The New England Orienteering Club
NEOC: Speedy Goat
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Saturday, April 20, 2013
Sat April 20, 2013

Speedy Goat

Saturday, April 20, 2013
Cemetery Hill
Northampton, MA  [Google map]

Mass Start at 2 PM
Format: 2-man sprint relay
Courses: 4 legs, each 1.5-2 km
E-punching will be used.

The US senior team is organizing the 3rd annual Speedy Goat preceding the Billygoat on Saturday afternoon.  The format is a 2-man sprint relay - which will become a more common format since the sprint relay has been added to the WOC program beginning in 2014.  There will be two runners on a team, and each team will run four 1.5-2 km courses with the runners alternating.  

The event will be held at Cemetery Hill in Northampton, MA - about ten miles west of the Billygoat at Earl's Trails. (GPS address: 51 Prince St. -or- 40 Burts Pit Rd., Northamton)

Directions: From the intersection of routes 9 and 5 in the center of Northampton: Take Main St. (rt. 9) west through the center of town. Turn left at the second light onto West St (rt. 66). Go .9 miles to the first light and fork right. This becomes Burts Pit Road. Follow this about .5 mile and look for o-signs on your right, just past the Community Gardens. If the parking area is full, park along the right side of the road.

Cemetery Hill was the site of the Day 4 of the Western MA 5-Day in May 2012 and offers an interesting mix of forest terrain, open fields, and man-made objects.  Map details: 1:4000, 2.5m contours.  The park is popular with dog walkers and frisbee golfers, but course setter Phil Bricker is designing the relay courses to minimize interaction.  Registration and start will be a few hundred meters away from parking - about a 5-10 minute walk.  

Categories and Points:

The categories will use the point system from the US relay championships, and there are competitive classes for 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 points.  The points system is as follows:

Age Male Female
under 15 3 5
15-16 2 4
17-20 1 3
21-35 0 2
35-49 1 3
50-59 2 4
60 and over 3 5

[example: 15 year old female = 4 points; 47 y.o. male = 1 point; 23 y.o. male = 0 points]

The point value of a team is the sum of the two partners' points.  The team competes in the nearest category with fewer or equal points.  For example, an 18 year old male (1 pt) and a 28 year old female (2 points) is worth 3 points.  They compete in the 2 point category.  An F21 and an M51 (each worth 2 points) are worth 4 points and compete in the 4 point category.

Crown the weekend with Sunday's Billygoat Run.

Fees

 $10 for all competitors
Save time at registration: bring a completed NEOC waiver.

Online registration is encouraged, on-site registration will be accepted.

Schedule

Saturday, April 20, 2013
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM Day-of-race registration, partner declaration
2:00 PM Mass start
4:00 PM Awards
4:30 PM Courses Close

Questions

Direct questions to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Course Notes

Cemetery Hill includes some of the grounds of the former Northampton State Hospital. In the 1950’s, the hospital housed 2657 patients (including, at one point, Sylvia Plath). Today, Cemetery Hill is a dog park, where dogs are permitted to run off leash, and includes a popular disk golf course. Please be respectful of others who may be using the area.

Registration and start/finish are in an open field about 800 meters from the parking area. Follow signs and orange streamers. The only portable toilet is a couple hundred meters from the parking area in the opposite direction from the start. Separate control descriptions will be available just before you start each sprint; they are also on the map.

There are four sprint courses called “A”, “B”, “C”, and “D”. A and B cover similar routes with some common controls, as do C and D. Each relay runner does two courses, first doing one of A and B and then one of C and D. Each team does all four sprints, but in four possible orders: ABCD, ABDC, BACD, or BADC.

Sprints A and B are around 1.9k with 40 meters of climb; sprints C and D are around 1.7k with 50 meters of climb. Expected winning times are around 14 minutes for A and B, and around 12 minutes for C and D.

These are “woods sprints”, with a fair amount of trail running and open field running. The white woods range from very open to moderately junky. There are some steep hills.

Full leg covering is highly recommended due to some stray vines in light green and rough open areas.

Please check control codes! Some controls are only 40 meters apart.

Map Notes

The map is 1 x 4000 with 2.5 meter contours, ISOM.

Special Symbols:

  • Black circles are disk golf baskets.
  • Brown solid triangles (“charcoal platform”) are disk golf tees (rectangular rubber mats).
  • Black x’s (“manmade objects”) are almost always either signs, tables, or benches.
  • Brown x’s are, as usual, rootstocks. Most rootstocks greater than a meter in height are on the map. A few mapped rootstocks are as small as .5 meter.

Vegetation: Medium green (except perhaps a narrow strip) and dark green are to be avoided; they almost always contain nasty vines. Light green is slow run, sometimes with obstacles to go around or over; it may contain some stray vines.

Fences: You may come across a couple of barbed wire fences. They are flagged with orange streamer and, if above ground, marked as crossable fences on the map. There could also be some unmapped barbed wire on the ground. Please be careful.

Rock: Individual boulders are often mapped down to .5 meter. “Cliffs” on the map are manmade rockfaces.