Short Race Weekend

[Pete_Bog]

Maps are at the Routegadget page: -

http://www.leioc.routegadget.co.uk/leioc/reitti.cgi

[Marco Polo]

A reminder that entries for the Short Race Weekend close midnight tonight.



http://www.fabian4.co.uk/default.aspx?EventID=160

[Mrs H]

Have you noticed how the fox on the Leicestershire emblem has a shark's head for a tail - do you think it means something?

[greywolf]

3) Slightly surprised that the entry for the Middle race is c. 50% higher than that for the Sprint. Is it a Saturday vs Sunday thing? Is it the "Elite" tag? Are folk that averse to Sprint races? I would have thought 2* Sprint is equivalent value for money to a Middle race...

Crude analysis of the start lists suggests its an age thing - Most of the young people are going to both: (90% of m14- m35, & 91% of w14- w35), c. 3/4 of the middle aged (78% of m40-m55 & 71% of w40 - w55) and less than half of the old folk (50% of m55+, 44% of w55+).
M/W split is c. 63/37 on both days, but again with considerable age variation – W’s make up almost half of juniors(m/w 10-20), and of 45s, but much are a much lower % in the 35/40 and 55+ ranges.

Interesting that the middle entry is so much higher. I'd think that confirms my opinion that a British Champs means something to a lot of people, (even those with no hope of winning their class). Whereas, as has been made abundantly clear over the past 3 years the British Elite Champs is definitely not a British Champs for the vast majority that are not elite.

Except that it’s pretty much the same pattern for the JK – using the same age groupings as above for men the percentages are 79 / 63 / 42 and for women 73 / 54 / 39 (overall a lower percentage of JK competitors do the sprint, which might be because its on a Friday…)

Dunno what this all means, other than that I’ve just offended all the M/W 55+s by calling them old folk Is this age group particularly resistant to change I wonder? I seem to remember that a fairly low % of WMOC particpants did the sprint last year ... but those that did seemed to enjoy the experience .... and I think when I get old (soon) I'll be much happier running round the streets and parks than up and down some poxy rocky / brambly / heathery mountain

Btw, the M/W 10/12 % is only just over 50% at both the short race weekend & the JK. Traffic worries?

[Oldman]

I offer two possible explanations:
1. The term "sprint" is absurd for us "old folk".
2. When there is a multi-day weekend, we "old folk" have to consider how many races to run. We have old legs (and old injuries that might flare up).

[seabird]

Dunno what this all means, other than that I’ve just offended all the M/W 55+s by calling them old folk Is this age group particularly resistant to change I wonder?

As one of the offended group I'd agree with both propositions.

As an illustration of the second proposition: 2 months after our last regional event members of this age group are still pestering for badge times on our club forum, a matter as far as I can see that is deeply irrelevant to most younger orienteeers.

[DJM]

greywolf wrote:

I seem to remember that a fairly low % of WMOC particpants did the sprint last year

Well, if you regard 90% as "fairly low", then you're quite correct!

[greywolf]

looked at WMOC results for a few random age groups last night and all between 81 & 87% - so much higher than I had thought... does that argue against Oldman's "being selective at multidays" hypothesis?

[DJM]

WMOC 2008
Sprint start list (overall): 3102 runners
Long start list (overall): 3462 runners

3102 is 89.6% of 3462