We were taken by surprise a bit by a last-minute Saturday rush to pre-enter this event using the Early Email Entry system. We’d printed 85 maps based on early indications of the number of EEE’s. In the end, there were 97 runners. So well done everyone for getting up off the couch and coming along to run.
Extra maps were photocopied on Sunday morning, but they weren’t on waterproof paper and the quality was slightly reduced. So we apologise to anyone who used a map of lesser quality than our normal standards.
There was some vandalism of controls on the Yellow course – controls had been picked up and thrown onto the ground a little way away. They were found and replaced quite quickly by competitors (for which many thanks), but some people will have lost some time – sorry for that. We’ve had controls stolen at Balmedie before (boo….) – so this is not a particular surprise; fortunately none were taken away for good this time.
Click for provisional Results and Splits.
Routegadget has been loaded – sorry for the delay – it’s been a bit tricky this time, I need to edit the punches because of the cluster controls!
The results for Green and Blue have been adjusted to include any penalties incurred at the ‘joker’ control clusters. Many of you got it 100% right – well done. The Blue was won by Calum McLeod, who won by 3 seconds despite a 3 minute penalty. Hazel and Martin were very close in 2nd and 3rd place, with no time penalties. Dave and Sonia Armitage maded it an impressive family 1-2 on Green, also with no time penalties.
The correct controls in the clusters were:
Blue: A 242, B 248, C 236
Green: X 240, Y 245
Time penalties have been applied by adding them to your run-in split time (i.e. between control 96 and the Finish). If you have any queries, please email the planner!
The planner would very much like to thank Adrian Will and Bob Daly for the great job they did with control collecting after the event. All controls were collected in by 3:05pm. (The planner managed to avoid the very heavy rainshower than swept through Balmedie about 3:10pm!). And a special mention of thanks to Duncan Will for his organisational help all the way through the event.
Our thanks to Anne Hickling for running an excellent soup and cakes stall. Over £120 was raised for Water Aid. Thank you for your generosity. Anne’s objective this year is to raise funds for projects in Madagascar, leading up to a visit to Madagascar in November where she’ll be joining a trek, hopefully seeing some lemurs, and visiting a WaterAid project to see what a difference clean water can make. Only half of Madagascar’s population has access to safe water and only 10% access to decent sanitation, so your support is much appreciated.
Courses:
- Yellow – Easy navigation, along paths – 2.0km 45m climb
- Light Green – Quite hard navigation – 2.7km 90m climb
- Green – Hard navigation – 3.1km 120m climb
- Blue – Hard navigation – 5.0km 160m climb
On the Blue and Green courses, two or three of the controls will have a special twist:- no control code will be provided, so you’ll have to find the correct control unit purely from the map and control description. There will be several false controls placed nearby to try to confuse you! … and each time you punch a wrong control, a 3 minute time penalty will be applied.
Officials:
Organiser: Adrian Will
Planner: Rob Hickling
GRAMPIAN ORIENTEERS 