Box Hill Fell Race

Saturday 20 January 2007

Organiser’s Report

Widespread storms in the region had felled plenty of trees, and caused the cancellation of one nearby orienteering event scheduled for the same morning. So it was with some trepidation that I set off with an armful of marker flags. Fortunately the course had suffered little. The first 3 miles were clear; there was one tree to climb over coming off Headley, but the most trouble came just before the last road crossing. Here you are supposed to go under the old fallen tree trunk – the one I reckon gets an inch lower each year – but I’ve long suspected that many of you run round it. But this time that run round was completely blocked by newly fallen trees, and those trying it were thrown into a bit of confusion. We’ll sign the official route better next year, but some time it really is going to get too low.

Dean Lacy ran away to record his hat-trick of wins. He was much slower than last year in a time that would have only placed 7th in 2006. Storm damage was one factor but a bigger one was establishing an early lead and realising he had no need to push it. It was great to see course record holder Chris Beecham back up to second again, but he admitted after the race that he could no longer match Dean’s speed.

The next few places were taken by regular faces – all veterans now with the prize and third overall being taken by Dave Rollins. And we don’t have to look down much further for the first super-veteran; in a superb ninth place was Andy Hauser making the long trip from Holmfirth worthwhile.

Among the ladies Joanna Carritt repeated last year’s win and was only a few seconds slower. She was well clear of North Herts’ Paula Adams and the host club’s Abi Weeds. First veteran and fourth lady overall was Christine Tanner.

Also making a successful defence of their title were Tring RC in the team results. Despite missing the injured Kevin Harding they turned up in such force that any four of their best six would have achieved the win. Unusually we also had five clubs fielding at least three ladies, with SLOW achieving the best result.

TEAM RESULTS

1.	Tring RC	61	7.	Serpentine RC	286
2.	Springfield Striders	93	8.	Thames Valley OC	287
3.	Frontrunners	133	9.	Cambridge Harriers	291
4.	Bishops Stortford RC	161	10.	Reigate Priory	416
5.	Sanderstead Six	179	11.	Saxons OC	469
6.	SLOW	264

Some of you will have heard about the lady who got into difficulties part way round the course. She became dis-orientated and came off the course on Headley Heath. Fortunately she was spotted by a member of the public and the situation was reported to John at the previous road crossing. John then did a wonderful job, getting to her, warming her up in his car, calling ambulances and seeing her off to hospital. She was released later that day and tells me she‘s now feeling much better. It’s been put down to being de-hydrated before starting, the start of an infection that she was unaware of, and the onset of hypothermia which of course became much worse once she stopped running. There’s lessons for us all there and we will certainly be reviewing our safety measures before next year.

We were disappointed that the numbers running were so much below the limit of 180. We’d turned a lot of people away who had wanted to run. It seemed to be just a statistical oddity of a very high no-show ratio. So I think we’ll be keeping the same entry procedure next year, except that I promise to e-mail all those on the list the day that entries open.

Thanks go again to all the usual suspects. The National Trust for permission to run on the hills. Sandra Dunlop and all those at Friends Provident for use of the car park and social club. And of course the many helpers from SLOW – Matthias, Abi, Ginny, Richard, Nicky, James, Caroline, Alan, Diane, Jenny, Nigel, Don, Steve but especially Dick (entries, registration, and computer), Chris (notices, registration and finish) and John (only the first road crossing, he thought, but then so much more)

Keep an eye out for SLOW’s races in the summer. The Surrey Hills Races are just the other side of Dorking on the Bank Holiday Monday 28th May; although not flagged, the courses are the same each year and so the navigational burden is eased. This year we are going to ease it further with a guided course recce scheduled for Saturday 28th April. Slightly trickier are the summer Trail Challenge races – a series of three 10km races, where the course to be navigated is revealed just before the start. These are on summer Tuesday evenings in the Kingston/Richmond area.

Andy Robinson