run/bike difference was for the 5k. I chose the 25k run option. I only knew 2 other participants, Greg Favor and Steve Gregg.

The 25k course was divided into 2 sections – the 10k course and then the additional 15k. The location of the start/finish was on the east (almost northeast) side of the lake. There were a couple controls just south but most of them were over the top and to the west and southwest side of the lake. Rex told us that from the other side of the lake it would be shorter to come back over the north side of the lake. My plan was to abandon the 2 controls just south of the start, get all the controls running around the lake counterclockwise, come back towards the start by running around the south side, and then picking up the 2 below. This worked well. It would have worked very well except there was construction on the south side of the lake preventing me from taking the optimal route but I was still happy with the result.

I only had difficulty at one control on 10k loop. We were supposed to run to building 1511 and the building on the corner of the intersections was 1515. The other side of the intersection had buildings in the 1400s. Down the perpendicular road were numbers nowhere near 1511. Steve and I had passed each other several times just prior to that as it seemed we chose similar routes although somehow opposite (like shoelaces). As I was exploring, Steve found the 1511 “building” and took off. Then Greg came in and we looked for it and eventually I found it. I pointed out that the answer was on a group of signs at the building entrance as it appeared the building had 2 addresses of 1515 and 1511. I figured this made us event from the first orienteering event I ever did where he pointed out to me a whole chunk of a sign that missing.

From there I ran around the construction and back to the start. My GPS showed 6.64 miles so I was pretty confident I chose a decent route. Steve made it to the start before me but no one else did. It was then that I learned he was in the 10k and not the 25. So I went back out to do the 15k loop.

The 15k was another loop around the lake although it covered a wider area and had a couple decent sized climbs. This made it more of a runner’s race. I ran around the lake counterclockwise again as I felt I was more familiar with the area from that direction. The 15k loop all but required a complete loop around the lake. It would have been far from the optimal route not to complete a loop.

I didn’t have any difficulty on the 15k loop. We happened to run through a street festival which was an unexpected element. I slightly overshot the last control on the edge of the lake by miscounting streets but I realized it before significant damage had been done.

I finished the entire course in 15.32 miles which was shorter than the optimal route Rex had mapped. When I finished the pizza place was packed with finishers who were eating pizza. Rex told me I was first out of only 3 in the 25k and one of them was on a bike, so for my purposes there were only 2 in my race (the other being Greg). This is now the smallest race I’ve ever completed beating the previous record of 3.

I had a very fun time although after running for 2 hours through the streets of Oakland I was ready to be done. I was also started to feel sore from running on so much concrete. Most of the sidewalks and even some street sections were concrete and just about the entire course was on a hard surface. I ate a pizza which tasted great. It was a vegetarian pizza and I asked them to add artichokes to the normal stuff they put on it.