Sheffield Weekend - Sat 30th / Sun 31st January 2010

[DJM]

Yes, a great pity about the symbol sizes on the 1:10000 map - something went very wrong there ... I've just enlarged my map to 400% to see what's happened and I reckon that, instead of the symbols being enlarged to 150% of their 1:15000 size, they're actually smaller than the 1:15000 size, e.g. the small depression symbol should be 1.2 mm across on a 1:10000 map (0.8 mm for 1:15000), whereas I make it to be approx 0.6 mm across instead ...

The 400% blow-up for #48 shows a single diminished black triangle (ISOM symbol 208, boulder field) in the circle centre [NB only one triangle whereas there should be a minimum of two]. It's about 0.4 mm long and sits exactly along a contour line and is hence practically invisible!

However, there's nothing on this thread yet about Saturday's Middle race which was well worth my 400 mile round trip on its own. A sheer delight!

[JEP]

On the ground the boulder field seemed to be 50 metres or so across so more than one or two black triangle needed. The flag was on the west side but the map was clearly wrong - so why did the Controller allow this site to be used? There were plenty of boulders on the map nearby which wouldn't have changed the shape of the course.

The planning on course 11 was pretty ordinary. Straight line across the slope - hardly any up or down across the slope - mindless flog up onto the top and mindless flog across deep heather before dropping down to the finish.

Never mind the weather was good although I was promised frozen marshes and no wet feet - they had started to melt.

[PG]

My apologies for the map symbol size issue which will have spoiled people’s runs.

To minimise the need for multiple map changes, I didn’t want to get the 1:10,000 versions of the map set up until final adjustments were made to the map, which was just after Christmas. I had some problems with Condes (details below for those interested) and it took three versions of the 1:10,000 A3 map and two weeks to get one that I could fit to the courses. While the first versions had correct symbol sizes, the final one didn’t and unfortunately we didn’t spot it in our final checks before the maps went off to be printed, nor in subsequent checking.

There used to be checklists to help us to tick off all the checks that need to be done in planning and controlling. I know the combination of event levels and the proliferation of event types (sprint, urban etc.) means that checklists would be very complicated, but if they could be made to work (maybe in an Excel spreadsheet with filters by type and level?) they would certainly help relieve the pressure on major event officials.

Peter Gorvett (planner)

The boring detail
The event was planned using the multiple canvas functionality recently introduced into Condes using a base map at 1:15,000. I had set up a second canvas as a 1:10000 version of the courses. I had decided to go for 6mm circles on both scales, so the circles were potentially covering different features at each scale; Condes allows different splits on each canvas and I using this functionality. However, I had problems getting Condes to pick up and match the 1:10000 version of the map. The “move map” command didn’t work on canvas 2. (I had some email exchanges with Finn Arildsen and he couldn’t reproduce the problem. I promised to send him our files and a fuller problem description when the event was over). After attempts to fix the initial version didn't work, the process was started again.... with the unfortunate consequence.

Hilary Quick’s excellent Condes user guide could do with some supplementary information on the use of multiple canvasses for two-scale events; I’m hoping to be able to provide some input for her.

[PG]

The planning on course 11 was pretty ordinary. Straight line across the slope - hardly any up or down across the slope

Both the wooded slopes were difficult to plan on. Any higher than the control sites I used and you would have been in boulder fields; any nearer the path and I thought everybody would have been running along the path and up and down in and out of the controls (though after all the snow runnablity was much better than I had expected, so perhaps straight routes would have still been a good option). The southern part of the southern slope ("Jack Flat" according to the OS!) is a jumble of overgrown boulders - real ankle-breaking stuff.

I had originally planned the technical courses to start 200m East of the Blue start (with some courses running south-eastwards backthrough the wooded area), but sheep have been kept out of “The Warren” area for the last 10 years and the bracken just didn't go flat. The controller and myself agreed that M80s mountaineering over giant hummocks of bracken would have been rightfully aggrieved, as would many others. So I moved the start to the final position.

[The boulder field symbol for control 48 is] about 0.4 mm long and sits exactly along a contour line and is hence practically invisible!

I hadn't understood how much blacker things look when printed digitally compared to litho. It looked fine on the courses I printed at home, so I was dismayed when the printer spotted the problem after the maps were litho-printed. We thought about changing the courses, but with only 10 days to go it would have been too risky.

[Kevin King]

As controller of this event I am sorry if anyone's run was spoilt by the issues with the map. I think the planners comments on this site are excellent and explain what happened.