Event Details
Club: | Pendle Forest Orienteers |
Event Name: | Gisburn Forest Middle |
Date: | 21/03/15 |
Format: | MTBO |
Mapping: | Orienteering |
Time Limit: | |
National League: | - |
League: | Gisburn MTBO Hat-trick 2015 (Round 1 of 3) |
Electronic Punch: | SportIdent |
Event Report
I hope you all enjoyed the weekend's racing, the weather was certainly kind which always helps. The idea for doing a hat-trick of races came about by extending the idea that a pair of events in a weekend makes travelling more worthwhile. I had a feeling we would be able to get access to the area west of the road at night (normally no biking allowed) and then it was just a question of working out how to make the best of the rest of the area and make three different events, and being different from the last event there in 2011.
Having update the map and finished planning the courses in early December we were ready very early but a very drawn out permissions dialogue I was left with only four days to get the maps finalised and to the printers. As a result in a few places the final production of the overprint wasn't brilliant. Because of the gaffles there were 40 separate final maps to prepare, and 14 of those had one of four different blow up sections to add on which in itself was a difficult process.
We tried the a symbol for showing the direction of the singletrack and I think from the feedback it's fair to say that was not a success. There were a few sections I felt we really couldn't use just arrows as there wasn't space for them. One place was at Whelpstone crags and it didn't work as we had a few riders go the wrong way up to control 136. We decided just to leave the result alone but it's quite possible this changed the winner of the A course. I realised after it was too late I'd covered an arrow with a circle so apologies for this. Ideally as a planner you don't plan legs which could be open to shortcutting, but on the other hand you have to make use of what intricate bits you have.
I'd like to thank PFO for all their help. They are willing to put lots of time in to MTBO events, and to be honest I can't quite see what's in it for them, so many thanks. Some of the courses I planned simply wouldn't have been possible without extra helpers to run remote starts etc. It made sense to use the new hub for the car park as there are toilets (and there was a cafe, sorry if anybody was disappointed it was closed), but the area around there is not the best bit for MTBO and starting and finishing three events from there would've been quite dull.
Lastly the biggest thanks go to Sarah for putting up with me stressing and looking after the two boys for the weekend while I was off having a "rest".