Results for Keyne-O 6: Great Linford

Next event

Our next event is the Keyne-O at Furzton on Sunday 3rd September.

Organiser's Comments

After a week of rain, we had fabulous weather at today's Great Linford Keyne-O event. There was a good turnout, including O tourists from Australia! We had an unexpectedly high number on the Run course so thank you to those who gave up their map for another runner. If you would like your map returned please email me. There were some pleasant comments about Ian's courses - especialy around interesting route choices.

Thanks to helpers: Alison, Charles, James, Rebecca, Freya, Ann, Debbie, Ros and Haydn. Please consider giving an hour of your time to lend a hand next time as it really spreads the load.

Helen Nisbet

Planner's Comments

I hope everyone enjoyed today’s courses. It’s sometimes a little difficult providing variety on the Amble course, as it can’t cross roads for safety reason, and there’s only really one possible route to and from the Stonepit area. But as I planned the event last year, I made sure that no control point used on any course in 2016 was used again this time, so it should have felt a little different. Where road crossings permit, for 2017 we have introduced a fourth Junior Trot course, slightly more challenging than the Amble, but still suitable for under 16s. I hope that those of you doing the course felt it was a worthwhile addition.

Great Linford is one of the areas of Milton Keynes that benefits from a proper ISSOM-standard urban map – and the extra detail certainly makes it easier for the planner to select some interesting controls. It also allows plenty of route choice for the longer courses, and chatting to participants afterwards I was pleased to discover that one leg on the Run had been done at least four quite different ways. Actual running distances at urban-type events are always longer than the straight-line distances - a couple of people told me today that although the Run was "only" 6.3k, according to their GPS they had actually run 8.7k!

I apologise if the recent damp weather had encouraged the nettles to grow up again (I certainly stung myself putting out the controls in shorts) and if one control ended up being sited next to a small pond that was neither on the map nor there when I planned the courses before going up to the Scottish 6 Days. But at least the weather was glorious for running, even though it meant we had more entrants than expected on the Run so ran out of maps – thank you, if you allowed yours to be recycled.

I’d like to thank Helen for organising; Freya for commenting on my draft courses and suggesting some improvements – it’s amazing how taking out a control can sometimes make a leg a lot more interesting – and to Freya (again), Haydn and Ann for helping put out or collect in the controls.

Ian Byrne

Joining SMOC

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