WRE Trossachs SOL1

[mappingmum]

Great day, thanks FVO. Thought my course was technically and physically tough.

If anyone found a red SI Card today (410906) please can you PM me. Reward (bottle of decent red wine) offerred !! It was lost between the far start and control 115 (control 1 for many people). Here's hoping, although I fear it's lost to the mud and undergrowth forever.

[Darwin]

Great event! Thanks to all involved.

A slightly puzzling thing. Short Brown 5.6k was officially only 250m of climb - actually it was more like 465m.

At 465m it would be in line with the shorter courses - for example Blue at 4.9k and 345m climb (and all the other courses, which had a much higher climb percentage).

Now, looking at the results on the BOF website I wonder if this affects the ranking points?

The top two on Short Brown got very modest points for very fast runs. Personally I would have got roughly the same points for running Blue in the same time that I ran the longer Short Brown.

I know many people are not bothered about the ranking list - but that can't be right can it?

[Scott]

The climbed as calculated by the planner has no bearing on the ranking list. I think at least part of what has happened here is that the Blue course, with some fast juniors on it, has fallen victim to the "200% of winner's time" cutoff, which means that about a third of all the finishers have been excluded from the rankings calculations, skewing the points. This is a bug in the algorithm that BOF are aware of, and which will hopefully be fixed in the near future.

[mappingmum]

Short Brown 5.6k was officially only 250m of climb - actually it was more like 465m.

Isn't the official climb based on straight line distances between controls? The actual climb may be different depending on your route choice.

Anyone found my SI Card yet?!

[frog]

TAY lost a few things as well. Dave P lost his SI Card, Alan B's compass fell to bits and Duncan lost his map and then got well lost trying to find his way back, being rescued by the planner in his car who gave him a map as he was heading the wrong way down the road, trying to find the start to finish the course, which is keener than i'd have been.
It sounds like the good basis for one of those CompassSport logic puzzles. Which orienteer from the club had a problem with which bit of their kit at which control on which course..

It's a great area though, I enjoyed it but wished I'd concentrated a bit more early on.

[Darwin]

Not usually. Measured on the straight line the climb is 650m.

[Scott]

The rules (Appendix B, 3.6.2) say

Height climb is measured as defined in rule 6.1.3, and quoted to ± 5m. That is, it is measured "along the shortest sensible route", which may well be longer than the route used for measuring the course length. This is not necessarily the "optimum route", nor is it necessarily the route which the planner would take: it is simply the course length route extended to avoid those hills/valleys etc which all competitors will also avoid. The intention is to give a figure which is representative of the climb which a competitor could actually undertake. As a rule of thumb, if a competitor will go over it, count it in; if you're not sure whether they'll go over it, count it in – only discount it if you are certain that all the competitors will go around it.

[mappingmum]

that shows how much I know, then!

[Scott]

Well, on the basis of the rules it ought to be reasonably close to the straight-line climb most of the time.

I once planned a (mercifully very minor) event where all the courses were listed as having twice the amount of climb they should have had because I didn't check the contour interval...

[Duncan]

UK Cup standings are updated following the two events, see http://www.ukcup.org.uk/. Let me know if anyone sees any problems: duncan (at) ukcup.org.uk

[Jon X]

Routegadget as well as results now available at http://www.fvo.org.uk

[mike g]

Awesome weekend. Thanks FVO.

[King Penguin]

I thought guidelines said that climb should be max. 5% of course length ?
On 5.6 km Short Brown that would mean 280 m.

I wasn't there on Sunday, but I have run on the Trossachs previoulsy and I recognise that keeping climb down to the guidelines will always be a challenge, but 465 m would be somewhat over and 650 m is well over 10%.

That said, I'd far rather have extra climb for the benefit of a good course than a mediocre course constrained by trying to fit in with the guidelines.

[frog]

I didn't find the climb that bad, got more disgruntled by keeping on finding myself at the top of small hills above cliffs with no easy way down and a dodgy ankle, maybe I was going so slowly the climb seemed irrelevent. I remember the downs more than the ups and spent alot of time slithering.

[ryeland of doom]

The climb was fine - I was happier going up some of that ground than descending it.
A great day!