Cathedral Cities Urban-O

[awk]

Lots of mentions for two other weekend events over the Whitsun weekend, so I'm going to plug a third option: the Ripon and York Urban Races, being organised by Claro and Eborienteers on Sunday and Monday respectively. Both are in the Yorkshire Urban League, and both promise some excellent urban orienteering.

Ripon will be held on Paul Taylor's award winning map, now extended south of the River Skell, but still including the best of the city centre. Courses may initially look to be on the short side (A course - 5.8k), but the nature of the courses mean that actual running distance will be closer to 10k with lots of demanding choices and lots of variety! The junior course will be an extended sprint race (c. 2.8k) around Hell Wath, an area of mixed heathland and woodland on the banks of the River Skell, and the grounds of Ripon Cathedral Choir School. York, perhaps the oldest annual urban race in Britain, remains one of the best, both for atmosphere and interest. Both races can be entered via http://www.fabian4.co.uk, which also has links to more information.

[DaveK]

Looks good. This time next year I'll probably be plugging another Cathedral City event - Canterbury. A date for next year's diary.

[awk]

Sounds like the cue for a potentially very interesting series - we'll certainly be looking out for Canterbury.

[Big Jon]

Awk - can you send a link to or a copy of the Ripon map - rellies soon moving to Ripon and a map would be great for adding interest to runs from the house.

[epocian]

Awk - can you send a link to or a copy of the Ripon map - rellies soon moving to Ripon and a map would be great for adding interest to runs from the house.

Don't think CLARO were using routegadget at the time of last year's Ripon event but they are now so think that this year's will be there after the event

[awk]

Jon - have PM'ed you.

[Copepod]

WAOC had a street O race starting from the cannon on the green on front of Ely Cathedral last summer - see http://www.waoc.org.uk/n.humphries/waoc ... 728gal.htm

(picture in case you think cannon is a typo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardandgill/1387594843/ )

[Garnon]

Ran at York today and though it was raining all day, thought it was a great event! Thanks to EBOR for putting it on.

Was concerned that the rain would make it slippery underfoot but it wasn't too bad and it kept the tourists away

Thought the courses were well planned with some tricky controls, mainly number 1 on A, 11 (hidden inside the shed!) and 16. The massive 1.5km across the city was good, loads of possible route choices.

[awk]

Ran at York today and though it was raining all day, thought it was a great event! Thanks to EBOR for putting it on.

Agreed. The vibes from both Claro organisers and those who ran at Ripon and York, is that bringing the two events (both amongst the longest running urban fixtures) on to the same weekend is a good combination, and will be looking at repeating next year (Sunday probably not in Ripon though - return to Knaresborough or a first time in Harrogate?).

[Spookster]

I reckon York in the rain was better than York on a sunny day - lots fewer tourists to bump into.

As usual Steve (yted) planned some great courses. Considering York has been used so many times before, EBOR has always managed to add something new each year. Very enjoyable.

Routegadget is here.

[seabird]

Loads of tourists out when I was running and they all had umbrellas up. Made weaving between them all the more entertaining

[ba-ba]

Good courses from Steve and Yasha, much fewer tourists on the busy bits east of the river than the last 2 times I've been, and a good contrast between the school and city parts of the map. A few 'banker' controls are repeated each year (in the best Pixar kind of way, obviously - it's be rude not to include them!) but the planners still manage to get variety in the city compared to previous races! Role on Nottingham!

[Jayne]

Enjoyed both races. Thanks to the Ripon organisers who let us start late after the first train up north was delayed by half an hour, and to steve for letting me run the second half of the course today after getting stuck on the M1. Great weekend of orienteering, less good for transport!

[martyn]

If the "Cathedral Cities" idea takes flight, can I put in a plea for Norwich (where I grew up) to host an event? Yes - it's a b####r to get to, but when your there the ancient street layout, the cathedral close and riverside will provide loads of O-interest. A few controls in the market would be a real test! Lots of interesting shops, micro-museums and other things to do afterwards as well.

[Copepod]

WAOC had a low key evening event last summer, with the starting point a cannon in front of Ely Cathedral (really - captured during Crimean War and presented to people of Ely to by Queen Victoria in 1860 to mark the creation of the Ely rifle volunteers) Roswell Pits nature reserve could add some non urban terrain if permission could be obatained from Wildlife Trust.