Bibs

[DavidJ]

If you read the 'Rules of Orienteering' you will find these definitions:

1.2 An “Event” is an orienteering meeting that takes place. The term encompasses all aspects including the planning of the courses and the organisational matters. An event may include one or more competitions.
1.3 An “Activity” is a gathering of people who intend to participate in activities related to orienteering: to practise, train or as an introduction to the sport and there is no intention to rank or publish the competitive outcome of the gathering other than results of the coach-led exercises for the purposes of training.
1.4 A “Competition” is where persons compete under competition rules to determine the final results with winners and places. A competition may involve one or more races.
1.5 A “Race” is where persons complete an orienteering course in the terrain and are ranked from fastest to slowest.

Clear?

[Paul Frost]

We can't display that definition list every time we use the terms event, activity, competition or race.
But if we use more descriptive terms when describing whichever one of those our club is putting on (rather than terms like Level C or Colour Coded) we can help newcomers to the sport.

[helen]

Definitely agree with the use of race numbers for city races if only to give orienteering the public image of being a competitive sport!

I also think they serve an purpose for spectating the elite classes at major events - usually the start order is reflected in the numbers, so you can tell who's caught who and the approximate time margins between runners without relying on commentary or waiting for results. Don't see any reason why this couldn't be extended to all classes, using the final 2/3 digits (although it would then require a new number each day for multiday events).

Similarly they are also helpful in relays to tell who is in your class - I was relying on this when spectating and waiting for my teammates at the JK!

[charles2]

Bib is an american term for race number. I remember being confused many years ago on Los Angeles in the lead up to the marathon that there was a 'Bib collection point'.
A lot of runners over there have running vests with correctly positioned press stud type things on the front which go through the four holes in the race number.

It's probably been mentioned earlier in the thread, but race numbers for urban events can be useful, especially if orienteers are accessing areas not usually open to the public (e.g. some colleges in Oxford or Cambridge). Also on urban shoppers and so on might move out of your way more readily if they see you have a running number on and are in an event.

[Paul Frost]

I've always hated pinning a number to my shirts, as it can damage the fabric, and you don't want to be making holes in your nice Goretex jacket if the weather is bad either.
The norm in triathlon is to attach your number to a belt, due to the potential change in clothing during race. It's the perfect solution to the above problems. Do a search for "race number belt", or just find an old fabric/webbing belt from the bottom of your wardrobe and pin the number to that.