Sheffield City Race

[LostOldTimer]

Yes, 2 fast and furious races that were really enjoyable - you had to keep running to stay warm!
There were signs of many people crossing the 'uncrossable' wall adjacent to control 10 on the Mens Open course - and i admit I did jump down the wall, after going round to the control initially - following another 2 orienteers!.
A shame the Chasing start was a bit disorganised around 22-24 mintes - I think I started late, and the starter then set off about 10 people off at once who had a start time of 23.....!

How about using the Sheffield City centre though - a lot of it pedestrianised/buses only with many interesting features, and quiet on a Sunday morning.

Thanks Shuoc

[Spookster]

Results are online now. Splits are also on Winsplits and Splitsbrowser, but for some reason the Chase graph on Splitsbrowser doesn't load. I don't think it's a problem with the splits data, as Winsplits uploaded it fine.

One person was honest about having crossed an uncrossable wall, so I've removed them from the results.

Well done Gareth on the organisation, and Oli & Neil on the excellent maps and courses. A great finish to a really enjoyable series of Urban races.

[King Penguin]

Two first class courses - my thanks and congratulations to everyone involved in organising the event. On the Prologue in particular I found I could not let concentration slip for a moment. It was a real challenge to try to make the best of the many route choices and still keep some speed going. 4-5 on the Mens vet, around the large olive green was a real cracker - up or down ?

[roadrunner]

Agreed - two testing courses, quite different in nature I thought, thanks to those who put them on. Looking at the splits for the chase, I wonder if the start clock for the chase was a bit out - everyone seems to have taken a long while to control 1 (and the time on my watch was about 2 minutes less than that in the results, and I seem to recall someone saying that his "check" time was after his start time). Of course, if it was the same for everyone then it doesn't really matter.

On the subject of "out of bounds" areas, I think some tape could have been helpful for the areas of newly-seeded grass in the prologue, since these didn't always have clear boundaries, hence would be quite easy to cross without realising it (especially after a navigational mistake).

On a more general point, why do we have so many of the city races/sprints in the winter (London in October, Sheffield in November, Lincoln in January, Cambridge in February)? Surely these are the type of event that can be held at any time (no problem with undergrowth!), and it's more pleasant standing round on a warm day than a cold one.

[Mrs H]

Most enjoyable weekend - i'm relieved to see I wasn't the only one who ended up half way to Chesterfield having missed the passageway by the school in the prologue

Very good courses, maps and events. I think it doesn't matter that the events are in the winter - but where a chasing sprint is concerned it would be nice to have somewhere warm to be sociable between courses - a la Leeds.

[mikey]

Is there going to be Routegadget? I'd love to see what I missed.

[Seamus]

Well done to G, Oli, Nails and the rest of Shuoc. It was an excellent set of races. You all deserve a fine celebration. Enjoy Captain's next weekend.

I have just checked the results and I was shocked to see that I was leading the prologue at one stage.... through the ghost town that was the student village.

[Familytaxi driver]

I really enjoyed the day and it wasn't too fast and scary at all (Just as you told me! )
Found it more sociable than a " normal O event" with the gap between the races.
Mrs H you still outclassed me even in your walking boots!
I'll keep on training and hopefully see some improvment in my running speed and navigation in 2009.

I think you could say I'm well on the way to becoming hooked. Looking forward to seeing the dates for next year so I can start planning them in. Can't have too many weekends away though with 2 students to support.

[Angry Haggis]

On a more general point, why do we have so many of the city races/sprints in the winter (London in October, Sheffield in November, Lincoln in January, Cambridge in February)? Surely these are the type of event that can be held at any time (no problem with undergrowth!), and it's more pleasant standing round on a warm day than a cold one.

London was nice and warm! (We were very lucky though, it was cold and wet the weekend before and after.)

Certainly I agree that city races would be more suited to the summer time - except that participation would be less as a lot of people are away on holidays/summer multi-days?

Just to add about Sheffield yesterday - yes this was superb, I really enjoyed the courses. The prologue in particular was absolutely fiendish, I didn't want it to end. The chase was also great fun with orienteers running in all directions, completely swamping the campus area for a few minutes as the main body of runners converged, much to the surprise (and entertainment) of the local youth. Yes it was cold between the races, but the nearby museum and Starbucks house warmed me up nicely.

[redkite]

Can i just add how much I enjoyed the two races.

The prologue was suprisingly technical. My brian is not used to working as quickly as was needed. On leg 4 to 5 of course 2 i was looking at the map as I ran past the key footpath. Big mistake.

In the afternoon, not as technical but still great fun with so many runners in such a small area and some good route choices. Made one mistake when I started going from 7 to 12 as i did not slow down enough to see the purple line to control 8.

Linking to another thread i managed to pick up 3 maps at the start and wated a few seconds returning them.

Well done to all involved

On a more general point, despite having a recent eye test I still find to dificult to read sprint maps when running at any speeed. Is this just old (ish) age or is there a technique i have not learnt yet.

[Nails]

Routegibbet is here:

http://www.syo.routegadget.co.uk/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi

[Spookster]

Routegibbet is here:

http://www.syo.routegadget.co.uk/cgi-bin/reitti.cgi

But don't put your route on just yet - first Neil needs to attach the right splits to the right map!

[Nails]

Done... ok go

[JK]

Sorry I missed the Sheffield races.

If anyone fancies more entertainment of the sprinting variety, there is always the
DEE double sprint event this Sunday - 14th December at Daresbury Firs and Laboratory
(South Warrington, easy to get to from M62, M56, M6)

Format:
2x sprints:
a.m. : forest, technical sprint, incorporating Micr-O
p.m. : chasing urban sprint, spectator controls and special blown-up section.

Last year's event was very popular amongst the DEE and MDOC guys (in fact the planning team have already received disgruntled messages from those involved in the NW Junior Squad event that day); this year the event is open to all.

Cheers

JK

[Angry Haggis]

Sorry I missed the Sheffield races.

If anyone fancies more entertainment of the sprinting variety, there is always the
DEE double sprint event this Sunday - 14th December at Daresbury Firs and Laboratory
(South Warrington, easy to get to from M62, M56, M6)

Yes, absolutely, I would have definitely gone to this...

...but it's not on the National Fixtures List, so I (and I suspect most people who like the sprint format) didn't know about it until now - and the cheap train tickets will have gone as it's so close to the event.

Orienteering's like a secret society sometimes, we seem to go out of our way to not promote our own events! No wonder the M/W21s are so scarce!