Thanks to all who took part in The Roxburgh Reivers Double Sprint, we hope you had a great days sport.
Unfortunately we had an issue with the SI-Air that resulted in random controls not working in air mode on the Melrose event. All those who failed to record a punch because of this have been reinstated.
We only found the reason for this 10 minutes prior to the start of the Tweedbank race when Robin worked out that the controls that we had received had been set to a 4 minute run time rather than 4 hours. (A point in the wrong place.) Robin came up with a solution to re-set them and the Planner and myself did a quick Score round all of the controls to ensure that they would work for all other than a few of the very first starters. We apologise for this and hope that it didn’t affect your enjoyment too much.
Ian Maxwell, Organiser
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Planners Comments:
We couldn’t have asked for better weather for the event, especially with the forecast this week and it was nice to hear a lot of positive comments. I love sprint orienteering and we don’t often get the chance to race this distance so was keen to plan quality courses for others to enjoy but also provide a great training opportunity for those looking for it. I think a good sprint course includes technical legs, route choice legs and some “get your head down and run” legs so aimed to incorporate all of these.
Planning was challenging, especially Melrose where I had to compromise between a really long walk to the start / taking courses to the best bits but this was made slightly easier when we were able to provide limited parking for those who required it. I was surprised to hear that so many people enjoyed the walk to/from Melrose….perhaps I could have made it longer! It’s really hard not to get carried away when planning as my initial courses were too long but feel I managed to get the winning times almost right in the end. I think we made the right decision holding the junior race 1 around the sports complex, almost all juniors were able to run on their own and from standing at the finish watching, seemed to really enjoy this aspect. This may have been quite straightforward for those more experienced but they were able to race a proper urban sprint in race 2. Tweedbank was slightly easier as the estate areas remain tricky no matter how many times you visit them.
It was difficult not living in the Borders, working full time and training a lot myself but I had a great team of Ian M, Ian P and Robin who all pulled together helping each other out when necessary. Also owe big thanks to my mum Eileen who pre ran and re ran lots of courses for me when I couldn’t get down myself.
It was frustrating that we had some SIAir issues as I know this would be something which would have annoyed me if I was racing. However, this was outwith our control and we did what we could to solve it. I guess there was always going to be something. I think on the whole it was a good day of sprint racing and it was really rewarding watching the race take place after all the hard work. I hope you all enjoyed it too, thank you for coming, especially those of you who travelled a distance – hope you felt it was worth the trip. Thanks again to all the helpers, RR are a small club so many people put in a big shift volunteering. Hope to see you back in the Borders again in the future.
Photos from the two races now on RR Facebook Open pages, see here
Kirstin Maxwell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Results are HERE
Routegadget HERE (note that there are separate files for Melrose courses 1-6 and Melrose course 7.
BOF results: Melrose Tweedbank
UKUL points HERE
SOUL points HERE
Lost Property: 1 pair small black Decathlon trousers,1 pair black Ron Hill gloves, 1 Scottish Champs 2012 buff. Email Ian Maxwell to claim – Ian.C.Maxwell@btinternet.com