Results for Borrough Hill C4 02, Borrough Hill, 03/02/2002

Any queries, errors, or omissions should in the first instance be addressed to Kevin Bradley, e-mail web@leioc.org.uk

It was enjoyable running the ups and downs of Burrough Hill in frost, rain, gales and in the more pleasant weak, winter sun that arrived on the day of the event, despite the weathermen's forebodings and the rich blue and red sky early in the morning (shepherd's warning).

Burrough Hill is not a suitable area for a brown course as it is just too small. However the EMG requires the full colour spectrum. Ideally the brown course should have been blue but that would have left me without a brown course unless there were repeat legs merely to target a slightly different control site. No one complained about the short running times on these two courses. The combination of fast running and steep climbs seems to have presented a different race style. Matched with the exposed area, it seems to have satisfied competitors.

Electronic punching is throwing up new challenges for clubs; different skills required of officials; a greater accumulation of more technical equipment; more hours pre-event preparation, are some. Perhaps there is a case for limiting use to C3 events and selected C4. I estimate the hours I put into planning, including on the Saturday and Sunday of the event, equals 30 minutes for each entrant. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions as to whether this is viable.

Thanks for the help from other club members, too many to name, except for contoller Dave who good naturedly corrected my mistakes.

Sue has commented on the difficulty of planning sufficiently testing courses at Burrough Hill for the blue and brown competitors, and the fast times recorded by competitors on those courses do show that the technical difficulties of the area are fairly minimal - or is it just that we are all getting fitter? However despite its shortcomings, the gradients, the elevation, and the views combine to give the Burrough Hill a character of its own, quite different from that of most other East Midland areas.

The short courses also pose problems for the planner. The lack of distinct footpaths and other line features meant that the white and yellow courses were probably more difficult than the guidelines suggest. However the relatively few competitors on those courses seem to have coped without too much difficulty

Some competitors on the longer courses failed to appreciate that both parts of their courses were to be marked at the start. This avoids the need for second master maps and is one of the advantages arising from electronic punching. Notices at registration made this clear, but it seems not everyone bothers to read notices !!

Many thanks to Sue for her conscientious planning, and to Kevin and his team, particularly the car park marshals who managed to squeeze as many cars as possible onto the limited car parking area.

The weather was unexpectedly 'kind' to us on the day, with the rain staying away for the duration of the event, although kind is probably not the word that runners would use.

Many thanks to everyone who willingly helped on the day, the use of camper vans helped enormously as did the help and advice given by the 'E' Punching experts in the club.

Due to the unavailability of the grassed area, the paking facilities caused us some initial concern , but that was admirably overcome with the excellent maximisation of space by Neil & Ian.