End of Year 10m
Race HQ
Registration is at the village centre, so need to drop the chips and straps off here first. I'll make sure they are on the top so are easy to get at.
If you head round the back as if you are going to Sobel Lodge, the door is on the right. It will be clearly marked with Race HQ.
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Not real need to hang around here, just drop the stuff off and head down to the finish.
The Finish
The finish is in Hallwards. Head down there and start setting up. As previously discussed, if the gantry isn't set up at the time then don't worry, just get the gazebo up and the antenna out and tested. Last year I ran the cabling around the edge of the curb to the far side of the gantry, mainly because I didn't have any matting. I would be inclined to run the cables straight across to the gantry and cover them with mats. They will be fine there if a car does come in or go out.
Once you have finished setting up then head up to the start. I'd rather you didn't leave anything out, so take the 4g router with you. Everything in the box should be fine.
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Worth noting the dodgy location of the backup mat here, you won't be putting this out until you come back to the finish and the race is underway, but what you will find is runners will try and take the shortest route and cut across the path on the right, missing the mat. There are 2 options here, put the mat half on the path, half on the road or alternatively block the path with a barrier.
The Start
I would just park the van on Marden Road (to the left of the picture) and run all the wires back into there, plenty of room there for cars to get round you! The router can sit in the van then and that will enable you to get your laptops set up nicely to key on the days. Picture from last year shows the start quite well, note my mats were way too close together! This year I would move the start back a few yards so you have room for your backup mat, you may have to encroach on the road a little, but try to minimise that as much as possible. If it's only just in the road you will be able to test it and leave it there, if it stretches into the middle of the road you will need to test it then move it, putting it back out just before race start. As always, just make the mats aren't too close together, the blue mats don't need much, but I'd keep it a good 6 paces. Don't worry about putting the edges of the mats up as they are in the picture, it makes no real difference. When the race starts I would have one person on the left edge of the backup mat as people will start to veer out towards the road and miss the mat. Ideally we would put a barrier there but I would avoid that as it's more stuff to pack away after the start.
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Once you are all set up and tested then someone will need to start doing shuttle runs to the village centre to grab the on the days. Don't leave it too late as there is likely to be quite a few. Obvs these can be keyed when you get back to the finish but the more you get done before the less pressure you are under. You will probably need a car to do this as the laptops and stuff will be connected in the van
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Just before they are ready to go test all your mats again and confirm readcom is all ok and the correct timing points are set up.
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Once they are all started fold up the mats, put them on top of the box and put them in the van, don't worry about packing away properly until later, you need one back at the finish anyway.
Back to the Finish
Once back at the finish 2 of you connect to the antennas and test they are OK, we know they are unlikely to miss anyone, so one working timing point is better than none. The other person set up the backup mat. Again, remember not to get too close with the backup mat, the last thing we want is interference, the antenna will likely get everyone unless there is interference.
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Once you are all done setting up, key on the last of the on the days and any alterations and set up the kiosk, then just wait for the first runner. If you are anything like me, every 30 seconds you'll check your timing points in Readcom! :)
Reports
Thought I'd add a bit about the reports as it's the one thing you guys haven't seen that much of. Reports are under Results on the top menu and you'll see reports on the right. You'll only need 2 reports for Mike, first is the category report which will include the first 3 male and female overall. To find this one under report category on the left select Results and then it's the first report. Group count needs to be changed to 3 so it only brings back 3 in each category (I've not done that in the picture). I would preview first to check what it's going to print for you.
Mike only needs one other report which is the team results, so on report category change it to 'Teams', you'll see I have actually created a report for Mike now so it's very clear, so select the first report 'Mike - Team of 4 including at least 1 female', change the count to 4, preview and then print from there. You only need page 1 from this report so I would ensure you only print page 1, it can be a very big report and I'm pretty sure it was printing that caused the slowness at Marden!
