Some upcoming changes for 2012…

December 07, 2011

So we listened to your feedback, and we’ve decided to make some changes in 2012. As/when/if we make any further changes, they’ll be posted here to give competitors maximum notice (unless they’re course changes, in which case we want to keep you in suspense!). If all goes well, we’ll keep these changes for future years – so bear with us if things are a little different this time around. We want to try and keep the E2C up there with the big guys in terms of exciting events 🙂

Changes for 2012 are…

  1. The post-race banquet will now be on site. This is in response to lots of feedback regarding the time it takes to travel to the banquet location, the unwanted extension to an already long day, and the additional wait before the banquet begins for teams that finish the course early. Instead, we’ll be having a barbeque/buffet style dinner at the race site immediately after the event ends; in essence this will be an extension of the ‘unofficial’ bbq that we’ve had going most years at the finish line. This will give competitors the opportunity to immediately refuel when they’ve handed their punch cards in, compare notes with friends and have a rest before making the journey home. We’ll be presenting awards and prizes here too. We will still be holding registration off-site, for logistical reasons.
  2. Teams that wish to compete in the Public Competitive category are no longer restricted to a maximum of 2 team members. We’ll be bringing this category in line with the others by allowing teams of 2-5 people to enter. Again, this was in response to feedback from competitors, as well as discussions with the Orienteering Association of Nova Scotia regarding rules in other events. The general conclusion was that smaller teams are actually quicker through the woods than larger teams, meaning that no advantage is gained by having more team members. However, we know that a number of 3- and 4-person teams register for the PC category every year, only to be told that they have to compete in Recreational or split into two teams… so we hope that this will make it easier for people who want to compete together to do so.
  3. In addition to results being posted in the ‘conventional’ way (that is to say, by category and 8hr/24hr), results will also be posted for the field as a whole. This will allow teams to see where they finished in relation to all the other teams in the event, rather than just in their own category. Additionally, we will be posting the results by gender category; male teams, female teams and mixed teams. If there is enough interest in having prizes for the top male/female/mixed teams in future years, this may be something that we implement into the event, rather than just into the presentation of results.
  4. Last – but not least – cost. A number of competitors felt that having an equal cost for the 8hr and 24hr races was discouraging new people from signing up for the event, or from dropping down to the 8hr event if they were injured or had other commitments. We’ve decided that this year, the 24hr event will stay fixed at $80, but the cost of entering the 8hr event will decrease to $65. Although of course you’ll be limited to only two burgers off the bbq… just kidding!

If you have any comments on these changes, feel free to send them along to us. Unfortunately, we think that the suggestions of a 36hr event and having a zipline might have to wait for another year, but we’ll keep them in mind 😉