Isn’t it just the way? We have people taking about how dry it’s been and the very low water table and then the hurricane remnants arrive and we get continuous rain. The Controller at one point did ask if I had a bucket so I could chuck water at the later runners as it was drying up a bit by noon and that would make it fair for all! Unsurprisingly he was joking and anyway the rain came back. It must have put some people off but well done to all competitors who braved the weather and visited the lovely town of Bury St Edmunds. There were many positive comments about the map – well done Phil Halford – and the cleverness of the planner – well done Peter Duthie. Mike Chopping as controller joined in with the early start for the day and all was ready to run before 10am. Congratulations to that team. My huge thanks to the stalwarts who volunteered at start and finish which must have been a touch unpleasant in the rain. The team on registration, help and download were also chipper all the way through and the welcome event centre gave a dry and pleasant place to review the errors and successes of the runs.
We did have a grumpy person not liking the location of one of the controls and thanks to the competitors who stopped to try and talk him around. The control was not removed so your words worked. I did also get an email from an annoyed resident finding runners in the road albeit in a residential area. She also reported having abuse when she remonstrated. We must always remember whilst it may seem logical for us to dash around a town on a weekend morning it is odd for some and maintaining good relations with locals means we will be welcomed back again. A chance to re-visit BSE in the future will certainly be on many folks’ wish list.
I am glad to say that West Suffolk Council and through them, Suffolk County Council, happily gave us the permissions we asked for along with the Arc shopping centre. Bury Town Football Club remained welcoming even after a crowd of soggy runners had dropped in all day. Our big thanks to all of them.
This was a joint venture between Suffoc and WAOC. All the way through Helen Hague as chair of WAOC was keen to use the opportunity to mix up members and find new friendships. This appeared to work very well and some Suffoc members have started pondering on how to build on it. Certainly the input of Peter Woods and Paul Lowe on the IT side made the entries and results run smoothly. I’d not been an organiser for an event with pre-entry before but I certainly welcomed the more relaxed time at the registration desk. Paul’s amazingly rapid posting of the results was great even if you didn’t want to see certain split times!
Overall, a great team effort and something to try again. Though perhaps without the rain next time?
Some kit left behind in the Clubhouse on Sunday was a thumb compass and a black folding umbrella which I now have. If their owners wish to make contact with me we can see about returning them to their proper home.
Good to see so many braving the weather to enjoy the varied challenges of navigating through Bury. Feedback, for which many thanks, suggested that courses were generally well received. It was hard yesterday to imagine the crowds who were enjoying the sunshine in the Abbey Gardens when I was checking control sites in the late summer. Phil's fine map enabled courses to take in a good range of different street and park scenes.
There was potential empty running to reach the complex residential area in the south - hopefully the longer diagonal legs offered some route choice, and with Bury known for brewing I could not resist the control by the old copper outside the Greene King visitor centre en route.
There was a comment that a locked door in the not-to-be-crossed wall between Abbey gardens and the churchyard might have been briefly opened, but on investigation it seems more likely that residents had been seen using their garden door - the door in the wall was locked when checked.
The use of the 'paved area' symbol in the descriptions to distinguish parking courts separated by fences caught a few out - the key was to look for which edge was identified, e.g. south west side. Council lamp posts provided suitable public-realm tether points but were too far from the fences to use e.g. fence north east side as a description. This applied also to a car park on the west side of the area - the paved area description is a useful (and sometimes only) way to describe controls on available tether points but it requires careful reading.
The stairs in the Arc shopping centre were also a challenge to describe, with stairways going both up and down from ground level where the control was placed, but I don't think we lost anybody to the basement level - thankyou to the shopping centre management for allowing us to use this private area.
Isn’t it just the way? We have people taking about how dry it’s been and the very low water table and then the hurricane remnants arrive and we get continuous rain. The Controller at one point did ask if I had a bucket so I could chuck water at the later runners as it was drying up a bit by noon and that would make it fair for all! Unsurprisingly he was joking and anyway the rain came back. It must have put some people off but well done to all competitors who braved the weather and visited the lovely town of Bury St Edmunds. There were many positive comments about the map – well done Phil Halford – and the cleverness of the planner – well done Peter Duthie. Mike Chopping as controller joined in with the early start for the day and all was ready to run before 10am. Congratulations to that team. My huge thanks to the stalwarts who volunteered at start and finish which must have been a touch unpleasant in the rain. The team on registration, help and download were also chipper all the way through and the welcome event centre gave a dry and pleasant place to review the errors and successes of the runs.
We did have a grumpy person not liking the location of one of the controls and thanks to the competitors who stopped to try and talk him around. The control was not removed so your words worked. I did also get an email from an annoyed resident finding runners in the road albeit in a residential area. She also reported having abuse when she remonstrated. We must always remember whilst it may seem logical for us to dash around a town on a weekend morning it is odd for some and maintaining good relations with locals means we will be welcomed back again. A chance to re-visit BSE in the future will certainly be on many folks’ wish list.
I am glad to say that West Suffolk Council and through them, Suffolk County Council, happily gave us the permissions we asked for along with the Arc shopping centre. Bury Town Football Club remained welcoming even after a crowd of soggy runners had dropped in all day. Our big thanks to all of them.
This was a joint venture between Suffoc and WAOC. All the way through Helen Hague as chair of WAOC was keen to use the opportunity to mix up members and find new friendships. This appeared to work very well and some Suffoc members have started pondering on how to build on it. Certainly the input of Peter Woods and Paul Lowe on the IT side made the entries and results run smoothly. I’d not been an organiser for an event with pre-entry before but I certainly welcomed the more relaxed time at the registration desk. Paul’s amazingly rapid posting of the results was great even if you didn’t want to see certain split times!
Overall, a great team effort and something to try again. Though perhaps without the rain next time?
Simon Hooton Email: burysteds@suffoc.co.uk
Some kit left behind in the Clubhouse on Sunday was a thumb compass and a black folding umbrella which I now have. If their owners wish to make contact with me we can see about returning them to their proper home.
There was potential empty running to reach the complex residential area in the south - hopefully the longer diagonal legs offered some route choice, and with Bury known for brewing I could not resist the control by the old copper outside the Greene King visitor centre en route.
There was a comment that a locked door in the not-to-be-crossed wall between Abbey gardens and the churchyard might have been briefly opened, but on investigation it seems more likely that residents had been seen using their garden door - the door in the wall was locked when checked.
The use of the 'paved area' symbol in the descriptions to distinguish parking courts separated by fences caught a few out - the key was to look for which edge was identified, e.g. south west side. Council lamp posts provided suitable public-realm tether points but were too far from the fences to use e.g. fence north east side as a description. This applied also to a car park on the west side of the area - the paved area description is a useful (and sometimes only) way to describe controls on available tether points but it requires careful reading.
The stairs in the Arc shopping centre were also a challenge to describe, with stairways going both up and down from ground level where the control was placed, but I don't think we lost anybody to the basement level - thankyou to the shopping centre management for allowing us to use this private area.
Peter Duthie