Thursday, February 18, 2010

GREEN SHARES GLEBE GOLD WITH TOM HANKS

A beautiful warm Sydney evening at Jubilee Oval saw a good roll up of Summer Series funsters (not sure of numbers 200+ I think) give my course a right old bollicking. This is my third outing on this map, and maybe I erred a touch on the tough side. I had expected it to be too hard for the 600/45 combo, especially when I kept adding the annoying non flow pots (like on the pontoon), but hoped for high 500's. I was very happy to hear then of our two leading runners popping a 560 pill each - great running and a share of the spoils to Richard Green (fresh from setting a magnificent Metrogaine) and Steve 'Private' Ryan.

Funny to be sitting in the organisers/'ask me' chair for a change, but with the blessing of being so busy I didn't record any scores! Well a couple maybe. The other benefit is putting a face to all the names I often write about. And yes, you will all become your nicknames! The evening went in a blurr of course, but true to form, we managed a nice dinner and a couple of Squires at the Nags Head before it got too late. I picked up all the pots this morning from 6am - all still hanging in the breeze.

Andy Hill ran the lot for about six over (I think a 540) losing time running west from #25 up the hill and then down Wigram Road and on to 24 not realising the lower path flowed (we will fix the map). He might have been a third winner without this. Also noted 'The Babysitter' Kar-Soon a tenner or so back - might have been 520? Anyway a top flog from the Doc. I think 'The Flickster' was again outdone by Warwick Selby in SVM, and I saw Jim 'Jim Falls' Merchant work the new orthotics for good effect into the mid fours - and keep Don 'The Boot' Roper wide of the posts after nearly identical west/east routes. Jimmy's attack on #7 the difference.

Sorry not to have to many other scores to report (I did hear that Jesso ran a top loop, consisting of 20/30 pointers and only one 10 (#7!) to record a PB 87% score against Mal 'The Boatman' Bradley. Nice). Most seemed to enjoy the outing - and the nice start location (with dunnies that stayed open for a change). There were also lots of new faces - including the lady who competed in fashionable flowing dress and knee high boots. Apparently bought along with friends, she was overheard to say "I didn't realise it was a sporting event"!!).

Maybe some thoughts about the setting.

I'm always keen to give runners a taste of the nice Glebe foreshore, so had to include something there. Also, the old Glebe streets are perfect for creating a puzzle in denying a flowing loop. Pots 26, 18, 17 and 29 all added score value, but needed to fit the outer points flow. The question was when to loop in, or to ignore altogether. I though many might start via 26 and 'kill the hill' before working around the edges. Some did, although by far the bigger number seemed to take off to 20 or 11. The west was easier to flow but needed extra speed to cover the distances. Starting with 11,1,21,12,23 worked for lots of the top stallions (and ignoring the annoying 'in-out' #2. Indeed, if you looked closely, most of the tens could be dropped with impunity - and many competitors recorded their lowest scribble in the top row for years.

Probably the lonely pot would have to be #4 on the Telstra pole (like Telstra - out of favour!). This was there just to curry up the big scorers in working east from 23 via 4 to 22 or 14 (or the other way around of course). Most ignored my smart arsed ploy. Control #25 was in the new little park way down south. I had to have this one, partly because the park is new, but also because it gave a nice west/east sweep across the map, and drew runners further south than may have been prudent. More went there than I thought.

As you know, summer series setters always like a stink pipe, so you got #7 - and also the magnificent Water Board chimney at #16 with it's eerie moaning sounds. Another fun control was #10 at the entrance to the Chinese temple on the northern dragon - a summer series first I think, although this is the year of the tiger, not the dragon. mmmm. Many enjoyed the remnant of the Burley Griffin incinerator (#28), just as many did not enjoy #15 on the seat at the road end. I should have described this simply as 'road end' to avoid confusion (or 'road end above cliff') and was told by a few runners that there was a seat at the end of the small dead-end track nearby just to add to the confusion. Apologies sports fans - and to Dave 'Legless in Lebanon' Lotty who reasonably assumed the seat was at the foot of the cliff, and lost much time. I will do my penance no doubt.

So Glebe over for another year, and we move back north to Wollstonecraft with Mel Cox at the controls. Despite the crappy parking at 'Smoothey' (you have been warned), this venue always seems to attract a record crowd. It's dead easy to come by train of course, as the start is just below the station. Berry Island brings in the eastern side of the Greenwich map and the time absorbing bush tracks in the area. It's another inverted Y presentation with the western points never enough on their own - as are the eastern ones. Mel will no doubt exploit this thinking to the hilt and deliver that old sinking feeling you get as you skirt the Berry Island pots with only ten minutes to go. Great views though! Make it a date.

4 comments:

slowK said...

A few smart people (not including myself) made use of the low tide and cut across the mouth of the canal from #11 to #20 - cunning indeed!

Fly on the Wall said...

Ten-pointers: who needs 'em?
I ran 11-21-12-22-13-24-25-16-27-17-28-7-18-29-9-19-30-20 for 420 in 44 minutes neat. That worked out at 7.1km with 67m of climb, so a pretty fair effort for me. And only two of those pesky tenners! Going 24-25-16 or vice versa was no more than 100m farther than going 24-15-16 so it made sense to go the easier but longer route.
Also saved a few seconds by climbing some fences to attack 21 and 25 from below, and 30 was best spotted coming from the east.
Nice mud work, Kar Soon, ten days ago at Hardy's Bay I ran about 150m across muflats at very low tide to just make the 45-min cut-off.
As opposed to being ankle deep in goop at North Balgowlah last year!

Also Ran said...

My route was initially 26-18-7-29-10-30-19-9-8-28-6-27. I think 6 was a mistake - 28-17-27 was barely any longer for 10 extra points. Then 16-25-24-13-14-22. 14 was definitely a mistake - a big out and back for 20 points, and I was 2 minutes late so I lost them anyway. Then 12-21-11-20 and home. I could perhaps have gone 13-3-22, hard to know whether that would have saved the two minutes, certainly straight 13-22 would have.

I covered 8.3k, according to gmaps pedometer, in 47 minutes. Didn't know I could go that far in the time!

HondaPants said...

hmmmm nice course Roscoe. Had to think really hard about it - then opted for a rather obscure route that I doubt anyone else followed : 3-24-13-22-12-23-21-1-11-20-30-19-8-28-17-27-16-5-26-18-7-29-10 resulting in a comfy 15 seconds early with what would have been 490 points if I hadn't written the code for #20 in the number 2 box (doh - should probably get another 10 points deducted for stupidity!). Seemed like a good course plan though, missing 2, 4, 14, 6, 9, 15 and 25 with the only contentious aspect being the long sprint (@ 5km/h :-) ) from 23 to 21, but at least 21 was nabbed from above.
So happy to find the nemesis not there :-)

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