Caddihoe Chase

[SJ]

Just back from Longleat and in need of food, a shower and some sleep...

Day One was very rainy and the forest was very thick so while navigation wasn't incredibly challenging, fighting through rhodedendrons and slipping down muddy paths was a challenge!

Today was much nicer weather-wise. The terrain was similar to Day One as the areas used overlapped but it was much more runnable with an easy section through fields which lulled everyone into a false sense of security before sending us up a huge hill.

Unfortunately some of the times were messed up on the second day - they missed me off the list so to avoid "computer problems" I had to go in the mass start. Ruth, Tessa and a few others who hadn't run the day before were also asked to go in the mass start meaning we had an extra 25 min to wait. Apart from this I think everything went smoothly.

Overall I had a great weekend - it was great to be going to a "proper" event again (no Wilfs though ). My Mum is very proud that she and my Dad did their first ever course (orange) and can't wait to see her name on the internet...

[helen]

results for day one are up on the sarum website, day two will be up shortly.

all in all a great weekend, my run yesterday wasnt so bad, my run today was...well...abismal! I wasn't that impressed with the mapping in places, the colours in particular seemed a bit dodgy.

Well done to those who became Caddihoe, South West or Southern Champion, or all three!

[rororosie]

caddihoe was wicked 1st day = 'orrible 'orrible but today was lovely and I am very chuffed with myself for actually beating liz for once!i think she puts it down to too much buttery smash for brekkie...anyone else kept up by the lions/wolves/hippos?

[Mrs H.]

thanks everyone for pushing us off the field - nearly didn't stop at the gate to pick up the little H.s

[helen]

hehe that was great fun! i got really muddy because of all the people tho, mustve been about 15 of us!!! including little harry butt...i wonder what imput he had?

[Guest]

results for day one are up on the sarum website, day two will be up shortly.

The Emit team seem to be taking a strangely long time to get the results up. Odd as there seemed to be no problems at the event (except for the problem that SJ mentioned concerning people missing from the day two start list) and I am interested to know how I actually did (or, more correctly, if I managed to beat anyone!).

Definitely found the day two course to be the nicer one, though my lack of fitness and speed was a problem on both days.

I wasn't that impressed with the mapping in places, the colours in particular seemed a bit dodgy.

I found the mapping to be inconsistent, with the vegetation particularly unrealiable. For one of the other SARUM maps (Bigwood I think) various members of the club mapped small sections each and that exhibited similar problems.

nearly didn't stop at the gate to pick up the little H.s

With this and trying to send Neville off to an event we could become drawn to the conclusion that there was a deliberate attempt to 'lose' the young ones


Simon (or he too lazy to remember his password to log in)

[Mrs H.]

I've been rumbled pity Neville actually out-sprinted the H van to the gate so we had no option to pick up him and his sisters

[Stef]

Caddihoe woz gr8!!well annoyed couldnt do second day!! oh well i'll live!

[SJ]

my dad complained about getting mud on/in the car (it was his first event - he wasn't to know...) but he gave up by the end of the weekend!

[Stodgetta]

As my first 21L course for over 2 years (post Stodgeteenie), it was a shock to the system, particularly as I had a relatively early start on Saturday. Did it get easier as time went on (I realise it will have got muddier)? There was no mention of a machete requirement in the final details!
Day 2 was a cross country race (never my forte!!).
Roll on Twin Peaks.

Fatboy - the emit card affected my compass by 35 degrees, so the plan of holding it in my compass hand didn't work. It ended up under my map, meaning I had to swap map hands at controls, taking a while to relocate myself on the map en route out of controls.
I still don't think that the time lost reorientating the map accounts for the huge gap between me and the leadres, tho'!

[Simon]

Did it get easier as time went on (I realise it will have got muddier)? There was no mention of a machete requirement in the final details!

The bit between the final two road crossings on day one ended up having a person forced trail through it. However some people still missed that and had to battle through that area of dark green. For the earlier part of the course I went round quite a bit of the green stuff.

Later on day two was when I found the mud to be more of a problem. I had a fairly late start of day two and ended up slipping down a muddy slope, for the first control after the open area (and a quick visit to SARUMs first aiders was needed on finishing).

[bedders]

I definitely enjoyed Caddihoe, my first experience of Emit was overall a good one too. I managed to make THE worst mistake ever on day 1 but things improved for day 2 so i think it was overall a success for me anyway. Luckily the field didn't get too bad, it could have been worse and yeh...twas good, and Rosie, I think i decided that they were neither hippos nor lions...they were definitely giraffes

[FatBoy]

The bit between the final two road crossings on day one ended up having a person forced trail through it. However some people still missed that and had to battle through that area of dark green. For the earlier part of the course I went round quite a bit of the green stuff.

I knew there was something I was going to mention. Road crossings. On M21L I reckon the fastest way from 19-20 (the marshalled road crossing) was to the road and the along, and the fastest way from 20-21 was to go back the way you'd come along the road, and not through the green. However I didn't do either because if the road is a marshalled crossing surely you're not supposed to run along it? The other thing I found odd was the traffic had right of way - so why have a marshalled crossing? For kiddies fine, but not for the wild animals in M21L? Should've sent us to a (marginally) more interesting control somewhere and let us cross the road ourselves, like we did on every other road crossing!

[Stodgetta]

After the marshalled road crossing, I asked the marshall if the road was OOB and he said "don't know, I'm just the marshall", so I went around. Comparing splits later, it was about 30 secs quicker, but that was when people were forcing their way thru' the rhodies (one friend was stuck in there for 9 minutes and thought she'd never see the light of day again!!!).

[Simon]

My feeling is that the road was not OOB. Neither the final details or the map labelled it as such. Also I noticed that not all the road crossings were mentioned on the control descriptions.

FatBoy's route comments were fairly much how I ran for the control after the crossing. I went straight, west, to the road and ran down it to the manned road crossing. Others I talked to ran to the more minor road, south, and along that to the crossing point. Not sure which of these was the better choice, however the road verge thinned quite a bit for the option I picked and was not too easy to run down.

As few children were over that side of the map (only courses 1-6 had that road crossing) it seemed odd to have it manned. Especially as there seemed to be no provision for deducting any time you were forced to wait for crossing (as there has been at other events - Concorde Chase last year being one - though that had another issue of the two minutes allowed being too small a time for some people to cross the busy road).