Competitors enjoying yesterday's terrific area and scenic arena were largely unaware of yet another Plan B.  Earlier in the week we discovered that the corner of the race arena field was ankle deep in slurry – even our staging boards would have been hard pushed to bridge this. 

Many thanks go to Angus McNicol at Invercauld Estates and farmer Neil Fraser who allowed us to move into the adjacent field, as well as moving the cattle towards the Invercauld Arms.  They (the cattle) seemed totally relaxed and chilled about the event. Essentially we did a complete mirror of the existing arena layout.  Courses were always going to have a remote finish above the arena, so no changes to maps were needed.

The Amplified Sound commentary box was always going to be up the hill, but I think commentary team of Mark Nixon and Chris Poole were a bit anxious about the prospect of a runaway box heading down the hill.  The commentary was part of a big IT set-up, masterminded by Keith Roberts and with professional help from Andrew Leaney and SteveMcLean of SPORTIdent.  Dave Coustick once again helped with radio controls – some of you may have noticed extra wires and bits emerging from the SI boxes.  This gives the commentary advance warning of runners at various stages of the race.