Planning a Sprint Race
Kenny Leitch reports on his experiences of planning the opening Sprint Race of the 2008 season.
Sussex Sprint Championships 2008 – Race 1 Lancing Manor
Firstly a big thanks to Rob for asking me to plan.
This was actually my FIRST time planning an SO event in over 20 years of being a club member!!!
I thoroughly enjoyed it and I’ve already signed myself up for a SOG during the coming season!
Secondly, I thought I’d share with you my thinking behind the courses I set, so you can compare what was in my head to what you experienced....
The maps and courses can all be viewed online (click magnifying glass to see detail) or via RouteGadget.
White
Really, really easy. All paths or similar. No decision points to navigate through. All controls at junctions leading the way to the next control. And importantly, the only controls that someone would see during the White course would be the one they came from and their next control...ie. if you could see a control, it’s yours!
Yellow
Bit more thinking. All paths or similar. Some decision points to navigate through but no more than 2 per control. Some White course controls had to be passed that weren’t on Yellow....so a bit of map and description reading required.
Orange
A step up from Yellow. These summer Oranges are good courses to transition from SOG Yellow to SOG Orange. Most control sites OK as there are lots of catching features at Lancing (but not the quarry!).
Sprint
Overall – I tried to set the course with lots of changes of direction, different leg lengths and some route choice. I tried to use fair features and avoided areas where I thought reality and the map had drifted too far apart over the years! Where I thought it was good enough, I used it. I made you run past or close to several controls that weren’t on Sprint, just to tempt you to have a peek!
Lancing Manor is well known to lots of you, so I wanted to force you to think. Reading the control descriptions to get on the right side of the feature was important...as many of you found out!
Start – 1
I wanted competitors quickly out of sight to stop tailing. Unfortunately, I hadn’t noticed how bad the map was around 1. The control site sort of fitted the vegetation when coming from the east but it wasn’t right going from the start and I placed the control out of alignment with the seats/paths etc. Apologies for any confusion.
1 - 2
Read the control description!
2 – 3
Straightforward but you had to cut off on right path in woods and not be tempted to visit the White course control you could see in front of you!
3 – 4
Wanted to have you wondering “have I gone too far/far enough?” as you ran up path through woods. Safer option, but slightly longer, was to run up 6 Acre (the big field) and cut in at top.
4 – 5
Stay on path around top of 6 Acre or cut directly across.
5 – 6
Choice of 2 paths to get out to quarry. Many people had trouble finding left hand path that went to left of quarry. This is visible when it’s dry but the long wet grass obscured it. I heard several people relocated on 11 to find 6! Controls 6 – 11 screamed “slow down”!!!
7 -11
Lots of short legs and changes of direction. Easy to get confused and overshoot. The white strip that ran along bottom of the slope and took you to 8 was more of a chalky/rubble path but I thought it was accurate enough. The angle of the paths and path junction when you emerged from 9 was a little strange but the path you wanted was at the right angle. 10 was another “have I gone too far/far enough?” control...and how many of you ran round the thicket and didn’t look at the description?!
11 -12
There was something wrong with the path the control was on. It brought you back out into 6 Acre much further than the map suggests. Coming from the quarry though, I was happy that the sequence of paths and junctions made sense and the path in question was obvious enough. I wouldn’t have used this as a control site if the approach was from anywhere other than the quarry side of the map.
12 – 13
Stay on path around top of 6 Acre and down or cut directly across. If you judged cutting in correctly, the control was right in front of you.
13 – 14
Straight across 6 Acre or round path at bottom and then left or right around wall. All these combinations would have taken you the same time – you just had to decide, make sure you didn’t get hung up on the detail and go for it! I watched a number of people get to the corner of the wall and then stop because they couldn’t see it.
14 – 15
Straightforward leg to set up the finish sequence. Control 1 on White/Yellow/Orange at end of path was there to tempt you to have a peep...and a few of you did! I was careful to ensure Sprint 15 wasn’t visible from White 1.
15 – 16
Left or right around petanque areas (that’s why they’re marked as “sandy ground”).
16 – 17
Ah, number 17...some had lots of problems with this one, others no trouble at all! I wanted to take you round the back of the building, where I’d guess none of you would have been before. I added 2 extensions to the building onto the map and moved some other features to try to make it clear that you could run all the way around the building on either side.... maybe it still wasn’t clear enough as quite a few of you ran round the top of the slope and slipped and bumped their way down from above!
The second problem was that this was the only control not hung (nothing to hang it on) and I left it lying on the ground at the corner of the building. The combination of this and an old board that was lying against the wall, partially obscuring your line of site, meant a few of you ran pat it without spotting it.
Apologies if you felt hard done by ....but the control in the centre of the circle and it was exactly where the description said it would be!
17 – 19
Was meant to look like an easy finish and get you to stop concentrating. Just run to the centre of the circle and it’ll be obvious...but it wasn’t! Read the control descriptions! This is where I think pictorial descriptions come into their own. They visually tell you immediately where on the feature the control is...it’s much harder with English descriptions. Seeing people milling around 18 and running into the corner for 19 did bring me a little pleasure!
Thanks for heeding the signs I hastily put out on 19 to get people to return the same way. I only realised on the morning that the gate on the north side of the park, just round from the control, was welded shut (and had been for years by the looks of it!). The signs also stopped people running down the road to the finish, which I wouldn’t have wanted but hadn’t thought about!
Thanks to everyone for their comments which were overwhelmingly positive. Particular thanks to Rob for providing guidance and doing all the OCAD stuff, to Les and Sylv for map sales and to Roger, Les and Jan for control collecting.
Finally thanks to an unnamed couple who I walked past as I headed into the quarry area last Monday evening to check some details before finalising the courses. I was on my way home from working in London that day. It was getting dark and I was wearing a suit and carrying a mobile phone in my hand. I was conscious that they had stopped walking and were watching me, with suspicion, as I disappeared into the woods. Why the thanks? Well they obviously didn’t call the police, as I was half expecting!
Kenny
Posted by Robert Lines on 22nd Jun 08
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