Interclub Relay Guidelines

Teams and Courses

Each team must be members of the same club.

Hard Teams

• Members: 2 or 3
• Legs:
  • Hard x 4 @ 2.5 - 3 km each, to be run in a median time of about 30 minutes

Mixed Teams

• Members: 3 or 4
• Legs:
  • Hard x 2 @ 2.5 – 3 km each to be run in a median time of about 30 minutes
  • M @ 3 – 3.5 km
  • E/VE @ 2 – 2.2 km (Shadowing of < 12 year olds is allowed on E/VE)

For both team types, Hard navigation should be nearer the easier end of that grade, with catching features, etc.

Either or both of the Hard legs for the Mixed teams may be the same as run by the Hard teams, but setting different ones would be preferred.

M should be Moderate navigation as at other events.

E/VE should be between those two grades; eg with a mixture of leg types and control visibility.

A common spectator control near the assembly area is desirable, 3/4 or more round each course, but sited so that it cannot easily be confused with the changeover control.

A Changeover/Finish control is required immediately before the tag area. Punching this will allow later recognition of each runner’s time.

If a single e.tag is used for a team it must be one of the larger capacity type, or the total number of controls visited out by a team must be no more than 26, as older e.tags can only cope with 30 punches in all and there will be 4 used at Changeovers/Finish.

Administration

A single e.tag (from the hire pool?) may be used for each team, acting like a baton, being passed to the next leg runner as each finishes.  It should be cleared and checked, and the control sequence for the team programmed into the computer, in advance.

More burbensome for the organisers on the day, but allowing teams' progress to be followed (see Changeover below) would be to use seperate e.tags for each runner, including some to be hired. 

In either of the above situations punch cards, colour coded for each leg, could be used at controls.

Each team will run the legs in its allocated order, using maps in this order from its numbered graveyard poles.

Teams decide which member will run each leg.

For each Mixed team, the allocated order of leg types will be provided to Club Convenors before registration, to allow selection of runners.

For the Hard teams, runners do not need to know the leg order, for which there are 25 possibilities, as all of the four legs will be similar and each team will run all of these.

Chest numbers

Team members must wear the team’s chest number in the appropriate colour for the order of the leg that each is running: eg white 1st leg, blue 2nd leg, yellow 3rd leg, red 4th leg.

Mass start

A mass start for untagged leg 4 and any remaining leg 3 runners should occur at the discretion of the organisers, but not so early that it destroys the relay style of the event.

From previous years' results, the expected optimal time will be 120 minutes after the Start.

If a single e.tag is used by each team, mass starters should be given an additional tag or control card of the appropriate leg colour to punch manually at each control, as their team’s e.tag will still be in use by an earlier team member.  If using control cards, the finish time of these runners will need to be recorded manually as they finish and added to the e.tag total for the team.

Scoring method

Hard Teams: 25 points for 1st team, declining to 1 point for 25th team.

Mixed Teams: 20 points for 1st team, declining to 1 point for 20th team.

The club with the most points is awarded the Rutty Rock Interclub relay trophy. In the event of a tie, the club with more points in the Hard category wins.

B-O points are allocated as usual according to the final order of the clubs.

Unofficial teams

The Administrator may make up teams from “leftover” members from different clubs but these will not count towards the Rutty Rock or B-O Trophies.

Public attendance

It is recommended that visitors are offered only the E/VE, M or one Hard leg of the Mixed category, starting at least half an hour after the Relay Start.

Suggested administration procedure

Before the event:

Advertise the above event details.  Emphasise that runners must be on site an hour before the start to avoid chaotic last minute team changes.

Club Convenors to advise the Administrator of the number of teams in each category by seven days before the event.

Meanwhile, setters prepare the maps with several (5?) more sets in each category to allow for late changes.

Administrator allocates chest numbers and leg running order to teams in both categories. (There is no need to have an additional “team number”, eg “WOW 2”, the chest number should be enough).

Administrator prepares a packet for each team. A4 ziplock plastic map bags would be suitable. These should contain cleared and checked e.tag or colour coded punch cards, wearable chest numbers and registration form showing Club, runners names, chest numbers and fees paid.

For the Mixed category, the registration form should also show the leg type running order.

On the Day

Club convenors collect packets for their club. (1 hour before Start ?)

Convenors distribute packets to teams.

One Team member fills in the team names, collects each team's members’ fee and takes the registration form and fees to administration, at least 30 minutes before the Start.

15 minutes before Start, briefing and demonstration of graveyard, changeover and finish procedures.

Changeover  

A Major inteest of this event is the progress of teams.

One way to show this is if each finishing runner, or other member of their team if two legs are being run consecutively, downloads their individual e.tag and using the Splits printer writes their time, followed by the team's total time to date. on a (Club coloured?) card and at once adds it to the results display.

Finish

The last member of each team who is running with their e.tag punches the Changeover/Finish control as usual.

 The time of any mass starter, that has beeen recorded manually, must be added to give a team's total time.

Provisional results should be checked before being published on the web site or in the Newsletter.