Event report: MTBO5

The weekend’s forecast was terrible and, sure enough, it bucketed down on Saturday and into Sunday with nearly 5cm of rain for the 24hrs till 9am, leaving Nick and Duncan particularly bedraggled as they put out controls on Saturday afternoon and again on Sunday morning. The Dwellingup tracks are beautiful, however, so soaked up nearly all the water without becoming muddy or leaving massive puddles.

The miserable forecast did scare off several of the very limited number of pre-entrants but (possibly surprisingly) there was one EOD for a grand total of 8 brave souls turning up with their bikes to tackle a course: 4 on the Long (30km), 2 on the Medium (21km) and 2 on the Short (11km). (8 men and 0 women: does this reflect hardiness by one cohort, or common sense by the other??)

As it turned out, the rain wasn’t an issue for the riders, who only got about 1mm, but it was COLD: officially 9°C dropping to 7°C, but with the BOM saying it “feels like 3°C” due to the wind chill. Ricky, who set off wearing not much more than a bikini, nearly had hypothermia by the time he finished: no doubt wind chill was even more of a factor for him!

Fortunately for everyone, the Start / Finish was located next to some brilliant public facilities: toilets, warm showers, laundry, bike station; and to the fantastic Dwellingup Visitor Centre: food, drink, and WARMTH!

Especial thanks to Jack Dowling who had to make an emergency dash back home to pick up a new computer when the first one took offence to the cold and refused to start.

Thanks to the following for putting on the event:
Setter: Nick
Technical advisors: Duncan; Ricky
Mapper: Duncan
Field check: Nick; Lara
Control set-up: Nick; Duncan
Control collectors: Ricky, Hadrien, Duncan, Ian, Rob B, Rob W
Computer; driver: Jack D
Banners; moral support: Sue D

For those less hardy souls who didn’t get there (and for those who had valid excuses), it’s possible that you’ll get another opportunity to ride the courses as it is likely that they’ll be put up as MapRun courses for the visitors to train on prior to the Aus Champs in Collie: stay tuned!

Results are available on Eventor.
Upload your track to Livelox and compare your route choices with those of your fellow orienteers.

Photo: The Medium Course Map