Here's the route of "Wooded Beaver Bangs" in the coed 3 hour.

We were officially listed in the 3 hour Coed Foot division, but I did the unadvertised triathlon (marching, drumming, and foot). (I did a parade and concert at the Sunnyvale Arts and Wine Festival that morning. I spent a ton of energy before even lacing my running shoes!) This was followed by the sprint up to SF to make the start in time. I picked up two scary hitchhikers (aka teammates) on the side of the road, and arrived just as announcements were starting.

Greg, Rebecca and I have occasionally run together with the Hash House Harriers, but never for any distance without a "beer check". I was dubious if we'd get past the first bar without a detour. I need not have worried, we did fine. I've also run quite a bit with the Bay Area Orienteering Club (BAOC), so I was happy to let someone else navigate, and just take a mentoring role and enjoy the scenery. Greg was game to try his hand navigating, and so I just made some suggestions as we progressed. He did an excellent job, and we had made a pretty optimal route for our general level of fitness, with lots of bailouts if time got short.

Our route was:

S, 14, 88, 11, 102, 47, 45, 57, 23, 12, 15, 22, 54, 46, 17, 56, 16, F

14-88: For an off-trail orienteer, this was the best part of our whole course. And unfortunately, it was over *WAY* too quickly. Rebecca enjoyed the steep descent. Or not.

88-11: Successfully passed our first bar. (I wonder how lawyers feel when they pass their bar...)

102: We approached the City college from the north, and could see the huge mural from two blocks away. We could almost make out the answer, but of course, that wouldn't be in the spirit of the game, so we hoofed it across campus.

45: In front of the the library, got our first "what the hell are all y'all doing" from a group of 5 young gentlemen, and I use the term loosely. Note to Terry: they were not all that interested in our team number.

57: I'm 99% sure that's the church from Whoopie Goldberg's movie "Sister Act". The adult store is now a realty company! :)

12: Gallery of Jewels. We arrived to see a *PACKED* shop. The woman behind the counter was frantically running around trying to show her wares to existing customers. Fortunately, one of the other customers took pity on the poor, hot, sweaty runners, and gave us the answer.

15: Rebecca misread the clue, and told Greg to ask about an item not even sold in that store. The sales person's blank look was priceless. "If you're interested, I *DO* sell socks..."

54: The neighbors were quite impressed that a house in their little alley was the focus of so much attention!

54-46: Getting hungry...oh, smell that chicken...mmm, smell that pizza...smell that gyro...Man, what the h*ll was that stench?...mmm, smell the tacos...PEEEUUU!!!...that was worse than the last one!!!

The Mission entry to the alley of 46 was about the only place we felt glad to not be visiting at night. There were probably 20 people hanging on the corner with not much better to do. Saw a couple having lots of trouble determining north. "This mural's got a little pink in it..."

"Try your other North..."

46-17: After successfully passing many bars, Greg says "I know this bar!" and proceeds to head inside. I thought we it was all over for us, but he came back out as soon as the light turned green.

17: Has it *REALLY* been that long since Indiana Jones came out? Seriously? Where did the time go?

Raced back for the finish. Fortunately, we arrived back 10 minutes early, which just barely gave us the top honors in our coed division. I can't tell you how many events I've done where that last little push can make or break you.

Overall, we did 12.6 miles with just under 1300 feet of climb.

Our biggest area for improvement would be learning to read the map while on the move. Stopping occasionally for 10-15 seconds really does add up. Otherwise, I think we had a good plan, and executed/adjusted quite well.

Well done, Terry and team!

Brad
Wooded Beaver Bangs