SLMM Organiser – Stephen Ross
On behalf of all Saunders competitors, I would like to thank Karen and Dan Parker and Julie and John Ferris-Worth for their roles as Race Directors and Planners respectively. Also, to Derek Allison for his work on permissions in a very complicated area. The Saunders uses around 100 sq km of open fell which is freely accessible to individuals under the 2000 Countryside Rights of Way Act but requires explicit landowner consent, and sometimes payment, for an organised event. When the others are out on the fells in the winter and spring, Derek is on the phone and in his car tracking down and negotiating with landowners, graziers and public bodies. Our thanks to James Pennefather who waived access fees on his part of land we used and suggested a donation to South Cumbria Rivers Trust. We were pleased to make this, alongside one to the National Trust.
All officials started their planning once we had secured the Event HQ and overnight camp. The latter was very straightforward, being very large with good access but using John Ruskin School provided its own challenges. It required a welcome overhaul of our safeguarding procedures and an update of our training of key personnel, but other aspects were more difficult. With limited access, right up to 4pm on the Friday of the event, we had to adapt our proven template as we went along. Most of this went smoothly but the catering was a challenge, particularly when we came back on Sunday to find the wind had made the drinks marquee unusable. This put too much pressure on the school hall resulting in the queues some people experienced. On the positive side we were able to start the event in Coniston where there are limited alternative options, we provided support to a vital local establishment, and we got to work with some outstanding staff. Our particular thanks to caretaker Liz, who some of you may have recognised from the 2009 event when she also looked after us. In addition to the normal arrangements, we are delighted that we generated sufficient surplus from the event to be able to fund this year’s D of E program at the school.
Thanks also to Brathay Trust for all their help with parking logistics. It is a good opportunity to remind our competitors that any surplus from the SLMM goes to this very worthwhile charity. All the work done by volunteers is unpaid and nobody gets free entries so all the money we receive from entries, t-shirts and drink sales goes either to fund third party costs of staging the event or to charity.
Overall, the event went smoothly, and we are grateful for all the feedback in the survey reminding us of areas we need to consider more carefully next year. We will retain some of the changes we made to this event which proved very successful. Firstly, our extension of the discounted entry fee to U30 seems to have had a very positive effect on entries and I had many comments from people who noted the number of younger faces, so vital to the future of the Saunders and every other similar event. We practically sold out the race with 1140 entries, an increase of 200 on last year, in a market where many events are significantly down, and 30% of our entrants were under 30. The other innovation was to allow people to drop down a course on Sunday and we feel this helped some of our experienced competitors take up the challenge to do a longer course. We had 11 teams complete Scafell, our toughest course (6 in 2022), 28 on Kirkfell (14 in 2022) and 74 on Carrock Fell (61 in 2022). I was particularly pleased that 2 teams, 1 Mixed and 1 Female, swapped courses at the last opportunity to challenge the all-male group on Scafell. We were therefore able to award all categories trophies across all classes.
Philip Vokes and Paul Pruzina won Scafell in an extraordinary time and 3 hours ahead of second place, but there was a result that might even be more worthy of celebration. It was from Carol McNeill and Jane Ligema who came in 65th on Harter Fell beating some very fast runners (including a 3.30 marathon runner I know) and also winning the Vet trophy. A few other competitors came to tell me that we must have made a mistake as their handicap, based on the older member, was 89. It was nice to be able to point out that it was correct, and Carol is indeed 79 (an extra 10 years added to equalise Vet Female with Male). She has written many excellent books on Orienteering which might be worth considering for those who want to improve their Saunders position next year.
We are aware that many competitors want to review their route choice and compare with other runners and have therefore decided to upload the gpx tracks recorded by the trackers to Routegadget. This is a time-consuming process and must be done manually. The Day 1 linear courses have now been completed and the remainder, including Fairfield, will be uploaded in the next week or so.
My thanks to all those who completed the survey (now up to 400) and in particularly to those who took up the request to provide some content for our web site by sharing their experiences. There are some wonderful stories, and we will be announcing winners before the end of the week.
Next event will be 6/7th July 2024 and we will open entries on 1st January 2024. Thanks to all those who expressed an interest in volunteering, and we will be in contact over the coming weeks and months. I’m also looking at whether we can find a way of volunteers informally completing some or all of a course in the week before an event. One paradox is that those of us who love the event the most can’t compete in it. If we can find a way of dealing with that we will have a truly sustainable event. Please contact me if you are interested and have not already done so.
I have been asked by James Fraser, the very relieved owner of a retrieved down jacket, to thank the team who picked it up and carried round the course before handing in to lost property.
There were many other selfless acts by competitors of which the most valuable was the two teams who came to the rescue of the competitor with the serious head injury around Hard Knott. They spent considerable time, including a tough trek to get a mobile signal without thought for the effect on their race. When we heard about it, from the injured runner, we were able to welcome both teams on the finish line at the overnight camp and tell them we had, with the help of the trackers, adjusted their time and points accordingly.
We can’t always promise to make adjustments but we are confident our competitors will always do what is needed to help others when the need arises.
Reports from Race Officials
From the Race Directors
We hope everyone enjoyed the weekend, at least in retrospect. The weather was the most challenging it has been during our six years of involvement with the event, so well done to everyone who went out despite the horrible conditions at the Saturday Start. In retrospect, perhaps the start should have been located in a more sheltered position, but at least this way you knew what you were going to encounter on the courses. A big thank you to the start officials who remained cheerful despite being there for three hours or so.
Quite understandably we were asked under what conditions bad weather courses would have been used. The answer is that on the whole they are intended for occasions of prolonged, heavy rain which would make river/stream crossings dangerous. The bad weather courses are designed so that rivers can be crossed at safe places. They are also shorter than standard courses and give options to avoid lengthy ridge runs. A combination of very strong winds in association with incessant rain, would also trigger their use. Clearly the weather led to a higher than usual retiral rate and we want to thank anyone who made the sensible decision to retire rather than take risks.
On the whole we felt that the course lengths were about right. On almost all courses the leaders were faster than the quoted winning time, but the average times were much as intended.
About 25 teams took the option to change to a shorter course for Day 2. This is definitely something we intend to offer again in future years.
Getting permission for the event is always a big task and this year it was even more demanding than usual with at least seven different land owners, several commoners groups, Natural England and multiple farmers and other residents who could be affected by competitors passing though or near their property. So, a big thank you to Derek for handling it all so efficiently.
Sorting out marking out of bounds, uncrossable fences and crossing points is a surprisingly big part of our task. Showing everything important while keeping the map legible is a balancing act. On the whole it seemed about right but a few competitors still had problems on the way to the finish each day.
Finally, thank you to the planners John and Julie who are easy to work with and whose enthusiasm is infectious, to the organiser Stephen who always stays calm and to the whole helping team for creating such a friendly atmosphere.
We’re already looking forward to next year and the new challenges it will bring.
Karen and Dan Parker SLMM Race Directors
Report from the Planners
It was a huge honour to be asked to plan the SLMM again! The team of volunteers work like a well-oiled machine and are such a cheery bunch with diverse skills. Again, the Parkers have been kind but thorough as extremely hard-working and vastly experienced controllers and race directors, but how did we find the time to be planners in 2021 when I was still working? At least this year, we have been able to pick better mid-week weather days through the Winter and we have had the time to discuss with Dan and Karen and think about options.
The Coniston Fells were due a visit and the area felt remote – we have hardly seen a soul throughout the year and we both have good memories of past events at Cockley Beck, Torver and Coniston. Turner Hall Farm is such a good location to offer many good routes in and out with very little OOB (comparably), making the planning so much more flexible. To be honest, I (Julie) had a nightmare coming into Turner Hall from the road and the same gate in 2000 at the KIMM (very tired and the stepping-stones were flooded-out), so my sympathies lie with anyone tired and desperate to get into camp and struggling with the footpath network and roads. The location this year was fitting as my Mountain Marathon partner in 2000 was David Vaughan. David was many things to many people – certainly at BAS, but he was a solid, reliable and most of all, tolerant, running buddy and he sadly passed away this year.
The route back into Coniston at the end of Day 2 was always going to worry us and from the start of the planning process, we spent time at Cat Bank looking at safety and using the old railway track. We used the ponds and the hill top as 2nd to last controls to lead folks down through the right gate to the last control above the Ship Inn, from where it was taped along the old railway track. Map reading in a town is always difficult on a map designed to show the fells, when folks are tired and rushing to the finish, but hopefully, we led most down without too much difficulty. The road crossing seems to have gone without incident, which is a huge relief.
The first draft of this report contained a boring but rigorous trudge through the route choices on each course and which controls folks had difficulty with. The conclusions were similar on each course, so here it is, all rolled into one:
We have reviewed the Routegadget routes that have been downloaded – this is useful, so thank you for this. They are evenly spread across all courses and across all speeds, so hopefully are representative.
The route choices chosen by competitors were generally as hoped/designed. The splits between lower choices and ridge choices were perhaps more biased than they would have been on a less windy day. Despite the wind, there was a good range of routes taken on every course, some Routegadget plots looking like Melde’s experiment (Standing wave on a tensioned string), with every route represented at the antinode (apologies to non-physicists!). We were pleased to see that winning times on Carrock on Day 1 were achieved with navigationally complex routes that held to the purple line and some very neat, flowing contouring on Day 2. The Scafell winners held the direct line heroically through some interesting terrain.
At the pinch-points on high ridges (e.g. Goat’s Hause), understandably, more competitors, were brought together from different courses. There are very few possible control options mapped in this area and as there were only a couple of routes (two up, one down), within the allowable distance parameters, this resulted in unavoidable brief crocodiles, hopefully giving security on windy ridges to tired and less experienced competitors (30% were first timers on this event). These dispersed as competitors spread out to different next controls.
In the mist, some folks fed back to us that they had been nervous, but they had held the bearing and found testing controls such as Wether Hill (122) and Calf Cove (153). These controls were designed to be in safe ground and pleasant sheltered spots. The stream bend/junction at 140 changes its mind on flow on a weekly basis, but the largest boulder in the area was clear and a kindly farmer had made a convenient quad bike track by the time of the event.
Two controls were affected by the inevitable bracken of July that the good weather in June had boosted to a healthy height. As we revisited these controls throughout the seasons, we were aware that 144 had a clear route out to the south and a stream scramble in from the northeast and although the bracken around 152 was very deep, there were good paths through it, to very close.
The format and qualification changes this year to encourage teams to move up a course really swelled the numbers on some of the longer courses with a great turnout on the Carrock Fell course. It was also fantastic to see 75 junior runner-pairs at registration, resulting in some fierce competition on these courses and some exceptionally quick times. We are really really pleased to see people who found the Saturday course too long taking the option to move to a shorter course on Sunday. Holme Fell, introduced specifically for this purpose, was well used and we had very few retirals. No one likes the unfinished business of a DNF and, well, some of us have quite a few!…..
Hopefully we will see you all again next year – maybe we will be running or helping in some way – it’s a great team to be part of.
John and Julie Ferris-Worth