Happy Birthday Lorraine!
 She was able to celebrate her special day by swapping the Registration desk for the Starter's chair and sending her squad around the course for an extra two laps :)

Despite the tinkling sound of frozen body parts hitting the ground and the slightly longer course made necessary by the damage to the Events-path along one side of the lake, a select band of six riders still managed PBs. Craig managed to peel just over a minute and a half from his previous; the rest were more conservative: 30sec or less. Sandy managed 30sec improvement and also joined Davina and Claire on the (virtual) podium for the girls.

The doglegs past the finish caused a bit of congestion occasionally but fortunately for at least several of the affected riders, only as they finished; at Matt Illingworth's pace this might have amounted to a second or so I guess. A few riders did try a short cut across the edge of the path and one rider did an 'Armstrong' cross-country (but on foot) when she followed a finisher down the wrong path. Unfortunately we can't give any assurance that the original path will be repaired in time for the October ride but we are hopeful for November. All the same we are pretty fortunate that we do have options available at Champion Lakes; the few complaints we heard were mainly about the chill factor and the breeze (they more or less go together, really!)

It was barely daylight when Jim Eu was putting signs out and Lorraine and Susie were waiting to set up the registrations desk. Roger Hales was soon there to help Susie for the rest of the event with some extra assistance from James before (and after) his ride; Paul Lavery, Kevin Storer and Peter Fallon manned the essential marshal points and Mark Bennett also lent a hand before his own ride. Thanks, many times, to you all and, similarly to Stan Bowden from the Regatta Centre