Turkey Trot 2012

8th Annual Turkey Trot     1 July 2012      Baulkham Hills area                

To WHO Members - Thank you for your help in delivering another successful (and probably profitable) Turkey Trot.  The weather could have been warmer for the helpers though it was ideal for the runners.   We had 68 entrants and I think 65 starters.   I am going to single out some helpers and will no doubt miss others who contributed.  The event success was a club success.  

The Turkey Trot is a complicated event with its multiple maps and under and overpasses to avoid major roads such as the M2.  The long course had 5 maps, the medium course had 3 and the short course had 2 maps.   Today we had two map change areas.  Both worked successfully.  Maureen looked after the first and Kevin the second.  Thanks Kevin and Maureen.   One runner almost returned to the map change area as they hadnt realised they had to turn the page when they got to the end of the map !

Barry set up the web site and it worked a treat as the entries came in.  In usual orienteering style, 50% of the entries arrived in the last 2 days.  Chris processed the entries and set up the computer.  Again both areas went well.

Without Ted this event would not have happened.  Ted is my mentor and vetted the TT and EOD courses making a number of improvements.  He also spent Saturday afternoon putting out controls - it takes twice as long time to put them out as it takes to bring them in.   In addition to this Ted did his magic with the maps.  The Turkey Trot covers a lot of ground and the overall map is huge.  The difficult part is joining the maps together to make the runners journey seamless.  This can be challenging across the boundaries of multiple maps as they were created at different times by different WHO members.   The TT maps are "specials" - they are one offs for the TT.    Working out how to have the least maps for each course is another of Ted's skills.  A large number of hours went into this exercise.  A huge thank you to Ted.

I am looking for suggestions for future TTs.  Areas we could use, improvements we can make.   Two suggestions from today - a mountain bike class and a seniors class to encourage more entrants.  We need to do more publicity and some sponsorship would help.  We have a proven product that I think we can grow.

Thanks again for your help today (1 July).  Today also marks the start of planning for the 2013 TT.

Ian Miller

About the Metropoitan Turkey Trot 2012

The finish and assembly area for the 2012 event was in Balcombe Heights Reserve, off Seven Hills Road opposite Jasper Road, Baulkham Hills.  The start was only about 5 minutes walking distance from the finish area. In 2012 the start for the Long and Medium courseswas at the north eastern corner of the junction of Seven Hills Road and Jasper Road.  The Short course start was in the Balcombe Heights Reserve.

Distances ran were: Long – 20km - Starts wereat 9.00am, Medium – 12km – Starts at 9.15am,
Short – 8km – Starts at 9.30am   

See the 2012 Turkey Trot on YouTube. . .