York City Race

[johnloguk]

Just got back home from another excellent York Race. Some canny planning managed to induce a new error for me after all these years, miscounting river crossings . Fast and furious racing, lots of twists and turns, varied leg length, lots of route choice on the longer legs, compliments to all involved. No results yet, but Mats Haldin was beating Rocky by 1 second on the Men's Open when I left, with Nails in 3rd. Someone said Helen Bridle was winning the women's race, so some high quality fields out there today.

A great start to the UK Cities Cup

[JayBee]

Yer, I was a brill race but my legs are acking now!! Some really good legs (not mine) a really great cores. Thanks to everyone involved

[Jayne]

Women's was Helen, Lizzie then Rachael.

Results are up on Splitsbrowser.

[T5]

I'm not sure what I was expecting from the Inaugural UK Cities Cup Race - I feel what I got was another good York City Race. Not a lot more... Controversial statement over - let me try and justify

Perhaps the signs were there - there wasn't much (any?) banter on Nopesport before the event (prior to JK, BOC, Tiomila there were lots of people expressing opinions about who may win, etc). I was expecting something more on the day - big signs and banners, use of the signpost logo to try and attract people from around the city to the Start/Finish Area, commentary, cheering people home, dancing girls (ok - perhaps going a bit far). Maybe there were a couple more elite runners there, but there were also more competitors in general. And then following the event - hardly any postings on here either. Has the series failed to capture the imagination so far...?

As for the course, I thought it was very good, with lots of route choice available. With the benefit of local knowledge I should have known not to run down the Shambles though - fool! Re the map, it seemed clearer this year having adopted ISSOM standards. I did have a query about the passable wall halfway between 12 and 13 on A - I'm guessing it was a printing error, as it was 8' high! It won't have had any more effect on one person than another, but may be something to tidy up for next year.

What do the coordinators think - did York live up to your expectations for the inaugural race of the series...?

[Wattok]

You are quite right T5 - there wasn't much presence at what was the 1st race of the UK Cities Cup and little build up to it. It was due to a number of reasons which i will not go into, needless to say i wasn't particularly pleased about how it went from the series perspective. This was of NO FAULT to EBOR and the organisers of the event as they did another fine job and i thank them for being accommodating in allowing me to use their event. i also thank the athletes who took part. The fault was mine as the coordinator.

You have to start somewhere and it's about establishing the series and getting the word out there. It is a one man band at the moment so i can only do so much. Improvements to be seen in the rest of the races of the series.

[johnloguk]

Interesting to read the last couple of comments because I've just e-mailed lincolnsteve with exactly the same thoughts, "great race, but didn't see much about it being part of a series".

Absolutely no problem though, as I think we all appreciate that this is a test the water exercise and pretty well a one man show at the moment. York had far less time to think about things, and anyone going first is on a hiding to nothing in many ways.

I'm also confident that the formula is basically a winning one, and expect that lessons will be learned exponentially as the Series progresses. Let's all pull behind it, keep criticism constructive, offer help as well as "advice", and Robert's your Dad's brother