MDOC Website

[DM]

Mdoc.org.uk is still unavailable, but Day-2 results are accessible on the MDOC-members website. At least from here, and now ...

Your browser needed refreshing but I assure you the site was there. The MDOC members bit you refer to is a part of the mdoc.org.uk site which would not have been visible if the site was down.

[Homer]

RJ asked for some feedback.

I would agree completely with Pete.Owens:

Day 1 felt like a short long race (if that makes sense!); it was physically tough but not long enough to be a test of endurance.

Day 2 felt like a long middle race; sustained fine navigation for much of the course.
I enjoyed both days.
However, as a fan of middle distance races (I prefer the mental to the physical aspects of the sport) I too preferred the second day as the terrain seemed more suited to middle distance style planning.

I suspect the reason was just down to the relative sizes of the areas, but Torver Back Common would be ideal for a true Middle Distance race.
Bleathwaite wasn't ideal for a Middle Distance race because it was too physical, especially for the older competitors. The steep slope meant it was not possible to include sufficient changes of directions without introducing excessive climb.

Buzz said it was 'disappointing for the Lake District'. By this I suspect he means it was less technical than most areas (eg Torver) around there.

Another minor gripe: the SI boxes mounted on plates fixed to the ground. This is purely a quality issue and I think, for a Level B event, it's worth the extra effort to put out stakes. I was thankful to SROC for doing so at Hutton Roof.

I should add that, overall, it was a great weekend's racing. Thanks to MDOC for all your efforts.

[graeme]

What would you advertise it as, graeme?

Torver Back Common is too small to elegantly support a course with more than a 59 minute winning time, so within the current rules I'd say.

"Colour coded courses up to brown"

I've no insight into specifics here, but the guidelines encourage the following unravelling of what's intended:
1. Try to plan a full length black course. Fail to manage with two map exchanges, decide this is undue repetition.
2. Shorten the black course by 15%. Decide that this is a better course than the proper length one.
3. Scale all the other courses from there.
4. Misrepresent the colours to make it look like a proper "long" course.

So 1 and 2 are fine. Now you should to decide whether to have a longish middle race
for everyone, or a long race where you tell the M21s that they'll be running a 60 minute winning time course, and put them in with M35 and M40.

What you shouldn't do is mess up all the course lengths because the black course won't fit!
Alternately, you could come out afterwards and say "sorry, I stuffed up the planning". I've no problem if that's what happened: everyone makes mistakes. The important thing is to acknowledge and to learn from them, otherwise others will repeat them.

[RJ]

Good, constructive comments from Homer and graeme. Thanks.

NW genuinely want to produce the best competition, and will review all comments. If competitors have to travel long distances then they should be assured of the quality at the end.... that must surely be the aim of the Level B events. The club committee, and here the NW, must be responsive to criticism so that that quality can be achieved.

The sport, to a certain extent, is being redefined, with short, middle, long, sprint and urban races. The NW regional league is attempting to get that mix right. The 2011 series has great potential, and with constructive criticism the 2012 series will be even better.

[AndyC]

On graeme's comment -and I'll be overruled happily- at 3 I'd be inclined to say "OK the Black is stuffed -I'll put out the nearest to the optimum I can (15% down) but rather than just make the other courses agree to the formula as a proportion I'll make them look as near right in absolute terms -even if the Brown closes up on the Black.
As I said I'll be overruled

[buzz]

Just to clarify my disappointment re Saturday. As Homer suggested It wasn't a particularly technical area by lake district standards, but also...

The area was too steep for a middle distance race - the Brown had nearly 300m climb although it was advertised as nearer 200m.
The map was poor (I suspect Bilbo was paid to update part of a map which needed actually completely resurveying)
It was too muddy - OK not much could be done about the rain last week .

Personally I think the organisers and planners did a great job with a poor area and map, my concern is that it seemed to have the same billing as the excellent Torver event and was givent the status of a UK Masters Cup race.

I think either MDOC should have commisioned a new map - perhaps at 1:5,000 to make more use of the best bits of the area - or come clean and billed it as secondary event at level C.

On second thoughts though the decision to spend Saturday's revenues on arranging the weather for the weekend was perhaps the best option!

Well done all - great weekend.

[Angry Haggis]

Mdoc.org.uk is still unavailable, but Day-2 results are accessible on the MDOC-members website. At least from here, and now ...

Your browser needed refreshing but I assure you the site was there. The MDOC members bit you refer to is a part of the mdoc.org.uk site which would not have been visible if the site was down.

http://www.mdoc.org.uk works but not http://mdoc.org.uk

[brooner]

Is it just me or are the overall results somewhat borked? Lots of missing runners, particularly on the women's results.

[Scott]

Looks like the age-classes have been assigned to the wrong courses (or at least not to the same courses as in the final details).

[mharky]

John Rocke is certainly missing, he only ran 1 day, but isn't down at the bottom

[graeme]

John Rocke is listed under "Black". He's not in the same class as you EUOC boys

[LostAgain]

There are a large number of "Quality" runners listed under the colour coded courses rather than assigned to their age course.

[mharky]

Strange...

Also, for the SROC Hutton Roof event, I had the choice of either entering M21L of Black. I think I went for M21L, but some others went for black.

Same situation at SOL1, no black course, just an M21L...