Highland O-Fest / Forres Sprint - Daily Digest
Final Control at WOC Middle DIstance Race
Comments from Colin Matheson
The traditional rest day has now grown arms and legs and this year we made a special effort to do our best to attract spectators to Darnaway to watch the WOC Middle race. Planner Graeme Ackland repeatedly voiced concerns that athletes might be running into an empty arena. Following the morning Sprint around Forres many competitors made their way through the golden gates and a mystery tour through the woods before emerging onto a ribbon of steel that arrowed its way through a waving field of barley.
Darnaway Castle was a fantastic sight, but Lord Moray apologises he was unable to fly the family flag as the rope snapped during the flag raising process! With lots of our own colourful branding including various key sponsor logos the race arena was a colourful and spectacular site. Crowd numbers did not disappoint, with a full array of family friendly activities ranging from climbing wall to field archery, Trail-O to MTBO. As part of Scotland’s Year of Food & Drink we had a very busy marquee packed with an array of goods and very popular a fish wagon offering delicious free morsels such as fish curry. I never made it to the front of the venison queue but settled for a very nice ice cream so thanks go to those who supported us. Graeme’s fears were not realised, and there was a big crowd cheering everyone on including a Henman Hill type atmosphere around the big screen.
In between joint roles as Assistant Director for WOC and Assistant Coordinator for the Scottish 6 Days I had decided some time ago to volunteer to make the MTBO map. This was created largely with the benefit of LiDAR we acquired of Darnaway (and paid for) as well as Ordnance Survey Open Data. Unusually the map was created in a Geographic Information System, and with the press of a button (or two) orienteering mapper Steve Smirthwaite created the map you rode around with. I forgot to add Errors and Omissions Excepted but as my first orienteering map I hope it was fit for purpose. Steve Barrett of Stirling Surveys provided the common graphics, layout and print quality for all the maps all week – S6D and WOC. A fantastic service and something we could not have managed without. Clive Masson also wore two hats, and tells me that 1.5 tons of maps are involved. Highlife Highland’s Archive Centre has been a fantastic storage and checking facility and we thank Highlife Highland for their support including use of Bught Park.
The WOC races were a great success, including the statue I sourced as the last control. Many thanks to the Forestry Commission Scotland for allowing us to borrow the statue from the shores of Loch Ness. Perhaps the bird and deer have seen things in the dark waters that you will pass on Friday?
Final Control at WOC Middle DIstance Race (Full size)