Discussion: Sprint Venue

We've gotten a go from Los Angeles Pierce College as the sprint venue for 2022 Nationals. This still needs to go through sanctioning and the board, but should be a great venue!

What time will the sprint race be on Friday?

When will registration open?

Sprint race will have starts from 1:00-3:00pm to have plenty of time before dark.
Registration is now open.

When do you expect a sanction and an official designation as the Sprint Championship? Some of us (me, for one) would be unlikely to go unless this will be the Sprint Champs.

I suspect that its pretty much a given at the next board meeting, once sanctioning approves it. Just waiting for the bureaucratic wheels to turn, but I can’t think of any good reason why it wouldn’t just sail through.

Thank you LAOC!

Besides the wonderful weather, Pierce College was definitely a venue worthy of being a US Sprint champs. Complicated campus and good sprint courses--route choice, execution traps, and clue traps. Well done.

A positive about the mapping: I also appreciated that olive drab area-that-shall-not-be-entered (520, aka out-of-bounds (OOB), flower bed, etc) was not overused on the map. It was confined to large areas (like the botanical gardens courtyard) and well-defined patches that looked on the ground like stuff that common sense also said to "stay out of." It was not used as far as I saw, like on some maps, as an artificial barrier to force fine mapping reading or disqualification. There is nothing worse than a patch of grass or mulch marked as olive-drab OOB that is indistinguishable from a neighboring patch of grass or mulch that is "in play."

I'll let those who are more adept post some course maps.

Thank you LAOC! Great courses from what I've seen! I am curious, will the maps be posted or will there be a RouteGadget? It is typical for national events to have a RouteGadget, but I know that LAOC does not typically use that app for their events.

Thanks for posting the splits. I don't think I have ever seen a series of splits quite like those posted for Noelani Lopez on the Brown course. That was some last part of the course! Strong comeback.

map needs some work. see my training log for some of the map issues.

To quote tdgood's training log (edited slightly for spelling):

"Before I get into the details of my run, lets talk (about) the map first.
* The circles and lines were not cut and hid several key features.
* There was at least one spot where the north line wasn't cut and went directly over a critical junction.
* The control codes didn't have the option white border around them and were very hard to see when they put them overtop of buildings.
* I am not convinced the building(s) were the correct color. I believe they are darker than they should be. I can barely see anything over top the building (like contours and the control circle/number. They had some purple hash(es) overtop a building which I didn't even see until someone else pointed it out to me (i.e. it was too hard to see).
* I do not believe the map was checked for legality. I believe they have several features which are too small or to close together to be legible. This is especially true of the canopy areas which they used extensively but you can't see them because they are too small.
* The dual level was used improperly. The dual level areas were so small that the symbol couldn't be seen on the printed map, it just made things look confusing.
* There are trail junctions that have the trail edging directly through them so the junction doesn't look like a junction but more like a badly mapped overpass.
* The Start was a remote start (which was ok) but the problem was that a change of direction was required immediately. While this isn't technically illegal it is a bad practice as you have people moving in one direction and then expected to change (to a different direction). The better fix would (be) to have the remote start just be a control for people to punch so everyone has to slowdown and the change of direction is (not) unfair.
* The first control on my course was used by many other courses (not their first) so there was an unfair advantage if you got there when someone else got there.
* The First set of controls for the advanced courses were in a building area which made the area very congested. Not only was it hazardous because of people sprinting around blind corners, it was slow if you got stuck behind someone moving slower (within a narrow corridor).
* The spectator control was unfair to the first runners as they didn't get the advantage of seeing people go to it like later starters."

I can't speak for most of the other issues that @tdgood mentioned, but the immediate change of direction comment does seem fair. However, I disagree about the comment regarding the spectator control. Everybody would be able to see it while entering into the competition, also, the spectator control location was revealed to be in that exact spot in the Event Packet on the bottom of page 4.

Also, @tdgood some of those are the responsibility of the course setter, not the mapper.

* The First set of controls for the advanced courses were in a building area which made the area very congested. Not only was it hazardous because of people sprinting around blind corners

try WMOC

while 80+

I am certain that the area of the first CP could have been represented more clearly; if the two running levels overlap but the main directions of movement are parallel, nothing prevents the mapper from distorting the situation so there's no overlap on the map between the two levels.

The printing could be better (noticeable rubbing-off and flake-off). Otherwise these were fine map and course... those junctions with the 0.1 mm tracethrough, are you sure there wasn't a step-or-edge continuing through? like pavement vs. mulch? If so, they were shown correctly.

The spectator control was unfair to the first runners as they didn't get the advantage of seeing people go to it like later starters.

Although it was noted in the meet packet, with location shown on the map showing where to park, and you could walk right up to it and look at it.

I was likely the first one to visit the spectator control on course and to be honest I didn't really pay it much attention beforehand as there were a number of other control stands and gear sitting around which eventually were moved to set up the start itself. So with a whole bunch of O gear there I didn't process that the control was a bona-fide course control. And not having had the advantage of seeing the direction runners came from and exited to, I did pause/slow down there longer than I might have otherwise to deduce the route choice options from the map. But I wouldn't call it 'unfair'. Early start / pre-running always comes with a few minor disadvantages including the possibility of discovering dead controls (#111)