Now that the results have finally been finalised, we can finally have a report about the Extra Special South Central EMIT Failure Extravaganza 2019!
The weekend kicked off with a Sprint at Aldershot Garrison on the Friday, which was very fast and not particularly technical, but harder than last year and offered some decent SprintO. The weather was quite hot, but when you're running for less than twenty minutes it's not that bad. Unfortunately, CUOC was missing some of our star runners today, with some suspiciously similar names entered under different clubs. Top CUOC result of the day went to Paul and Helen, who were both 15th, with Rowan coming 124th and Lily making a much anticipated return to CUOC activities to take 94th. Many people's EMITags didn't register at controls, mainly because EMIT touch free doesn't work. Luckily, most of us were running elite, so got two tags, halving the chance of a mispunch from 99% to a much more manageable 44.5%. Later in the evening, there were no results available, because the website used to host results couldn't cope with the demand.
Next day was a middle distance at Windmill Hill, a fairly complex area of steepish hills and trenches, with a canal and a railway to cross on the elite courses. Today was hotter than yesterday, which made it harder to run well. Helen was the best performance today, coming in 21st on W21E. Paul and Rowan were 25th and 81st on M21E, and Lily came in 26th on W21L. Luke decided not to show up, because he was too tired from being in France. Lily had a particularly eventful day, getting very friendly with a stick. Sadly, the new-found friends had to part ways soon after when she got to the hospital and it was removed from her arm. In the evening, Paul and Helen endured the company of DRONGOs at an Indian pub, which was quite nice.
The Long distance was held at Cold Ash on Sunday - the exact same area as was used for the JK2013. Back then was a simpler time, before the days of touch free punching, when all you needed to use an emit brikke was a hypermobile wrist. Today was different though, and with 17.8k and 41 controls on the M21E, there was plenty of potential for slip ups. The weather was slightly less warm though, and everyone kept cool-headed to make it round successfully. Helen was 11th on W21E, Paul 18th and Rowan 68th on M21E, and Lily 21st on W21L.
Finally on Monday came the relays, at Minley. CUOC had two teams entered, both on the JK Trophy, but each team ran using the wrong bibs, which probably caused the organisers more hassle than they wanted at this stage of the weekend. Some new names appeared in the results today, with 'Feeling CUOCky' consisting of Aidan, James and Paul coming 7th. Special mention should be given to James, who (according to the provisional results) managed to get the fastest leg time in 21:10, a full 4 minutes faster than second place. CUOC-a-doodle-doo, consisting (allegedly) of Zac O Sullivan Hourihan, (normally of Bishopstown Orienteering Club in Cork), Rowan and Helen, finished in 25th. CUOC performance of the day went to a non-CUOC member, Pippa Carcas, a W16, who no longer 'wishes she was fast like Paul'.
Hopefully the results are finalised properly soon
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