Whiteheads Lagoon - Eraring
Event: Minor
Location: Eraring - Whiteheads Lagoon
Weather: Warm 30+ degrees
Setup: Mick Kavur, Prestons
Registration: Julia Preston, Tim Hackney
Finish: Denis Lyons, Sam Howe, Kendall O'Conner
Control Collection: Steve Todkill, Denis Lyons, Jim Lee, Joy Guy & Russel Blatchford
Entries: 69
ERARING: course planner’s comments
From a course planner perspective it felt like the day went off without a hitch. It was so weird finding a sign on the main road telling me where to turn off. So a big thank you to Julia and Robert Preston who volunteered to cart all the assembly area gear and hang signs. As per usual, Mick Kavur turned up early and seemingly erected the tents single handed and synchronised the clocks. Heaven help the organisers if Mick ever gets sick and misses a day. It would be good if that was the way all events were run: with someone looking after the gear, hence leaving the course planner to just worry about ensuring all the controls are accurately placed and correct stand numbers given on course descriptions.
Also thank you to Dennis Lyons who tidied up the map and vetted my courses. He suggested I double up on some controls, or stick to just one side of the outlet canal, in order to cut down on work. But as the first event for the season I wanted to give people the chance to try two courses without travelling too much along the same route. A total of 50 controls were placed in the bush so thank you to those that bought them back in: Dennis, Jim Lee, Russel Blatchford, Joy Guy (who carried more control stands than I think her stature should have) and Steve Todkill who rounded up the lion’s share of the control stands (even managing to find one that I had moved the night before but not changed on the master map!!)
Those who set events would realise what a stressful task it can be. First the newsletter editor wants to know details of the event months before. Then potential control sites are visited weeks before so that those courses which look great when drawn on the lounge can be adapted to suit the difficulties found in the bush. Then the control stands need to be put out, preferably the day before. I placed 23 on Friday evening and 27 on Saturday evening as I have found the placement rate to be about 9 per hour when needing to record stand number, punch code and hang a flag at each site. Then there is the worry about whether the stands will still be there the following day; did you notice there were people camped on the Blue course! Apologies to those Green competitors who fought their way through the long grass near the outlet canal, I swear there was a track there a couple of weeks ago!!
You may have noticed I did ‘nothing’ at the assembly area, well except mill around, answer a few questions and listen in on people commenting on their lax approach to some controls. I firmly believe that this is the best way to reward the setter: to allow them to chat to people on the day. So thank you to Dennis and Sam Howe for greeting the finishers and checking control cards ( I hear some competitors were ordered on a 700m march to punch the correct final control). My apologies for having the master answer set back to front (you can see how little time I’ve spent in the finish tent). Whilst I may not have done much while everyone was around, I can tell you it was bloody hot tying up bundles of control stands in the car park once everyone was gone. I will do my bit to help the next organiser by carting all the gear to Jesmond Park.
A final thank you to those that took a drive out to Eraring to have a run despite there being no Red courses on offer. I guess that explains why some people turned my Orange controls into Red ones, for navigational practice