Phew, what a few days. Planning and organising an MTBO event more or less on my own (thanks to those that helped on the day, to Cath for helping sort out the map and Pam for smoothing the permissions) took its toll, I slept like a log on Monday night.
I thought a quick look behind the scenes might be useful.
Permissions and politics played its part to start with. I had been intending to leave Beacon Barracks for a year and try and stir it in to a World Ranking event bid for 2012, however withdrawal of permissions by the County Council on the Chase meant I had to move fast to find a new area. Having a club member working inside meant that getting permission was a doddle, and I soon managed to get hold of the map from British Army Orienteering after a few emails.
Of course getting in to check the map and reccy the courses was also a challenge involving the signing out of keys, passports and vehicle passes and many strange looks from personnel as I scooted round the base.
Online entry takes lots of hassle out of organising and allows for less manpower on the day. I used Fabian 4 but BMBO now has its own system that can be used too.
I was going to do a traditional sprint but Cath worked on me to persuade me to try the cloverleaf idea which although complicated in the end worked a treat. The main issue was trying to get it to not only look OK on the map (using CONDES for the first time in anger too)and be safe but also so the event software Auto Download would process the results.
Putting out controls on Saturday afternoon I came across every organiser / planners nightmare, a late withdrawal of permissions. The off road driving area had had a unauthorised training session on Wednesday. The chap in charge was very unhappy, threw his toys out of the pram and changed the padlock. He then refused to give anyone access. I had no choice but to ditch the 4 controls in there and do some last minute changes to the courses. Luckily I tend to only print the courses after I put the controls out.
So Sunday morning dawned, more keys, signing and passes and I was opening up the hanger and putting out the last couple of controls. The weather was beautiful, blue skies, just above freezing. Then came torrential rain….
The event went well, in fact from my point of view perfectly. I got the winning time on the prologue spot on, and if it weren’t for the loss of the off road area the final would have been correct too.
I enjoyed doing a little bit of commentary, getting the heads up on approaching riders from a wired pre warning ‘radio’ control and was gobsmacked by the closeness of the results. 1st and 2nd tied to the second and 3rd place 3 secs down. All after 37 mins of independent racing !
So time to look forward to the next events in early May. A sprint with a prologue and a final again on another Army area, Swynnerton Camp, where we now have confirmed permissions and a middle race on Hanchurch Woods, hopefully Ill get a little help with the planning on one of those but I’ve started on the Hanchurch map already.
Thanks again to those who helped on the day and thanks to those who travelled so far to compete.
Full details and results here http://www.walton-chasers.co.uk/?p=190
Well done Stodge – great event.