British Long

[JEP]

Entries now closed fro British Long. Elite entries very low - 42 men, 22 women.

Helen Bridle, Helen Plamer, Rachel Rothman, Hollie Orr, Cath Taylor and Tessa Hill all missing. No Scott, GG, Matt Speake or Doug Tullie from the men. No doubt they will all be at the Tio Mila and will all be at the Scottish which is a WOC Selection race. Events Committee alerted to the clash but not interested in a change.

Winners will probably come from Claire Ward or Sarah Rollins with Mhairi McKenzie a possible dark horse. Ollie Johnson, Murray Strain, Hector Haines look favourites for men's race.

[Kitch]

I para phrase one of our best runner here but this is what they said after the JK relays.

"Well, thats it. No meaningful home races now for 2 months. Just the Scottish / Selections; one set of race, that could have been two."

[housewife]

Let's hope a small field = a big start Interval. Oh but i bet there is a bof rule for this sort of thing.

[SJC]

Oh but i bet there is a bof rule for this sort of thing.

and so there should be. That way the organisers will get it right.

[graeme]

That way the organisers will get it right.

Well, follow the rule anyway.
Maximum 3 mins on elite to whoever is at your standard, as far apart as possible on W35. Go figure which is more sensible and make your choice.
Half a lemonade* says your 3-minute woman gets a medal

* Or similar


If only someone could have convinced me I'd be able to read the map I might have joined the fun. Please don't tell me now that its going to be legible like Silver Howe.

[Arnold]

Also overall only 1,400 runners which must be quite low historically?
Presume the combination of high entry fees + faff to get there (long drive and bus transfer) putting people off?

[King Penguin]

i suspect the marquee will be rather crowded, as the bus time window calculations do not seem to allow any additional time for the conveyors of club tents to erect them - unless you just get there early and take a chance that you will be allowed on an earlier bus.

[andypat]

Also overall only 1,400 runners which must be quite low historically?
Presume the combination of high entry fees + faff to get there (long drive and bus transfer) putting people off?

Certainly an issue for some of us with young families - but I'm sure it will be a fun weekend.

[housewife]

Maximum 3 mins on elite to whoever is at your standard, as far apart as possible on W35. Go figure which is more sensible and make your choice.
Half a lemonade* says your 3-minute woman gets a medal

Its not really people getting assistance from those that start around them hat concerns me, though 3 mins will make a difference to the results. I like the solitude of a long race, which with a 3 min window is unlikely.

[PhilJ]

Presume the combination of high entry fees + faff to get there

yep, my wife thought it might be nice to go afterall and was about to enter when she saw the entry fee was now £29.00...to run W45..when the original fee was only £19.00. She asked me what she would be getting for the extra tenner? Easy answer...nothing..hence no entry from my wife. Any justifcation for the huge increase? Will we ever learn? We don't seem to and 1400 entries is a shocking number seeing we have over 11,000 members. BO need to learn lessons from this. I feel sorry for the hard working Lakeland folk who are putting this on as it takes all your resources, time and effort and "kills" everyone.
We have discussed caps on entry fees before but £29.00 to run a course (probably a Short Blue) that you can run for £6-£8 at any other time is not sustainable.

[daffdy]

Also overall only 1,400 runners which must be quite low historically?
Presume the combination of high entry fees + faff to get there (long drive and bus transfer) putting people off?

This. Last year there were 1912 entrants, this year it's only 1440. I think the location must have quite a lot to do with that - hopefully we haven't lost 25% of the active membership in a year!

It's just about fine if you've got a car and big pockets for hotels, but what if you're trying to go by public transport? Or don't want to stay overnight? Using public transport, it's only possible to get as close as I'd need to be for my (presumably really early) start on 20E by skipping a day of uni on Friday - usually fine for geogaphy students, but not if there's a fieldtrip all day long...

The location is understandable if BOC is just about giving the most dedicated athletes in each class a race in the best terrain, but if it's maximum participation we're after having it in an out of the way location and then adding a bus 2.5 hours before your start is pretty daft. Especially if there's a clash with an event somewhere else that pinches a load of the most dedicated athletes. Still, it's looking like it'll be a great event once everyone gets there!

[frog]

I found the location was OK and better than many BOC locations for Scots. I agree I resented forking out £29, early low entry fees seem designed for people who never have to work weekends or English bank holidays, the £8 for the urban race seemed much more reasonable but accept it's a remote area and know from the JK what a nightmare parking large numbers of folk is and buses do push the cost up, it's a shame we wouldn't all fit on the trains.

[Mrs H]

Yes the cost and the faff put me off the individuals but we are coming up for a long weekend going walking and doing the relays and the urban

[Ant W]

Same as PhilJ's wife here. We were originally planning to go as a family for the whole long weekend, had reserved space in JOK's accommodation, then when we realised what Saturday would be like had to go back and unreserve. After much faffing thought one of us (OK, me) might go up individually but then decided to give up on principle when I saw the price was now £29. Realise that travel/camping costs might be more significant but a £10 hike just seemed out of order.

[Scott]

To be fair, if your event requires busing then then you probably have an unusually good reason to incentivise early entry by offering a big discount. It's not a problem to arrange for a few extra maps to be printed in order to cater for a late surge in entries a couple of weeks before the event, but I imagine that trying to charter extra buses for a bank holiday weekend would be a little trickier.