(Some) EckO start the racing season very well.
The weekend of 27th – 28th March 2010 was the start of the main competition season in Scotland. Fresh from the club coaching weekend, there was a high entry for the races from EckO members.
Andy Dale, Paul, Carol, Lynne, John (Coon) and Suse entered the middle distance race at Touch on the Saturday. Here a small area of broadleaf woodland was used. The courses went back and forwards over the area and necessitated a ‘turn over’ map for all courses. The bracken had been flattened by the winter snow and so fast times were posted by the winners – and Andy Dale won the veteran men’s class! Excellent result Andy. At the last control he was down by two seconds but stormed down the run-in to win by five seconds. Wow, I am very impressed Andy. Carol, Paul & Lynne headed for the coffee & cake so maybe this is why they were ‘also ran’ in their class?
Sunday saw the racing move to the Trossachs. I’ll let the organiser describe the aftermath of SOL1 at the Trossachs:
Well, it’s all over now and we hope that all had a jolly good time - and, if not, that your wounds heal quickly. Sorry to all of those of you who lost various dibbers, compasses, maps and/or body parts on The Trossachs area - it’s famously man-eating, but it’s not picky! Don’t worry, you’ll have forgotten all about it by the time we next run an event there.
Jon Cross, Organiser SOL1
EckO had an excellent turn out of people; I think about 26 people competed on various courses from the M21E (Andy Dale) to White (Alastair, Emily, Rona & Ellis).
The junior results were extremely encouraging with:
Alastair winning White, 3rd Emily, 5th Ellis and 7th Rona out of a field of 29 competitors
Tom 3rd, Ewan 4th and Eilidh 6th on Yellow (out of 15 competitors).
Callum (9th) & Roanne (18th out of 36) successfully completing their first Orange course in a complex area.
Briony was the first W14 on Light Green (3rd place overall); Murray achieved a 16th place, Sam came in 19th and Marieke successfully completed the course coming 36th.
And now for most of the seniors:
The contours on the Short Green proved challenging to Fiona (Kincaid) and Suse; they should both receive an award for sheer perseverance!
On the Green course the ‘Old Sage’ (Lynne) was able to show the young whippersnappers of Julie, Kate & Lucy a muddy pair of heels. It was encouraging to speak to Julie at the finish – she had kept map contact all the time and had spoken her way around the course; she felt that the coaching the previous weekend had been very useful. This course had 79 people attempt it.
Alan came 82nd with Carol 100th (out of 121 competitors) on the Blue with John Coon taking the tourist option – I saw him sitting at the side of a knoll watching the chaos around him as people tried to locate their control in a tricky area.
Dave and Paul continued their ‘cat and mouse’ game on Short Brown coming 46th and 53rd respectively; Matt Phillips managed to get an entry on the day and completed this course coming in 58th out of 70 competitors. He certainly found that the Trossachs are bit hard!
Ross came 38th out of 56 on Brown. He was a very early starter and so would have had to make many of the paths those of us who started later benefited from.
Andy competed with the elite on the M21E course and came 41st out of 58; this course was 10.6km with 735m of climb. This result meant that he was 2nd of the M40s on the course.
As the results are given by the course, it masks some very good performances when the age class is looked at.
The next SOL is at Dalbeattie on Sunday 25th April. Entries are available up until 17th April through Fabian4. There is a Mountain Bike O event the previous afternoon in the southern part of the forest. Entries for this are also available through Fabian4.
As a club, I think that we should be keeping an eye on Alan. He is trying so hard to be the main contender for the wooden compass award. During the first EckO coaching course, Alan managed to go swimming in an uncrossable marsh. He did well for the rest of the weekend and stayed dry (probably because no opportunities came up for a dip). However at SOL1 he seemed to have swum in the deepest boggy bits, used his map to slide down slopes and then left blood on all the trees he could find in the forest. I dread to think what Irene said to him when he walked in the door at home. I know he has had recent surgery – but he told all of us it was to correct a heart defect. Do you think that they removed some bits from the brain by mistake?
Posted on 29th Mar 10
by Lynne Walker - Secretary
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