2013 Race Director’s report

The courses were on the long side this year. Traditionally day one of the GL3D™ has been significantly longer than the other days. However, this year, Charlie Sproson and I decided to have both day one and two of roughly equally length but with around 30% more height gain on the second day.

The poor visibility and generally inclement weather on the first two days of the event meant that many competitors had some long days on the fells and the success rate on each course was less than we would have liked. On the Sunday, the less run-able terrain combined with even worse clag than the day before, resulted in some testing conditions on the fells.

For these reasons, we decided to revert to our shorter ‘Bad Weather’ courses on the final day to ensure that everyone got away at a reasonable time. The bank holiday sun finally made an appearance on the Monday afternoon and really helped to lift the marshals and competitors spirits (and dry some of our kit!)… It really is amazing what some warm sunshine can do!

On a practical level, the wet weather on Friday, Saturday and Sunday really puts added pressure on the event logistics. In particular, the car parking at the Dowthwaite Head Farm Event Centre was obviously problematic on the Friday evening and Saturday morning as competitors arrived. The track into the field quickly became rutted and the entrance area a quagmire. Fortunately a few tones of hay and some pushing of vehicles saved the day. However, next year, we will think more carefully about the car parking location.

The provision of hot water, cake, beer and tea and coffee to all the competitors at the overnight camp clearly went down well again. New for 2013 was the provision of a separate large tent for the competitors to hang out in the evenings, again this was obviously a great success and we will look to increase the size of the competitors’ tent in the future. It would also be fair to say that the appearance of Rin’s Coffee van on Sunday and Monday morning was greatly appreciated by many. We will be asking Rin to come to the 2014 event.

Also, new for 2013 was the introduction of two new courses. Having the flexibility to swap between the three courses worked well and I hope that this allowed many competitors to complete a day on the hill rather than being stuck with a pre-defined course that they may have entered months ago. There seems to be demand for a forth course, already dubbed the C or Café Class and Charlie and I will mull over whether to incorporate this into the event for 2014.

It was very embarrassing to discover on day two that the Eastings on the map had been printed incorrectly. I can only apologies again for this printing error and the confusion it caused a number of competitors whilst out on the hill. I will be taking this up with the printers!

Photos and Video

If you have any photos or video that you would be willing to share on the event website please send them to me and I’ll put together a gallery.

Lost property

We collected the following items over the weekend. If you think any of them are yours, please contact us with a description and we will arrange their return:
• Beanies x2
• Sun glasses x1
• waterproof trousers x1
• spoon x1

Competitors who were unable to Attend

For competitors who had paid for an entry but were unable to attend the event, we have posted a map to you today. However, please note that the Eastings (the horizontal grid line) are incorrect by 1km. This is a printing error and the grid line 30 should actually be 29, 29 should actually be 28 etc.

Competitor Feedback

I would welcome any feedback from competitors… good or bad! If you enjoyed yourself, just a few sentences about your experience that we could include on the website would be greatly appreciated. If you feel we could have done something better please let me know.

Finally

I would like to say huge congratulations to everyone who took part in the GL3D™ this year and that I hope to see you all again in 2014.

Happy Running,

Shane Ohly
Race Director
Great Lakeland 3Day