Northern Championships - not grim up North

[AndyC]

Preliminary results and Colin's comments are at http://www.newcastleorienteering.org.uk/evres/1011/rdm/index.html

[Pippa]

It definitely would have made my map very confusing in the final stages to have purple overprint on the uncrossable features, especially at 1:15 000. However, I have to say I only remembered the comment in the final details about 'crossing at designated crossing points if the line between controls was broken' when presented with such a decision in the course. It would have been helpful for the start team to briefly remind people of this rule, especially for those people who may not have waded through all the final details. I doubt that many people broke the rule 'on purpose'.

Loved the last ten controls. Could have done with longer legs for the rest (my legs that is)!

Pippa

[graeme]

Quite possibly the best event I've ever been to in the North East. Could do with some more weather like that up here, though it seems to have brought out the ticks.
My old eyes especially appreciated the clear printing at 1:15, essential for the control picking at the end.

[pete.owens]

First, I should say that it was a good day out with the neither the heather nor the marshes being as bad as I was anticipating and good variety in the courses. However, the lack of overprint was definitely ambiguous and caused confusion with other competitors I spoke to.

Apparently there was some sort of note pinned in the start lane somewhere that said something along the lines of "Some fences may be crossed and some must not be crossed but you have to work out for yourself which is which" (I'm only paraphrasing second hand as I hadn't got past working out the bit about shades of green not being quite right by the time I had to move on to the next box.)

I nearly got caught out even after following this debate, printing off the map and working out which were the probable uncrossable fences and walls. (Course 8 leg 5 cuts diagonally across a corner of one of the enclosures with a crossing point marked on the second fence crossing, but not the first - The natural reaction is to simplify the leg by heading for the crossing point and ignoring all intermediate detail).

Now, I think it is probably OK if there is a prohibition on crossing ALL walls and fences, the start official announces this to all competitors in the start lane and ALL legs crossing the walls are bent to a crossing point. Hoping that competitors will, unprompted, notice, read and understand one of a number of complicated instructions within the minute available under a high pressure situation is a bit optimistic.

[housewife]

I would have preferred fences overprinted. This gives you certainty as you run. I didn't take a route choice early on as i was unsure whether i could cross the fence. On the whole a good course. If a thick mist could be guaranteed it would be an excellent area. i liked the fiddly bit at the start. Anyone else have the route choice to no 1 dominated by where they were most likely to find a bush to pee behind???

Great string course. Lovely ladies, si units, not too long, not too rough, not too far away, interesting features, proper map, nice prize, i could go on. As a parent a good string course, short distances to the start and finish really, really help. The other thing that makes a real difference is being able to get a punching start for the later starter if poss. The mooor was quicker than i expected, which meant i got back ages before the later start. If we could have got a punching 2nd start it would have cut the hanging around by over an hour. not a problem on such a nice day but it would have been a different matter had it been chucking it down.

[Freefall]

I had asked for a quick briefing by the Start team about fences but was overruled. On an area with sheep the fences were there to stop them wandering into the woods as well as keeping tenant farmers apart. The fences also stopped sheep going onto the old railway line and making their escape to Newcastle. Fences and walls in the woods were generally poor condition and as we said could be crossed.

I am glad so many people enjoyed their courses - sorry they were a bit short or you were too fast. The M21E was originally 500m longer and this (and all the other longer courses) went over the hill to the north side. I was told the heather was too deep there and nobody would thank me so compromised by taking you up the hill in relatively short heather. This meant the long legs didn't quite have the over or around problem that I had envisaged but you might agree it was a grand viewpoint over the area.

I covered 20 km yesterday checking and collecting controls. Ouch.

[housewife]

I meant the fiddly bit at the end obviously.

[Garnon]

Thanks to everyone involved in the event, nice course and area

I'd just like to point out, for future events, an issue with the loose control descriptions. The attached image shows the issue. The printing didn't seem to be brilliant and hence some control numbers were unclear, with 5's looking like 6's for example. For control 20 the actual code was 125, but here it looks like 126. Thankfully I'd already noticed this problem earlier on the course, so when I found 125 I double checked with the control descriptions on the map which were much clearer. Though I know some people who lost time wondering around, trying to find control 126.

[Neil M40]

Apologies to those who found the control description sheets a bit blurred, confusing 5s and 6s. Control descriptions on the litho printed maps were very clear and I was surprised these runners didn't think to check.

Whenever I make an apology I am always keen to explain to the wronged party why they only have themselves to blame. For some reason this tends to make her shout at me more than the original offence.

Control 125 was on a crag amongst several other crags and unmapped rock features. The natural first assumption on finding control code 125 when expecting code 126 would be that you are in the wrong place.

Like Garnon I had already noticed the problem and lost no time here, but I can sympathise with the people that did.

[epocian]

Thanks to everyone involved in the event, nice course and area

I'd just like to point out, for future events, an issue with the loose control descriptions. The attached image shows the issue. The printing didn't seem to be brilliant and hence some control numbers were unclear, with 5's looking like 6's for example. For control 20 the actual code was 125, but here it looks like 126. Thankfully I'd already noticed this problem earlier on the course, so when I found 125 I double checked with the control descriptions on the map which were much clearer. Though I know some people who lost time wondering around, trying to find control 126.

I've got rubbish eyesight and No 20 looks like 125 to me! The 5's got flat top - a 6 has a curved top

[andy]

Yeah I had an 'is it a 6, is it an 8' problem with the descriptions too. Perhaps if they'd been professionally printed on waterproof paper? I think this is what the 6 days did last time? I certainly remember it happening at an event in Scotland recently and thinking it was an excellent idea.

M21E was an excellent course, I managed to stuff up the most testing route choice leg (7) by a good margin though
I can normally do a 90 min ewt course in around 2 hours so it was definitely a touch short (confirmed by the 80min winning time) but the challenge was there and it was really enjoyable so can't complain!

Thanks to NATO for a fun weekend (perhaps double check which entrances into a maze are taped next time though )

also, to the results person - any chance of getting splits up on Winsplits? (by far the best splits analysis tool!)

[Scott]

Yeah I had an 'is it a 6, is it an 8' problem with the descriptions too. Perhaps if they'd been professionally printed on waterproof paper? I think this is what the 6 days did last time? I certainly remember it happening at an event in Scotland recently and thinking it was an excellent idea.

Having seen it done a couple of times, I had the loose descriptions professionally printed on waterproof paper at the last event I organised. It really didn't add very much to the printing costs, and it saved me spending an hour or more with the guillotine cutting them up by hand, so I think it's a good idea all round

[Jethro]

I have to disagree with pete.owens regarding start officials giving out instructions about crossing points. Firstly it is an almost impossible job for an official to accurately repeat a message about a fairly complicated issue like crossing points in the short time available and to do this perhaps 150 times. Secondly from a competitors point of view I for one like to be totally focused on the race about to start and not have to try and absorb any more superflous imformation other than "step over the line" at such a vital time. I very strongly feel that any information (be it crossing point, out of bounds etc) which is vital to a fair competition and to the future access to an area must be displayed fully on the map and in the control descriptions. That means over-printing in purple ALL uncrossable boundaries, marking all crossing points and adding a line, "use marked crossing point" in the control descriptions. This can obviously still be mentioned in the final instructions and perhaps re-inforced by a notice in the start lanes as a "belt and braces" approach. It is however unrealistic to expectect an athlete in the heat of competition to remember some previously read or heard instruction without being able to directly reference this information on the map. We all know how disfunctional our brains can become under oxygen debt so it is not surprising that competitors get confused by crossing point instructions. It is about time that a standard procedure was adopted for all events which would go a long way to clearing up any confusion.

[Freefall]

OK - I'll comply next time if there is a next time. More likely to be something here in Scotland of course! I am still not sure purple overprinting is the answer to all our prayers. I was confused a few years ago at an NN event where the overprint obscured the wall to such a degree that I wondered what the wall was and where was it on my map when I came to it (if that makes sense in my befuddled state now).
I think many were glad courses were on the short side because there were some long times too. I really enjoyed spectating in the finish area - runners everywhere and vital seconds were lost by some in all the crossovers. Works well in some circumstances.

[awk]

Thanks to NATO for a fun weekend (perhaps double check which entrances into a maze are taped next time though )

Yes, this had me spitting teeth at the end, having had an almost completely clean run to that point. The planner and controller were somewhat bemused when I went to discuss it with them - I gather that some other body decided that the critical gap (i.e the one that gave the simplest and quickest attack to the control) needed to be taped. Some, I know, jumped it, others were similarly affected, and some not at all if entering by other (but slower) entrances. I lost 30 seconds trying to recover, having had that leg perfectly set up, and another 10 seconds or so on the next leg. Stadium was a bit bingoish given the light issue too. Great idea though, and overall had the potential to be a superb sprint. Certainly enjoyed myself once accepting the issues.