Trail Challenge variant

[JK]

Trail Challenge as a brand is designed to appeal to non-orienteers/trail runners, so is pretty good IMHO. ParkNavRun wouldn't be very good (the nav would put them off, and they are often not in parks).

Alternatively trail-O could use it's other name 'precision orienteering' which I think is a better description, though not Pre-O (I'm looking at the wiki article here... I don't know how accurate it is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_orienteering). Maybe Pre-O is used because not enough people can spell precision?

Or finally the BOF fixtures list could have a type field so people wouldn't have to search by string matching.

The sport is TrailO and it is well established in IOF (PreO and TempO being its two variants). I hope the IOF pages are more up to date than Wikipedia.

For this reason I'd like to repeat my request that people don't start up their own "Brands" that use existing established names (or parts of them) unless it is clear it wont' lead to confusion.

BTW if "Nav" isn't involved then in what way is it orienteering and why would it be listed on the BOF fixtures list - does our insurance cover events that don't involve navigation or orienteering? I'd get confused if I found an event on an orienteering fixtures list, turned up and found that it was a run along trails following markers.

The reason I brought this up was one of my overseas colleagues saw the TrailChallenges and presumed they were TrailO.

[Norni]

This all sounds quite similar to something we did in Norfolk in 2011
http://norfolktrailrun.weebly.com/

A 5k course with a marked route, but opportunities for 'short cuts' on each leg. We put on 3 races over the summer. We made a website, did online entry, had prizes for each age group, and souvenir bags for every runner - everything you would get at a normal running race. We got a total of about 100 entries, mostly runners. They seemed to enjoy it, but only a handful ever came to a 'proper orienteering event' as a result, and it produced a grand total of 0 new members for our club. Consequently, the project was not repeated in 2012 or 2013.
But, if at first you don't succeed, and all that, we're going to try again this summer.

[SeanC]

Norni,

yes, that is quite like my idea. I knew there was no such thing as an original idea. Glad to see it was a success.

I like the idea of prizes for fastest on certain legs. King Of The Mountains in Norfolk?

So why not offer a trail run at all your level C events as well? That way if they choose never to progress beyond this ultra easy orienteering it doesn't matter, they are at the event, just doing a different course.

[graeme]

I'm glad you are enjoying the PreO, pre O.

Do you fancy putting on a Pre-O for RacetheCastles/Edinburgh? It's not in my expertise, but there is an obvious section of the map which is highly detailed, near assembly, touristically pleasant, and not usable for the race due to road crossing. We're trying to get people to make a day of it, so any additional attractions are all good.

[AndyC]

So why not offer a trail run at all your level C events as well? That way if they choose never to progress beyond this ultra easy orienteering it doesn't matter, they are at the event, just doing a different course.

Let's add a "within reason" to that -some areas (and often the best for adult technical courses for that reason) just don't have the paths. I really don't fancy taping a 10k route across moorland on the morning of an event (as well as getting controls out for the min event, putting out a string course etc.) but I support the principle.

[AnneH]

I'm glad you are enjoying the PreO, pre O.

Do you fancy putting on a Pre-O for RacetheCastles/Edinburgh? It's not in my expertise, but there is an obvious section of the map which is highly detailed, near assembly, touristically pleasant, and not usable for the race due to road crossing. We're trying to get people to make a day of it, so any additional attractions are all good.

That's a great idea Graeme . Perhaps we should do a TempO (the TrailO equivalent of sprint, all controls timed). The difficulty would be getting enough helpers. I'll contact you to explore further.

Anne

[JK]

I'm glad you are enjoying the PreO, pre O.

Do you fancy putting on a Pre-O for RacetheCastles/Edinburgh? It's not in my expertise, but there is an obvious section of the map which is highly detailed, near assembly, touristically pleasant, and not usable for the race due to road crossing. We're trying to get people to make a day of it, so any additional attractions are all good.

That's a great idea Graeme . Perhaps we should do a TempO (the TrailO equivalent of sprint, all controls timed). The difficulty would be getting enough helpers. I'll contact you to explore further.
Anne

I haven't seen the area in question, but if we do normal Trail-O then it could end up being the usual problem of park/urban trail-O - too easy or too convoluted (nasty lining ups and silly Zs). Neither of these are a good advert for Trail-O. This type of terrain does however lend itself very well to TempO. You then need careful analysis of the logistics to ensure there aren't ridiculous queues. The new rules will help this (30s max time per problem).

I have offered my help to Graeme if he needs in a separate email as I should be heading to Scotland a couple of times this year. I would of course need an assistant planner in Edinburgh.