Rome 2013

[Spookster]

Where do we find the results?

www.rome2013.net/index.php?lang=en

[Simon]

Tatty: results are at http://www.rome2013.net/index.php?lang=en

As Spookster said, last night was good fun.

[Tatty]

Just found them , thanks. Some good GBR runs!

[Happy]

Good courses today at Villa Ada.

[Spookster]

Good courses today at Villa Ada.

Really quite a tricky area. Very few people will have had a clean run.

[Mrs H]

an absolute blast. As you say could have done without the 9 minutes lost (don't ask) just can't work out why it was so tricky. I think it must have been the scale in the jungle just kept misjudging everything and the paths were so complicated. Excellent fun. Hope I can still walk by tomorrow. Orienteering and sightseeing round Rome is an exhausting combination.

[Happy]

Great race around historic area, much dodging of public around Colosseum area. Now feeling exhausted after climbing many steps.

Thanks Rome 2013 for 3 days of challenging races.

[Mrs H]

what a privilege to orienteer round the Colosseum, Forum and Piazza Venetzia areas today. I cannot imagine another event offering so many distractions. I must admit after two hard days orienteering and a lot more sightseeing I didn't feel guilty about taking my time and savouring the experience. A big thank you to Madmike and his team. As far as I could tell the event went off with hardly a hitch and I didn't hear of any controls missing over the three days which seems extraordinary . feeling completely whacked.

[Spookster]

Yes, another great race today. Well done Mike and all the organising team!

[Jayne]

Lots of Brits on the podium too (spookster being one of them ) British 1,2 on women's open with Helen Gardner winning, about a minute or so over Sarah Rollins. We were talking about how we can make prize givings in the UK better - decided we just need to get MadMike to do them all

[Slowtochide]

An all round excellent event.
3 very different days, each with their own twist.
All of the controls were in the right place and the maps seemed spot on.
Clearly a lot of effort by a small core of people who can give each other a collective pat on the back
And the sun shone.

A big THANK YOU to Mad Mike and all of the other organisers and planners for a really enjoyable event

[Slowtochide]

I also got stopped on Sunday by the Coloseum by a pistol toting carbinieri officer who demanded to see my formal authority for putting a little bit of blue tape on a tree - only in Italy.........

I'm sure that Met Plod could easily do more than that to you if they didn't like you near the Gherkin or other iconic landmark in London.

Actually the City of London police have generally been very helpful - one key thing is to make sure that the units have a very clear sign on them with telephone contact details so issues don't escalate.
There is one area in the Barbican though where we keep bumping into each other. It is an area of grass with a segment of the old city wall in it. It seems like every time I have been there I have bumped into the 'on duty' set of sniffer dogs being let out of their van and off the lead to have a good run around and stretch! So there is always a "what are you doing?" conversation whilst 2 friendly dogs have a good run around

[Roger]

A big THANK YOU to Mad Mike and all of the other organisers and planners for a really enjoyable event

At the risk of getting repetitive, I'll echo that. From a spark in the darkness ('no Venice in 2013') sprang a great event, with a real focus on what the orienteering tourists wanted as well as what would make a good competition.

[madmike]

guys and girls,

thanks so much for all your feedback and particularly to those of you who took the trouble to find me at the finish on day 3 and offer such kind words, it definitely makes all the work worthwhile. Mrs H is right, no controls went missing, which surprised me as I had to move 2 groups of rough sleepers at O'dark oclock on the Sunday morning to hang controls where they were kipping.

In particular, I would like to highlight the hours of work put in by Daniele Guardini, Stefano Zarfarti and Helen Rollins to make the event happen. All 3 were incredible and if you bump into any of them they are deserving of your thanks.

Stefano, as well as planning Villa Ada, did all the map updating and also controlled my courses. After the map printing, I found 2 errors on the map caused by fallen trees. Stefano went out into Villa Ada and dragged the fallen trees to the side and then swept some paths with a broomstick so that the map was correct!

BTW I have just had an email from Daniele asking whether he was the only one who remembers nothing of Sunday evening! I answered in the negative!

We are now considering having the Second Edition in 2 years time - ROMe2015. To that end I would be grateful for any constructive feedback for next week's "lessons learned meeting". Points I have thought of so far:

1. I noted from the condition of maps at the Day 3 finish that we must have used sub-standard paper for the map printing and accordingly we need to use higher quality paper next time.

2. I think that asking 74 year olds to run against 64 year olds is unfair so we should probably have older age groups.

3. Online payment - the ability to accept payment by credit cards would have made things simpler for you the competitors and for us the organisers.

4. Medical certificates...enough said.

A question - Buses - did any one use the buses to/from Villa Ada? If so how did they work?

Any other feedback will be gratefully recieved and feel free to PM me if you want to be brutally frank about something but don't want to be crtical in public - I am a big boy and can take it on the chin.

Regards to all and thanks for coming , your infectious positivity and the great results many of you achieved.

[Slowtochide]

guys and girls,

thanks so much for all your feedback and particularly to those of you who took the trouble to find me at the finish on day 3 and offer such kind words, it definitely makes all the work worthwhile. Mrs H is right, no controls went missing, which surprised me as I had to move 2 groups of rough sleepers at O'dark oclock on the Sunday morning to hang controls where they were kipping.

In particular, I would like to highlight the hours of work put in by Daniele Guardini, Stefano Zarfarti and Helen Rollins to make the event happen. All 3 were incredible and if you bump into any of them they are deserving of your thanks.

Stefano, as well as planning Villa Ada, did all the map updating and also controlled my courses. After the map printing, I found 2 errors on the map caused by fallen trees. Stefano went out into Villa Ada and dragged the fallen trees to the side and then swept some paths with a broomstick so that the map was correct!

BTW I have just had an email from Daniele asking whether he was the only one who remembers nothing of Sunday evening! I answered in the negative!

We are now considering having the Second Edition in 2 years time - ROMe2015. To that end I would be grateful for any constructive feedback for next week's "lessons learned meeting". Points I have thought of so far:

1. I noted from the condition of maps at the Day 3 finish that we must have used sub-standard paper for the map printing and accordingly we need to use higher quality paper next time.

2. I think that asking 74 year olds to run against 64 year olds is unfair so we should probably have older age groups.

3. Online payment - the ability to accept payment by credit cards would have made things simpler for you the competitors and for us the organisers.

4. Medical certificates...enough said.

A question - Buses - did any one use the buses to/from Villa Ada? If so how did they work?

Any other feedback will be gratefully recieved and feel free to PM me if you want to be brutally frank about something but don't want to be crtical in public - I am a big boy and can take it on the chin.

Regards to all and thanks for coming , your infectious positivity and the great results many of you achieved.

Mike

In 2 years time. I'm reaching for my diary already. Some thoughts

Paper - definitely a weakness. But the answer is waterproof paper, not just 'higher quality'. Even when not a big event we actually purchase the paper and use it to print on a club laser printer

Yes, probably an extra age class. But in practice it does depend a bit on how many competitors you expect

Credit card payment would be nice. However, I used a SETI payment which is only £4 so it is not too bad, although you may have incurred bank costs at your end

Med Certs. Enough said

Buses. Worked well in my experience

And also good:
Splits printed on sticky backed paper with peel off backing - ready to stick on your map. Why didn't I think of that?

In an urban environment tape the SI unit to a fixed object with wide sellotape. A good idea as the unit was always presented the right way but on occasion it was a bit far from the flag and took a second or two to find

Using curved lines between some controls to bend around OOB etc.. Nice and neat

Orienteering for the deaf seems to be big in Italy. I'm impressed

The maps really were accurate.

One thought though. I feel that you really were lucky with the weather. There could have beena lot of wet and miserable (but still strangely happy) orienteers due to the lack of cover. Not easy to arrange but...

Hope this helps