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There's a contradiction in terms - and maybe there is no need to keep the old maunderings from the website front page - but here they are:-
19 June 2007 The site has been offline for a few days because the server died. I hope its now rebuilt and all working. Let me know if there are any bits still broken. We walked over Thorpe Pastures on Saturday and the area where
the parking is was dryer than we expected. There are some very boggy bits but
they can be avoided. Although it is raining at the moment (9:00 Tuesday) the
weather forecast gives it dry at least till Saturday. So, the Dash should be on
for Sunday. Ken Broadhurst, who won the first six dashes has phoned us with some clarifications of Alan Giffords notes. Alan Gifford has sent us some photos of the first Dovedale Dash
I have to plead incompetence. I thought things were quiet on the eMail front. The Dash mailbox has been out of action - incoming mail has been discarded. My apologies. It's working again now, so if you could resend any mail then I'll make sure you get a reply. The Dash is over for another year. The results are elsewhere on the website (www.dovedaledash.co.uk/html/2005Results.htm). There are still a few outstanding items which we'll clear up as soon as possible. The weather caught us on the hop because the rain forecast for Saturday arrived on Sunday and parking on the Pastures became impossible. The alternative parking at Dovedale Car Park would have been effective but for the anti-social people who double parked on the main road down to Dovedale. This meant that there was only room for single file traffic. We had to delay the start because of this and it is impossible to guess how long to allow. The rain came on really heavily and the tangle on the road cleared quicker than expected. It was clearly better to bring the start forward for the benefit of the 900 or so runners who were waiting out in the rain. We understand that a few people who had gone away to get warm and dry missed the start. Our sympathies with them - but we believed that the welfare of the majority was important. Congratulations to the winners - and to all the runners. Cyril will be sorting out the missing / mixed up prizes over the next few days. We think the runner up (Richard Brown) ended up with the prize for the second lady (Blue Haywood). We hope the recipients appreciated the spot prizes. They were in celebration of fifty years of Dash-ing. Our thanks to the donors and best wishes to the recipients. THE DASH IS ON We have just spent the evening making the final arrangements for Sunday. Is there another race in the calendar where there is so much uncertainty right up to the tape? The parking area is no worse despite the showers. The weather forecast is not too bad for Friday (showers) with light rain forecast for Saturday and Sunday. If you have any opportunities for car sharing - then please take them. The more in the car then the more who can push. Our team get weary in the end. The fewer cars on the Pastures then the more there is to eat for the sheep and cattle next week! The course is perfect - of course. The course marshal this year is Steve Delay who is keen that you all have a good experience - which means - no walls down - no runners with barbed wire scratches - no mobs of runners going the wrong way - no runners lost forever in the mud .Any problems you want to report that we might be able to fix next year, then email steve.delay@dovedaledash.co.uk We look forward to seeing you on Sunday. 31 October 2005 Whoops - I was using an old mailing list. My apologies for the spate of messages. Thorpe Pastures (where the car park is) is not looking too bad despite the rain. It is nowhere near as bad as it was last year. We are hopeful that we'll be able to park the cars in good time. The course is muddy in places - all the usual ones, and it's not likely to get any better between now and next weekend. Bad news or good news depending how you look at it. Our refreshments tent will not be allowed to provide hot drinks this year. The insurance company will not cover the provision of hot drinks and food using a naked flame - which is how water was heated in the past. So at least you can be sure that you won't be burned to death while waiting for a cup of tea. If you want a hot drink then you'll have to bring a flask (no naked flames, please). We have tried to find an alternative source of hot drinks, but the proximity to Bonfire Night means that all the possible suppliers we have tried have better things to do. We'll try and do better next year. Not a lot to say, really. It's drizzling this Saturday afternoon, but the ground is still quite dry and we can only hope that things stay dry enough to allow us to run the 50th Dash. I'll be keeping the web site up to date from now on and I'll be sending out a test email to the mailing list in the near future. If you think you are on the list and want to get off it, then unsubscribe at the location above. If you want to join the mailing list - which I use to keep people informed in situations like last year's - then subscribe above. I won't use your email address for anything else. Keep your fingers crossed for a dry end to the Autumn. Best wishes to you all from the DDD team - Andrew, Cyril, Peter, Bob and Barbara The 50th Dash that wasn't The committee of the Dovedale Dash is as
disappointed as the runners not to have been able to go ahead with this year’s
race. The only compensation is that next year’s race will still be the
fiftieth one, assuming that the rain does not defeat us again. The reason for
the cancellation is the condition of Thorpe Pastures, which are sodden, and have
been all summer really, but more especially with the 4" of rain in October.
The cancellation was decided upon at Three committee members were on hand
from 9 o’clock to explain to would be competitors the reason for the
cancellation. One of these was Aurelie Germann from the Jura in France who flew
over especially for
the race, as training for a 48 mile cross country ski race in February, the same
race once competed in by the Dovedale Dash chairman in 1989. Other runners from
afar were Peter Bond and party from The Dash committee thank the Izaak Walton Hotel which again sponsored the Dash. Thanks are due also to the following businesses which had offered spot prizes for the fiftieth running of the Dash:- Red Lion, Hognaston, Red Lion, Kniveton, The Ketch, Kniveton, Royal Oak, Wetton, The George, Alstonfield, Watts Russell, Milldale, Bluebell, Tissington, Coach and Horses, Fenny Bentley, Bentley Brook, Fenny Bentley, Dog and Partridge, Thorpe, Peveril of the Peak, Thorpe, Dovedale Garage, Thorpe and John Stubbs Sorts, Ashbourne. It is hoped that these prizes will be available next year! A runner on the day suggested a fleet of buses to ferry runners from Ashbourne. This idea fails as Ashbourne probably does not have 500 spare parking places. The bus operators might like to take runners to Thorpe, but would jib at returning them plastered in mud. Another idea was to change the date of the race. This won’t do either, because the rain can fall at any time of year enough to waterlog the Pastures, and because the farmers would not be happy to have their grass crops trampled earlier in the year. As it is they organize weeks ahead to have the grazing eaten off before the race day. The conclusion must be that the Dash works well when the field is dry, and that alternative arrangements are impractical. The only workable solution is that runners arrive on their bikes (free parking!) or by the coach load. With three races cancelled, in 1998, 2000 and 2004, it makes you wonder if there is something in this global warming. The committee would like to encourage runners to view the Dash website before they set off. This would save a lot of disappointment and wasted journeys. For those with neither internet access nor friends with access the phone numbers are 01335 350239 and 350410. The cancellation went out on local radio stations and into local newspapers. The committee apologize to all the runners who wanted to run and especially to those who arrived in hope and ignorance of the cancellation, and we all hope that next year will be a better one. 3 November 2004 28 October 2004 The Dovedale Dash committee met tonight to consider the matter
of parking. The usual parking area on Thorpe Pastures is wetter than it ever has
been in the past - wetter than the years when we had to cancel the Dash.
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Author: Andrew Wager - Last changed Saturday November 03, 2007 20:08 |
