Otley Urban Race

[Wendles]

A few photos are here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wendles56/sets/72157625132606998/

Another great Yorkshire Urban Race and Weekend. If you weren't there you missed a treat and be sure to sign up for next year! Thanks to all involved.

If you would like copies of pictures, e-mail me on wendy.carlyle@btinternet.com

[seabird]

Final Yorkshire Urban League Results can be seen at http://www.orienteering.ilkley.org/club ... 202010.htm

Next Year's Yorkshire Urban league is almost finalised:-
Sat 7 May EBOR Filey
Sun 22 May CLARO Ripon
Mon 30 May EBOR York
Sat 4 Jun AIRE Ilkley
Sun 12 Jun EPOC Huddersfield
Sun 26 Jun HALO Beverley
Sep/Oct?? SHUOC/SYO Sheffield
Sat 29 Oct AIRE Leeds University
Sun 30 Oct AIRE Skipton

Hope to see you there.

[Spookster]

Final Yorkshire Urban League Results can be seen at http://www.orienteering.ilkley.org/club ... 202010.htm

I guess you mean the final results will be there, but right now the Otley scores aren't yet included.

Great race today, good mix of urban town centre, urban residential and a few parks. Enjoyed the A course.

[swat]

Final results are now there - Chris had missed one of the classes out.

I enjoyed the A course too

[RJ]

Thanks to Wendles for the photos from the two Urban events.....

Thinking about publicity and promoting 'O', as being discussed on another thread (Is orienteering a sport)...... is there any wonder that M/W21s aren't interested in the sport. What are they to make of the plethora of old, 'ill garbed' runners(???) at those events. Assuming the photos are representative of the competitors then we have a long way to go to represent ourselves as a 'youth' and 'active' sport.

Where were all the juniors and the exciting, bright, modern clothing???

If that is the picture of 'modern O' then no wonder the Express Paper photo of a family poring over an OS map is what the editor thinks the sport is.

Urban O has the potential to put the exciting NEW O in front of the general public. Are Wendles' pictures IT ????? Talk about mountains to climb!!!!!

[awk]

Where were all the juniors and the exciting, bright, modern clothing???

If you really mean 'juniors', rather than M/W21s, then the answer is that there weren't a lot - this is an urban race, and there are big restrictions. Having said that, there were an above average number taking part for an urban race (and one or two feature in the photos).

If, on the other hand, you mean younger people, i.e. M/W21s and under, then at a rough count, about a quarter of the photos feature them. It's just that, just like a lot of older orienteers, they are pretty much all 'ill-garbed" by your standards. But then they're racing, not strutting their stuff on a catwalk! A bit like most runners, in fact.

If that is the picture of 'modern O' then no wonder the Express Paper photo of a family poring over an OS map is what the editor thinks the sport is.

Slight difference between Wendles' photos and the Express's - 90%+ of Wendles's photos are of people running.

[Wendles]

Re. representative photos, I'm afraid I focus on the adults because of the issues surrounding photographing children. I know that our Junior Squad parents/club parents are happy for me to photograph their children but it's more difficult with youngsters that you don't know - especially as I post them on flickr.

[DM]

Where were all the juniors?

2 reasons in my opinion. First the restrictions on anyone under 16 and probably more significant this time is the clash of dates with the NW Yvette Baker qualifier that attracted juniors from MDOC, DEE, SROC,SELOC, PFO, LOC and WCOC to Tockholes.

Tockholes was good today, out of the wind and warm. YBT was well contested with some fast times by the 16s and 18s on green. Not sure who won yet.

On the subject of fashion, yes we should be smart and athlete like in appearance. But if we're trying to attract the youth of today please can we avoid adopting some of their fashions - like the one of wearing trousers hanging so far off your backside that you can't walk properly, with your boxers on view to all. If the fashion police start insisting on that I quit!

[RJ]

Well, awk, an interesting defence of the indefensible!!

Even Carlisle was better..... at least some snazzie looking juniors, and some smart O gear! http://www.flickr.com/photos/wendles56/4334961255/in/set-72157623366297402/

And, as for London..... well!!!.... a real showcase for the sport... http://www.flickr.com/photos/maprunner/5003148853/in/set-72157624861890295/

However... awk, both of those events were spoilt (only joking!!) by a rather 'mature' male gasping for air at the end of his run!!!

[seabird]

Was it not the Carlisle race that first got Mrs H to put pen to paper about the horrors of O "fashion"?

Both Carlisle and Otley races seem to have had a similar degree of youthfulness in their competitors.

At Carlisle the 35s and under made up 41.5% of the runners.

At Otley the 35s and under made up 37.6% of the runners.

The small difference is probably entirely contributable to one race being a Nope League race and the other not.

And of course Wendles' pictures are entirely for our enjoyment - not for any publicity drive. I'm just over the moon that she caught me with both feet in the air; not sitting or lying down; no hidden strings attached - just running I can cope with all the other indicators of decreptitude.

[Mrs H]

Was it not the Carlisle race that first got Mrs H to put pen to paper about the horrors of O "fashion"?

.

Yes and I'd like to say there has been a considerable improvement since that time - if you look at the Otley pics you will see that almost all the middle aged women look very sporty and smart.

It was never my point that we should all try to look young - the very opposite - the young can take care of themselves as far as fashion is concerned and I would never dare to tell them what not to wear - but us vets and supervets really need to look as good as we can so that other people our age see us and think "he/she looks cool/dynamis/whatever - and yet they must be my age/older/fatter - if they can do it then so can !"

keep it up folks!

[seabird]

I particularly like this photo of Wendles'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wendles56/ ... 132606998/

a beautiful juxtaposition of "youth" and athleticism in someone probably just a little older.

Reminds me of the young lads sat smoking on a balcony as I ran past in the recent Sheffield race. "Ere mister. How old are you? 91?" Only one possible answer - a cheery affirmative.

[awk]

However... awk, both of those events were spoilt (only joking!!) by a rather 'mature' male gasping for air at the end of his run!!!

Same today, but fortunately no photographer on hand (and it does show it is a running sport!). At least I had an 'approved' O-top on. Whether it and/or its owner would do anything for the promotion of the sport is a completely different matter!

[Mrs H]

i beautiful juxtaposition of "youth" and athleticism in someone probably just a little older.
.

Yes - but how much better she would have looked in a well fitting top and pair of below the knee (non-shiny) lycras

[PG]

how much better she would have looked in a ... pair of below the knee (non-shiny) lycras

I know Mrs H' s mission is to get everyone into Lycra, but am I alone in finding them hot and sweaty if I break into anything more than a jog on any day that the temperature is more than about 2 degrees C? Is it something to do with having a high metabolic rate?

[Sorry if I've missed a discussion on this before]