Mitre: Epping Far East (National)
Results | Routegadget | Report
Iain Ambler, Organiser
Delighted we could finally hold our rescheduled annual Mitre event today! This was the event’s biggest entry in years, 411 entries and 350 finishers, so thank you all for entering and turning out in your numbers despite the cold, creating lots of competition in most classes and doing justice to a highly runnable Epping area. Long may that continue.
Unfortunately one competitor was injured after a fall, but thankfully it appears nothing too serious. Very best wishes for your recovery. Thanks to our first aider Jacob Stevens.
Advice is highly welcome as a relatively new organiser and I would notably like to thank Tim Pribul, Ray Weekes, Ray Curtis, Dave Norman, Andrew Evans, for their wise words throughout and as Storm Darragh forced the earlier postponement.
Thank yous today include: the lovely DFOK Bennetts, for helping us in our moment of need; all the CHIG helper team - you did the club proud; the CHIG Start team, for putting up a highly professional start, and for standing around in the freezing cold for 4 hours; David Lund from that team who at a moments notice, walked back to the school, solved the problem with LiveResults, sacrificed his phone for 4 hours to hotspot, and walked back to the Start. Bravo!
Thanks to Alison Saunders for an efficient presentation of the SEIL 2024 results; to Michael Chopping for the many trips from East Anglia and controlling; to the incomparable Matthew Vokes for his courses, and for Harold Wyber for stepping in to complete the planning job and manage all the control set out and collection, that thankless and unseen task. Further thanks to Davenant Foundation School and Debden House for hosting us, and of course to Epping Forest and the Corporation of London.
Finally, there can be a funny side of these events, and I (and many others) were entertained by Philippa Allen (one of our road crossing marshals) looking after a kettle at the Start road crossing, and the Normans’ epic homemade Car Park Full sign. Not required!
Lost Property - 2 items, a blue ASOM running top/grey long sleeved T shirt, and a lime green beanie. Click here to claim
Michael Chopping, Controller
I have had an interesting and enjoyable first event working with CHIG, Matthew was very enthusiastic planner and looked to use as much of the forest as possible. Our first few runs on the new map showed how open the runnability of the forest has become. We did have to work hard to make the White and Yellow courses fun and challenging, and this was achieved with help of on the White course with some friendly cartoons and tape. The Yellow luckily helped by the leaves blowing away in the storms. I was listening in at download and all I heard was praise of the courses and the event in general.
To Harold, the stand in planner. Well done. You sorted the control hanging and all on the day work. Your team of control hangers worked well, allowing myself and you to ensure all controls were out and double checked by 10:15. This enabling the starts to begin on time, and all this considering the fog and the -5 weather we were working in.
Iain is, as with most organisers, the proverbial swan. Calm and collected, working constantly before the event and more so on the day. Considering the postponement of the event due to the storms in December CHIG have put on a very good event and should be proud of how professional all the officials worked. I heard nothing but compliments at download.
Well done to the Start Team. This was a picture of how a start should be laid out and looked totally professional. The download team were extremely prompt and polite, sorting the very few issues quickly. The parking team marshalled the vehicles expertly and I still do not know how they crammed everyone in.
Well done CHIG.
Matthew Vokes, Planner
I hope everyone enjoyed their run around Epping Far East. On my first visit to the area I was very pleasantly surprised on how runnable it was so wanted to make the most of that by planning "long distance" courses, even if the size of the area would perhaps be more suited to middle - I hope by the end those on the Black didn't feel they had seen the area too many times!
I tried to make sure all courses had a couple of long legs to give some route choice options (even if most of the time "straight is great" was a very valid option), and was pleased that even the shortest TD5 courses could make it into the slightly more technical area of depressions in the NW corner - which I also thought was the nicest part of the forest. I hope you didn't get too wet feet - the depressions filled and the marshes got significantly wetter since the first visits...
I was disappointed not to be able to be there on the day - I initially could make the revised date, but a business trip to China the following week was subsequently scheduled and meant I had to travel over the weekend. Many thanks to Harold for stepping in to take on the "on the day" job of setting out controls - certainly no thankless task. Thanks to Michael for his helpful controlling and to Iain for efficiently dealing with everything organisational - great job for your first event!