Nottingham City Race

[ba-ba]

Great event. My watch clocked 14.1km - shame my legs had nothing.
Which was the 'most spectacular control in British O this year'? I'd hazard a guess at #61 in the castle grounds, but I didn't have time to check out the view. Wonder if it'll be able to be used in future seeing as some people apparently thought it OK to stray into the Olive Green in the castle.
Props to Willie Gardner for DQing himself after using the OOB passage out of #52 - was he the only one?...

[King Penguin]

Seconded - great event. Thanks Rich and NOC team.

[Spookster]

Yes, very enjoyable race and great courses. Lots of people were finding the multi-level stuff around the university buildings a challenge. The castle wasn't difficult, but good to be able to get the race in there.

And well done for getting all the results, splits and routegadget up so quickly.

[Mrs H]

Really enjoyed the event - everything was top notch - even the weather (it's rained all day in Malvern - great for my newly planted beans ) damn - just spotted a route between 4 and 5 I'd missed

[Marian]

Props to Willie Gardner for DQing himself after using the OOB passage out of #52 - was he the only one?...

Do you mean using it past the purple overprint? I used it as far as the spectacular steps - had a debate with a fellow C course runner as I popped out beside her - she thought I was wrong because I'd gone "through" some grey but I've been caught out avoiding underpasses in the past which have turned out to be legal althought the grey they went under was obviously not. At the finish assorted experienced urban types had done the same so I concluded all was good but I ran out of steam so badly by the end that a DQ would be quite a good thing
Thanks to NOC for a great day out.

[IanD]

I'd gone "through" some grey but I've been caught out avoiding underpasses in the past which have turned out to be legal although the grey they went under was obviously not.

The two lines of black dots indicate that it's OK to pass under the building to reach the spiral steps - just hope you've got a good head for heights!

[IanD]

I thought it was a really top-notch event.

Some really interesting legs. Looking at the courses on RouteGadget, I think there are a couple of legs where nobody has (so far) recorded taking the best route! I have in mind 57-70 (on A, B & C), where I think it may be best to head NE out of 57 and run up the very edge of the map before turning west and entering the park through the underpass. And the long 52-59 leg on A & B, where dog-legging E out of 52 and then following main roads and the tramway, passing one block E of the castle, and then W along another road looks fast and simple to me. I shall be interested to see if anyone does eventually put these either of these routes onto RouteGadget, and whether they are indeed fastest.

I also wonder whether leg 59-61 will record the slowest mins/km of any leg anywhere this year!

[Scott]

A fantastic event, and some really great planning. Definitely worth the early start this morning And the view from #61 was pretty spectacular.

Props to Willie Gardner for DQing himself after using the OOB passage out of #52 - was he the only one?...

Despite intending to go up the steps I somehow overshot them and ran off down the OOB passage, but quickly realised what I'd done, turned round and went back and up the steps. I fessed up to the controller afterwards and said I'd be happy to be DSQed, but he didn't think it necessary as I hadn't gained an advantage and it wasn't a permissions issue.

[awk]

Would like to add my voice to the approbation for today's race. Having run at York on Monday and Ilkley yesterday, have had three absolutely top notch urban races in the past 7 days - amongst the best, and certainly one of the highest quality sequences I've done. ( Enjoyed Ripon as well, but as a planner, it was a different sort of enjoyment!).

Some really interesting legs. Looking at the courses on RouteGadget, I think there are a couple of legs where nobody has (so far) recorded taking the best route! I have in mind 57-70 (on A, B & C), where I think it may be best to head NE out of 57 and run up the very edge of the map before turning west and entering the park through the underpass. And the long 52-59 leg on A & B, where dog-legging E out of 52 and then following main roads and the tramway, passing one block E of the castle, and then W along another road looks fast and simple to me. I shall be interested to see if anyone does eventually put these either of these routes onto RouteGadget, and whether they are indeed fastest.

I pretty much did what you suggested for 52-59, and looking at the splits, I'm very happy with that route choice (I cut down the side of the castle and through the park to the south to cut the corner from the route you suggest).
I did wonder about your suggested route 57-70, but also think that going west from 2 and reversing the B course 5-6 exit from the park would be interesting to see splits for. Unfortunately, I took an intermediate route that did neither one thing or the other, and lost about 30 secs or so (I went round the 6/7/8 estate as couldn't see a quick route through straightaway - too complex, and thought the slowing down to read was probably not worth the time - probably wrong on this occasion).

Props to Willie Gardner for DQing himself after using the OOB passage out of #52 - was he the only one?...

Credit also to Tony Donaldson who also self-DQed for doing the same thing - as he said, this was a case where familiarity was a disadvantage, as he never really looked or saw the crosses.

[madmike]

What a great event - super planning, well organised and even a physio on hand to massage the short fat hairy legs before travelling back - well done NOC. Well worth the trains, buses, tubes and car needed to get there

Like Scott, I went to far down the passage into the purple and then retreated back to where I'd entered the oob and then went up the steps. I confessed this to the officials who seemed more concerned with the people who carried on through the OOB and off the map. My split suggests dropping from 15-25 on that leg was probably just punishment for my complete ineptitude but I would have had no problems if;d been DQ'd.

I really really needed the flip out magnifier that's somewhere in a pile of brashings in Shropshire a few times

thanks again for a top urban race

[awk]

Like Scott, I went to far down the passage into the purple and then retreated back to where I'd entered the oob and then went up the steps. I confessed this to the officials who seemed more concerned with the people who carried on through the OOB and off the map.

Too right! I saw a similar situation at Oxford a year or so ago; a competitor ran onto an olive green marked area to cut across to a control. When they realised, they retreated the way they had come in, and then ran round. To my mind there shouldn't be a disqualification in a situation like that except in extremis.

[RanaldMacdonald]

Too right! ... a competitor ran onto an olive green marked area to cut across to a control. When they realised, they retreated the way they had come in, and then ran round. To my mind there shouldn't be a disqualification in a situation like that except in extremis.

Which is exactly what I was meaning in my Controller's comments on the results page - http://www.cix.co.uk/~neper/city2011/comments.htm A mistake was made, no advantage was gained and no damage caused. The more pedantic might argue that any encroachment into OOB should result in disqualification ... but that's not what I'm reading from comments here.

BTW - many thanks for all the positive comments about the event and the constructive feedback we received. It was certianly stressful just before the starts - which unfortunately we had to delay - but everyone seemed quite understanding of our predicament.

Ranald

[King Penguin]

And the long 52-59 leg on A & B, where dog-legging E out of 52 and then following main roads and the tramway, passing one block E of the castle, and then W along another road looks fast and simple to me. I shall be interested to see if anyone does eventually put these either of these routes onto RouteGadget, and whether they are indeed fastest.

See Andrew Kelly vs John Embrey on RG on course B for this. Very similar total times, almost together at the start of the leg, 2 different routes. It shows the dog-leg route E of the castle was slightly quicker than the tunnel and steps route.

[Gnitworp]

On the C Course, I went west of the castle hilltop mansion in both directions mainly because I was uncertain at the time about passage under the small bridge over a footpath by the statue in the olive green. Dots are helpful here and are used elsewhere where the bridge over is wider (e.g., on the river south bank), but this is a problem with footbridges that are narrow and there's only room for one dot. Maybe the bridge symbol, with its thinner-than-uncrossable-barrier line width, should be sufficient evidence of passage under? It wasn't to me on this occasion though. I remember the use of a dot, that had merged with the bridge parapet lines, causing confusing in Warwick Castle a few years back, where people mistakenly thought the bridge over would be blocked. This bridge was over a grassy dry moat, not a footpath, with passage under it, in the moat, possible.

[awk]

See Andrew Kelly vs John Embrey on RG on course B for this. Very similar total times, almost together at the start of the leg, 2 different routes. It shows the dog-leg route E of the castle was slightly quicker than the tunnel and steps route.

Bearing in mind that JE is a faster runner than AK!