I really struggled to read the map but that also due light levels which trouble me in a lot of wooded areas now despite having the magnifier on the compass (ok that brings its own depth perception challenges, but better than not having it). I even have a brilliantly designed (disposable) contact lens for weak left (reading)  eye that enables me to see in the distance (no correction needed) but has 1.5 prescription embedded in the periphery for near reading. Unfortunately the lens did not fit well yesterday which compounded matters but generally works and much easier than glasses which would not survive a few hundred metres if I dared to wear them. Having looked at the map under bright light last night I'd say the marking of the stony ground may have added some "noise" that may have rendered some folk (myself) struggling to distinguish other "black" features, espedially walls versus small paths. But really splitting hairs here against the background of an absolutely super, well thought out course where error rate for me on the day was very high and solely down to my own mistakes, no excuses. That's the wonderful thing about the sport, you (me anyway!) never stop learning. Thanks again to Dave and all the CNOC team for a great challenge and for all the work that goes into making every little bit of a complex logistical exercise happen. Best regards John

Thanks for the feedback, all very welcome.

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On the map - I made no corrections to the map this time around, and the only corrections I made in 2020 (original competion date) were to add new MTB tracks in several places. I also agree, in some areas, the stony ground symbol could be used more sparingly - as you know from running there, its stony pretty much everywhere. Theres a few spots where it makes sense, and aids navigation. In others, it could removed or scaled back. As per pretty much every forest map in the country, the undergrowth/green areas probably need touchups, but thats a much bigger job.

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The colors is again an interesting one - I'm pretty sure the base map is using the correct colors (its in the latest OCAD 2018 format). I generate PDFs of the courses using purple pen, as well as the base GIF that routegadget is using - I wonder if that has an impact? some testing required maybe.

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As a planner, I was very happy with the variety of route choice on Blue/Brown (check the GPS tracks uploaded to RG) - many legs had 3 or 4 distinct routes.

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Green probably could have done with some more, but I suspect many of you are already wishing me a painful accident due to some of the trickier sites.

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Red was well recieved. I just planned it as a long yellow, with maybe 1-2 easy orange level legs.

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Short Green was noted to be "a bit short", but tbh we consiously scaled it back by about a KM to reduce the physical difficulty.I dont know what the official length/climb for a Short Green should be - opinions?

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Light Green was ok, maybe a bit easy for some - my wife noted it was less technically challenging than some others. I find that level of course the hardest to plan - very hard to get a balance between too easy and too hard.

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Orange and Yellow were ok, although I (inadvertantly) trapped some inexperienced runners on Orange - some punched the first control they came to without checking the code - it was on a wall gate, and their actual control was ~150m further on along the wall, at a wall bend. I guess the trick there is to make sure I dont offer the bait of a temptingly similar (though technicaly kosher) control on the lower courses, since I can't always rely on beginners to check control descriptions.

Quick check on the colours - Purple Pen is definietly more muted on the greens (on the left), than the OCAD version (on the right) for the same input files:

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To me the RH (OCAD) image is clearer.

The scale was not 1:10,000, it was more like 1:11,000.

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The printer should not have reduced the map to fit the page, they should always print at 100% scale. I really struggled to read the detail. I blamed it on new contact lens that I was using for first time, but now that I realise the scale is wrong, this is a contributory factor. I laso removed map from the bag which helped the clarity a lot. 

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Edited to add,

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Checking that the printing is done at correct scale is one of the standard checks upon receiving maps from the printer.