aldershot?

[rocky]

good evening my little forumite friends. how was aldershot today? anyone alive to tell the tale?

in scotland today, scotia won the greenmantle dash in a course record, oleg came 3rd despite walking down the hill, and i got given a prize despite not running.

[Simon]

Well Barny injured himself at control five, on the short, and walked the rest of the way (in around three hours). His comment was that it 'was a long way to walk'.
GG had done the short in 74 minutes.

One cyclist had got back from the long and reckoned he had done about thirty miles.

No sign of any runners back from the long course at the point when Barny decided to come home for some more food, which was about four hours after first start.

[Paulo]

I had a very pleasant cycle round the 'short' MTBO option, something like 19km in 1hr 56 which was a bit longer than I'd expected. Hard work cycling through the sandy tracks of Long Valley in places, but a thoroughly enjoyable ride. Time not helped by front wheel falling off my bike half way round.

Saw a few folk who'd got back from the long run - "very tough" seemed to be the general consensus. When I left there were about 5 times up on that, the quickest of which was 4 hrs 7 mins. No doubt times will get a bit faster, but it sounded like hard work.

[Supersaint]

i've just about recovered from the uber long-o, don't think i'll be training tomorrow though!

I think final results for the long foot-o were Nick B 3.16, me 3.32, Ed C 3.54, Ant S 3.56. We had a monster 8km leg (although it was just along the canal). It certainly paid to leave some energy for the end, i lost loads of time on the last of 7 maps from walking loads as legs had turned to jelly. An epic course, but thoroughly enjoyable.

GG won the 16km short foot-o in 75, Mharky was 2nd in 79 (both very fast times).

[gg]

the bit on mytchett and windmill hill looked like the best bit, shame the short couldnt take in that as well

i have damn sore feet now - dobs on roads hurt

[mharky]

results are up, linked from baoc.org.uk

[ifor]

Nice event on my bike. Don't know if I would of liked to of run, all the dead running will not of been much fun. The cannal was getting boring on my bike, even with a break half way along to re-atach a peddle that came off...

Anyone know why we had the overprint in that dark purple colour. I kept confusing the line for a forest road going exactly where I wanted to go, stupid realy but with the map vibrating on the mapboard it's very hard to get a good view.

Ifor

[P2B]

The first day back at work after the xmas break and I can't sit down after (just about) completing the long MTBO yesterday.

Every painful meter of it was brilliant! A big to the organisers for such an amazing event! And I am totally in awe of you guys who did the full foot long-O... I was dead on arrival at the finish line and I did it on a bike!

Bring on the next event (I take it everyone has finished by now??!!)

[mharky]

I wouldn't be too sure, about 15 people were still out as darkness fell...

[P2B]

I wouldn't be too sure, about 15 people were still out as darkness fell...

It got cold too when it got dark... I was sure glad to be heading home in the car (via the petrol station for pepsi and meat slices).

I am totally in awe of you guys who did the full foot long-O...

Sounds like a subway sandwich, but you know what I mean!

Anyone got any funny stories? I just plodded round with my better half. We got a bit lost at one point and cut across country. My better half managed to hit the only rock in the forest and went over the handle bars... but the best bit was seeing him fall off on the finish line, trying to unhook his emit card and punch, whilst looking stylish. I don't think he managed any of the above.

[Guest]

A fine day out and thanks to Dave and team for making it happen. The canal got a bit tedious and seemed to go on and on. Just glad I used road shoes!! I measured the route both from the maps and also on the Surrey County Council interactive map and reckon the long run is pretty close to 25 miles which is about 40 km. That explains why I felt tired at the end. It wasn't as bad as The Comrades which didn't have the luxury of flat canals, but it was a pretty close second. Looking forward to the summer edition now!!

Thanks

Alastair (GO)

[Mr timE]

Thanks for all the nice comments guys, glad you enjoyed the chance to work off the christmas pud. You will be glad to know we got the last ones in just before 1700hrs, it having got dark at 1630hrs. Only 2 people on Long MTBO had to be rescued from the emergency pick-up point at Norris Bridge, where competitors crossed from Long Valley onto the Pyestock the last of 7 maps. One of them was poor Steph Bogart who had been your minibus driver all morning and was one of the last to start, so she ran out of time.
Dave and I will put planner & organiser comments up shortly, Dave was collecting controls until 2030hrs and I fell asleep after food and a glass of ale. Hopefully we can repeat the event next year, although with the BH being on Mon 1 Jan, we are considering Sat 30 Dec 06, thoughts please? We will probably drop Barossa & Bagshot and have start on Frith Hill, bring in Ash Ranges and finish on Hawley. Will also map North Camp between Mytchett & Long Valley to remove canal section. I think we also need a second van for bikes and to give you half hour guideline start blocks.

[Mr timE]

Looking forward to the summer edition now!!Alastair (GO)

Alastair mentions the summer edition, which is an aspiration if it can be fitted in, where we may run the event in high summer with an canoe section at the end on Hawley Lakes. Aim would be to run, bike and then canoe at end of the bike, perhaps also throw in a micro O section at the very end on the Gibraltar Bks map as well.

[Tessa]

i loved it! thanks so much to the organisers, was great fun.

took me a while to realise the long valley map was at 45 degrees, and even longer to figure it was 1:15000 - oooops!

looking forward to the next one now, canoe sounds awesome.

[P2B]

Yes, yes, yes to summer event and winter event (30 Dec sounds like a good date - stay away from 1st Jan unless you want to hamper efforts with alcohol poisoning too!) Throw in anything you can to either. A micr-o at the end of 35k would stump the best of them!

Start blocks would be a very good idea. I knew that I was going to be out for a good while, so made an effort to get an early start, however, by the time we'd failed to get on one minibus and waited for the next one, a good while had passed, allowing us to get cold too. Less canal would be good (if possible) but it was far better than a long road section.

Thanks once again!