Race the Castles

[Big Jon]

It said full body cover not torso which confused me because your arms are part of your body. Maybe future clothing instructions should stick to torso arms and legs

Various rules have staed "full body cover" for decades - surely you've orienteered before this weekend - or have you never before read the clothing requirements

[Freefall]

Balmoral_CDM.jpg (252.65 KiB) Viewed 7978 times

Prior to the receipt of LiDAR data from sportscotland and the Scottish Government I knocked together a map for the controller/planner using various information in the public domain. Interesting to look at the proper map now - well done Jon for sorting things in such a short timescale.

[frog]

I always presumed full body cover included arms but then I started orienteering in New Zealand in the 90s when arm and leg cover were compulsory for hep b reasons. Don't know if it's changed now as suspect it didn't have much of an evidence base.

[frog]

Loved forvie today

[awk]

Loved forvie today

Balmoral was brilliant: tough area (tougher than expected from the details, but this is Deeside!), great course (Blue), which found me out when it came to technical precision on a couple of occasions (within 100m or so of each other, but on totally different parts of the course!). Good to get back into some 'real' orienteering after some months forced out - definitely short on terrain fitness!

Of Forvie, I feel rather (actually, very!) differently to frog (Blue again). However, offspring on Brown would agree with you, and from my point of view, 3 outstanding races/courses out of 4 is pretty good! Overall, two weekends that were not to be missed - and glad we didn't!!

[Rosine]

I really enjoyed my course at Forvie (and was on the same one as frog). Compared to our one, the blue course seemed to have fewer controls and more long crossings running towards a dune in the distance.

And I have learned to pay a bit more attention to the type of hatching used to indicate the wet bits. The one I crossed was quite a lot wetter and deeper than expected!

[Wendles]

Photos from Forvie here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/wendles56/sets/72157648445183887/

Thank you to everyone involved in Race the Castles in any way. We had a great ten days with lots of walking and eating cake in between the orienteering!

[Paul Frost]

Apologies for the results issues.
We had almost no internet coverage at Balmoral and so uploading of stuff from the field was severely limited. But I did manage to get results, Winsplits, BOF points, and King of the Castles uploaded before I was dragged off to dinner at 8:30, and RouteGadget as soon as I got back.

Forvie had network coverage but a major issue with the database and at about 13:10 lost all event data processed that day. We will be able to recover from backups etc. but will take some time to put it all together. The live results link has the finish times up to the failure, so you can see most of the results there until we provide more.

[frog]

I don't really care if the geekier bits of results are a few days late. Does this mean we may have problems at WOC 2015 though? I presume alot of the widgetry is being practised for then or do we get extra money and technical people for that so the live GPS displays etc work no matter where we are?
I enjoyed both days this weekend but am in need of Lynn's technical training next month as both days had 2 large errors, todays wasn't helped by not realising my map was 1:7500 not 1:10000 when I was doing pacing and compass bearing and then when trying to relocate unfortunately having control 6 on one side of the marsh and 9 on the other and starting looking for control 6 instead of 9 by turning my map upside down (if you look at a short blue course when route gadget is working you'll see what I mean) and further confusing myself by using the marsh location to reorientate myself to the wrong control. What fun! I'd have been quicker swimming across the lake and pretending I'm in Catching Features!

[andypat]

The whole RTC event has been a great success. Well done to all the team and clubs involved - a huge effort I know. Its been a terrific precursor to WOC and orienteering has made it into the national press on several occasions on the back of RTC which is fantastic. Hopefully this will encourage sponsors for WOC and maybe plant a few seeds for future orienteers.

I enjoyed my course at Balmoral a lot, with the possible exception of some of rockier terrain - agree with AWK that it was certainly less runnable than anticipated from the previews! Forvie is growing on me after my first event there a few years back. Once you get your head round the size of the contours its really technically challenging and great fun. LIke many, I found at least one "crossable" marsh that wasnt though...

The two urban races were both great fun and different character too.

[nooomember]

A really big enormous Thank You to everyone associated behind Race the Castles events as I really appreciate all the hard work that made this event a much enjoyed experience and successful endeavour. A great concept and worth the travelling involved, mainly to experience orienteering IN the castle, though to get inside Edinburgh would have been so cool, and even enjoyed the rather rocky hilly Balmoral estate, though found Forvie a rather rough slog at times but liked the technical nature of the contours, but did enter long to be rewarded with a marvellous fridge magnet! for which another thank you.
Hope to see similar style (novelty) events elsewhere.

Off to Barcelona now to complete the Euro City Tour in what has been a hectic month.

[graeme]

to get inside Edinburgh would have been so cool,

Yes, I mapped it and I have run in Edinburgh, and it's every bit as good as Stirling. You'll have seen the maps in various places including the fridgemagnets. We did spend many days and meetings trying to get access, but they really weren't very helpful. As you know from Stirling, there isn't a real problem. Unfortunately, some people decide no, and no matter how many times you solve their objections, they just invent of some new ones for the next meeting.

[King Penguin]

Just like to add my thanks and appreciation to everyone involved in putting on a fantastic pair of weekends in Scotland.

[EddieH]

What a superb series. Magnificent from Graeme, but also so many major people I daren't mention names.

Not one fr being bothered with "stars" I never expected to be so excited that I was standing on the start line with Jan Prochazka.

The attitude of all these great elites is brilliant - I seemed to keep bumping into Martin Hubman and feel I know him quite well now.

It was really nice to see them come to the add on JOK chasing sprint, attending the prize giving and showing genuine delight in their trophies and prizes.

[andy]

I don't really care if the geekier bits of results are a few days late. Does this mean we may have problems at WOC 2015 though?

Of course problems may arise at WOC but that's the beauty of getting the team together now, we can find out potential problems in advance and make sure they don't happen again. We know what happened yesterday and steps are already being taken to stop it from happening again.