Welcome to Billygoat Weekend 2004! Cambridge Sports Union is pleased to welcome you to the 26th running (and CSU’s first) of the most important orienteering event in the world. This year, the Billygoat Run is preceded by two hors d’oeuvres – the BG Short and the BG Sprint, taking place on Saturday, 24 April. The main course takes place on Sunday 25 April. In Australia, where the Head Goat hails from, 25 April is known as ANZAC Day, and commemorates a military disaster in 1915 when Australian and New Zealand troops suffered heavy losses from Turkish fire as they attempted to scale cliffs – a navigation error meant they landed several kilometers from their intended ‘attack point’. Apart from the hostile fire, we’ve attempted to allow you to re-create this disaster for yourself this weekend.
The program is as follows:
Sunday April 25
9am – 10:40am: packet pickup, Lake Bray Shelter.
10:45am: Group walk to the start of the Billygoat Run (420m, 25m climb, mostly road).
11:00:00.00am: Start of the 26th Annual Billygoat Run
11:15am-1:00pm: Entry on the day white/yellow/orange courses available, Lake Bray Shelter
2:30:00.00pm: Cutoff for earning a T-shirt by finishing under the cutoff time of 3½ hours.
The prize giving ceremony should commence around 2:15pm, allowing plenty of opportunity to
count down the clock for those cutting it fine...
3:30pm: Please return by this time, otherwise we will start organizing a search party.
6pm: GATES LOCKED
Map: Mount Tom. 6 colors, contour interval 5 meters. Scale: 1:10 000 for BG Short and Billygoat; 1:5 000 for BG Sprint. Original map 1978, Peter Gagarin. Note that the original map was at 1:15000
scale: if you ran on the old map, be aware of the change. Refieldworked over the 2003-04 winter by a
team led by J-J Coté and including Phil Bricker, Charlie DeWeese, Peter Gagarin, Clint Morse, Paul
Pearson, Steven Richardson and George Walker. CSU would like to thank NEOC for use of the
map. It would be fair to say that the quality of the current update is uneven, particularly as regards
vegetation runnability. You are warned against trying to use the edges of most areas of green for navigation.
NOTE: for the Billygoat Run, the map has been printed so that north is at an angle to the paper.
THE EDGES OF THE PAPER DO NOT POINT NORTH. Use the magnetic north lines (which
occur every 250m) to orient your map.
Terrain: The terrain at Mt Tom ranges from extremely open broadleaf forest that is suitable for very fast running, to thicker areas with mountain laurel and hemlocks. The mountain laurel is not as bad as in some other New England forests – medium green usually means exactly that. There is not much rock underfoot in most areas – rocky ground on the map usually denotes talus slopes, and can be a little unpleasant to run over. Cliffs range from around 1m to much higher. The southern portion of the western edge of the map is made up of a line of high cliffs, which are impassable. Please do not fall off these, no matter how good a view of Easthampton you can get while falling. There are also other isolated high cliffs – one Billygoat control is at the foot of one.
There is extensive usage of the brown dot ‘small knoll’ symbol to mark small rock features, perhaps more so than would be the case if the map had been completely redone in 2004 style. Areas mapped as rough open include old clearings and ski runs that are gradually revegetating; they are not too bad to run through. If you should visit the old ski runs, be careful about detritus from the lifts and the snow-making equipment now decaying undefoot.
There is a paved road that runs throgh the map which carries light traffic (it is a through road but doesn’t carry much through traffic since it is winding and narrow). Please take care when crossing it (particularly around the Lake Bray shelter near the assembly area).
Child Care: Available, thanks to Alex Singer. Ask at the registration table if it’s not obvious.
The 26th Annual Billygoat Run:
Head Goat: William Hawkins
Course Details: 13.36km, 505m climb, 20 controls. (These figures do not include skipping and will be revised after the race to match the winner's choice of skip).
Refreshment controls: there are four controls (numbers 3, 8, 11, and 15) at which water will be
available. If you choose to skip a refreshment control, tough – there are still three others. There will
also be water available at the finish (you may pass the finish area before the end of the race,
depending on your route choice). Limited food will be available at control 11, and also of course at
the finish. Expect cookies and bananas, and limited sports drink.
THE MAP IS NOT ORIENTED TO MAGNETIC NORTH: SEE ‘MAP’ ABOVE
Special rules:
Skipping: You may skip any one control. This means that you need to visit 19 of the 20 controls.
Apart from the skipped control, all controls must be visited in order. That is, visiting controls
1,2,3,4,6,7,8,...,19,20 in that order is valid, as is visiting 2,3,4,...,20, or 1,2,...,19, but not any route
where you do not visit (at least) 19 controls in increasing number order. Leave the box
corresponding to the control you skip blank and continue punching in the correct numbered box at
following controls.
Manned controls: Two of the drinks controls may (or may not) be manned (or womanned) by a control
card checking official. This is indicated on the control descriptions. If a control card checker asks to
check your control card, please show them your control card on request.
Forking: Not this year.
Following: Explicitly permitted.
Control codes: the control codes commemorate last year’s placegetters. Note that in 2003 Boris
Granovskiy and Francis Falardeau tied for second place: a coin flip determined that control 2 would
be BG and control 3 FF. Sorry, Francis.
Swimming: Explicitly forbidden. The only place you’d want to swim is within view of the finish, and
you will be disqualified if you try it. This race is nto the ‘Puppy Dog’, it’s the ‘Billygoat’.
Multiple punches: yes, at controls 1,2,3,18,19,20. Singles everywhere else. Take this into account!
Dangers: Don't visit the (active) quarry area (clearly marked on your map). Take care crossing roads, particularly around the finish area. There are numerous very high cliffs which you would regret falling
down. Control 5 is at the foot of one of them. It’s not recommended to get between Ross Smith and
the finish line.
Annoyances: Following the warm weather last weekend (it was 88 in the parking lot Monday
afternoon) the ticks are out – I got three that day. Also, follwing beaver activity and the rain a
couple weeks back, the main stream (which the course crosses towards the end) is reasonably deep
(waist deep on a 5’11” course setter where he crossed). If you don’t want to cross a slow-flowing
stream that deep, choose your skip wisely. (It’s not difficult to cross, just wet.)