2008 SoSOL 2 @ The Eildon Hills
The Eildon Hills, 16 November 2008
Officials’ Comments
Organiser’s Comments
Despite the dreadful summer and hence the very muddy conditions underfoot, we were so lucky to have a beautiful autumn day which made for a very enjoyable event. Parking was always going to be a bit difficult but no problems materialised, thank goodness.
Apologies to any competitors who were distracted by 2 controls on the string course. We hope it didn’t spoil a good run!
Many thanks to the “neighbours” for tolerating all the traffic and to all RR club members for their invaluable help.
Judy McNeilly (Organiser)
Planner’s Comments
As always the revising of the map took much longer than anticipated and, despite starting the process back in June, I ran out of time to do everything I would have liked to. However I have nice memories of applying sunscreen and spending long hours out in the fresh air – we did get a sort-of summer didn’t we, or am I imagining things? My later memories are of picking raspberries, the wonderful autumn colours in the woods, fungus rings, wet feet and orange mud.
Since the last time the map was used the cattle and pony trekkers have been replaced by sheep, resulting in many paths becoming overgrown. My thanks to Robin Sloan for forging ways through the ferocious gorse and to Microsoft for the fairly recent aerial map of the area, both of which were vital to my mapping and course planning. There are blocks still to revise and maybe a few more paths to clear before your next visit.
I’m grateful to Ian and Kirstin Maxwell who acted as Assistant Planners, test-running various courses and helping to put out controls so that I could concentrate on finishing the mapping and organising the Sportident system. My thanks also to Robin Strain who faithfully turns up and provides valuable knowledge when things don’t go quite to plan. Last, but by no means least, thanks to John Biggar for Controlling RR once again
Lindsey Knox (Planner, Mapper and SI Person)
Assistant Planner’s comments
As assistant planner I had the chance to try out most of the courses and ran the various route choice options on the longer courses:
Start to 1(104) on Green, Blue and Brown: Fastest route for me was east up the re-entrant then round the path to the 3rd junction and in, but up the re-entrant and straight may be quicker for a strong runner (10 seconds slower for me). All the way round the path to the north was about 20 seconds slower.
1 to 2 (115) on Blue and Brown: Clockwise round the hill was about 30 seconds quicker than anti-clockwise over the coll.
3 to 4 (111) Blue or (113) Brown: Back up the hill was about 30 seconds quicker than down the hill and along the fence.
2 to 3 (114) Green: Up the hill and round the indistinct path was about 20 seconds quicker than following the fence then up the main path.
12 (105) to 13 (102) Blue and 17 (109) to 18 (102) Brown: I thought coming down and running in the wood may be quicker but it was around 40 seconds slower however it gave an easy attack point for a difficult control.
Ian Maxwell (Co-assistant Planner)
Controller’s Comments
…coming soon
