Uringa teamed up with their buddy Club
Central Coast to run the NSW Middle and Long Distance Championships at Long
Swamp just north of Lidsdale (near Lithgow). This event was twice postponed
because of covid, had it been run in September as originally planned life would
have been a lot easier indeed.
A number of things impacted on this event.
Firstly, the map was ravaged by bushfires in that terrible summer in 2019/2020
and had been revised by Rob Vincent. However nature fought back and the rain in the region was substantial and with
the canopy trees rather worse for wear after the fires along came prolific
regrowth and all this happened whilst we were in LGA lockdown.
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| On top of the pagodas |
The planners, Colin Price and Alice Prudhoe
along with controllers Nick Wilmott and Paul Prudhoe, were able to make
preliminary visits to the terrain early in the year. However, the LGA lock down
meant that they were unable to return until lockdown lifted in mid-October.
What they planned on paper during lockdown didn’t always work out in the field.
So in a few short weeks courses were tweaked and stands put out.
Then came the rain of the last two weeks.
Long Swamp lived up to its name. It had been pretty well dry for many years
(there is an underground coal mine in the vicinity). With the torrential rain
the swamp greatly expanded and the crossing points planned were in need of
bridges. Thus, the Long Courses had to be changed again, this in the week prior
to the event. Most of the courses had a leg which herded the runners over a
bridge across the swamp. It is at this point we should stand and applaud the heroic efforts of Paul and Julia Prudhoe
who had to go back into the terrain once more and move stands that they along
with Alice Prudhoe, John Fuller, Nick Wilmott and Dave McKenna had put out only
a week or two previously.
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| On the way in to the event
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And then came the weather forecast. The
weekend of November 20/21 was the weekend that a large rain cell was due to
drench the east coast and central areas of NSW. Whoops forgot to mention that
the access road into the forest as dirt and there was a lot of speculation as
to whether all but the 4wd, all-terrain vehicles would make it to the assembly
area.
It was about this time that organiser, John
Fuller was pulling his hair out- what else….. Mind you the preparation of the
Fire Management plan was certainly not needed as well as the detailed Covid
plan as restrictions changed.
Gear was packed and lots of Uringans and Central
Coast orienteers headed west. Saturday morning dawned and the rain radar showed
a chance of showers. One noted BOM employee commented Saturday will be ok but
on Sunday a “fire hose” will be turned on over Lithgow- and that meant us.
With many hands the set up was quick and
easy. Post Saturday’s event it was a case of batten down the hatches – sides
went up on the tents to protect from the mega rain. It didn’t come as the storm
cell skirted us on its path into Sydney. Mind you whilst it rained consistently
overnight, on Sunday when we arrived at the arena thankfully the contents of
the tents were dry. Many hands completed the set up whilst it was raining
lightly.
Fortunately, by mid-morning raincoats and
umbrellas disappeared meaning that tents, tarpaulins etc were reasonably dry
for pack up. Rather than being a stressful time the many hands of UR and CC had
a grand old time folding tent sides and tent tops with lots of good-humoured
banter. ( They actually enjoyed it)
Cars were packed, controls collected and
cars exited down a soggy but still surprisingly firm forest road.
For the competitors the weekend was a
challenge. The pagoda rock formations were large and much time could be lost if you went the wrong way around. Tal on one side and huge cliffs on the other
Day 1, the Middle Distance Champs involved
a remote start and finish some kilometre and a bit north of the Assembly Arena.
There were many tired bodies marching down the road. The download team handled
the weary orienteers slickly and in a blast from the past in the age of
technology (no phone reception) results were displayed using slats. There were
many heads scratched trying to work out the last time we used slats- perhaps
the 2016 NSW Schools Champs at Georges Hall and West Sydney Uni at Milperra.
Slats were superseded by using screens and more recently by live casting to the
internet.
A presentation was held which is another rare
occurrence the last being in April at Easter. Maggie Mackay scored an
impressive win in W14A which is a pretty hot class. In M35A Ian McKenzie out
foxed his much younger opponents for 2nd and Melanie Christie W45A and
Serena Doyle W20A collected 3rd place badges. Close but not close
enough in 4th place were Jono Nolan M14A, Kelvin Meng M18A, Dave
Lotty M65AS, Ant Nolan M50A, Gayle Shepherd W55As and Brian Cleland in M80A.
Sunday and initially in the rain
competitors had a rather short 350m to the start. Mind you, you crossed the
marsh which involved a bit of walking in water.
For many of the competitors they equalled or bettered their times that
they had done the previous day.
Once again, the slats worked a treat and
much chit chat could be heard nearby as competitors, many of whom had not seen
each other for many months, caught up exchanging war stories of their
respective runs.
Badges were again a feature of the
presentation. Maggie Mackay W14A and Jono Nolan M14A were proudly handed the 2nd
place badge. Linda Sesta W50A and wait for it Sarah Garnett W60A finished 3rd
Kelvin Meng M18A, Ant Nolan M50A and Brian
Cleland M80A were 4th.
And so, the NSW Middle and Long Distance
Champs were finally run. The mighty team of Uringan and Central Coast
volunteers were amazing from the vaccine checkers – checking double vacc
certificates (it was amazing the number
who had to scramble in bags etc to locate the certificate be it on phone or
paper despite being warned to have it ready), to the first aiders, start teams,
download teams, parking team and especially those who backed up after the event
to collect controls – you were amazing. A special mention to Organiser John
Fuller who did a great job pulling it all together.
Now next weekend we have the Uringa
Christmas get together!! |
| After you finish what do you do? Have a debrief! |
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| Gayle and Kelvin enjoying conversation |
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| Brian and Aldo |
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| The hard working finish team |
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| Jane at the finish |
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| Lets see this goes here and this goes there |
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| Jono supervising |
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| Tada! all done - just 5 more to go! |
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| Nick used a bike during course checking |
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| Gayle finishing the Long Course |
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| Dave discussing the map with Rob Vincent |
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| Yes folks here are the timber slats! |
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| Ian and John in animated conversation |
