Nopesport Urban League 2009

[ba-ba]

A fair amount of ShUOC are tripping down for the MaizeO. Going to be mental. Especially if we forget out headtorches...

[geomorph]

Re Maize Maze 0

It was a Midlands Mud Field, but work by Tom the farmer & a dry September have dried it out well...

Thanks - come rain its mudclaws then.

You were never able to get up to full running speed because of all the twists & turns & the 0.9km course (straight line route) had an optimum running distance of 2.4km with a winning time from a former BOC M21L champion of over 17 minutes, and that was in daylight!

yes, this is what makes it a great competition, cos youthful speed will count less than normal; oldies only have to worry about the shock absorbers withstanding the strain round the twists & turns.

One minor thing - typically many would wear shorts/vests for a 'sprint'/urban. Beware of the cutting potential of maize blades when rubbing against them as you pass other competitors.

Hope to be there for one of the qualifiers - which depends on final details regarding starts etc.

[Homer]

Re: Maize-O; a question:

Presumably the maize is OOB. From my experience, impatient kids (and students?!) tend to make new tracks through the maize, in effect creating massive short cuts.
How does the organiser intend to discourage cheating?
I suggest checking split times of leading competitors and disqualifying anyone with impossibly fast splits (eg 20 seconds for a leg with shortest legal route of 200m). Unless, of course, Usain Bolt turns up!

Bart and Lisa looking forward to this one....

[stodge]

'shortcutting'
The maize is planted so thickly I doubt you could get through easily but it would be sooooo obvious from the splits and the huge elephant track they would leave.
photos from Tuesday night trial here...
http://www.walton-chasers.co.uk/gallery/2009/MaizeMazeSprint/index.html

[IanW]

Re Maize Maze 0

Grabbing an opportunity for shameless self promotion when it presents itself...it will be awesome!

Do you know when the start times will be for the qualifiers? We have the inaugural race of our local mass start sprint series in Manchester on that Saturday morning.

http://www.mdoc.org.uk

Start is at 1100, so I'm wondering if it is possible to make the Maze too.

Ian

[Stodgetta]

Depends on numbers, but likely to be start times between 3 and 5.30 ish for the 2 qualifiers.

Oh, and head-torches: don't bring big head-lamps, a small petzl is far more suitable - you'll never need/be able to see more than a few metres at a time, and suddenly having someone appear in your face from round a corner on main-beam will be quite unpleasant!

Flat, terrain shoes recommended, too - we had one very nasty sprain on Tuesday from the uneven, concrete-hard mud and going over on the ankle in a pair of trainers...

[Roger]

Results from today's Chester City Race have now been added to the Urban League standings: Men's, Women's

It wasn't obvious in advance which course the M/W18- categories were supposed to run: the 2.4km Junior course was clearly too short for an M18, when an M20 would be running 7.0km on M Open. Hence for the men I've allocated points down to 88 for results on A, 87 to 85 for the three junior men who ran B and 84 downwards for the runners on C. Similarly for the women.

Only one of last year's winners (Blanka) so far has a full scoring set of 4 races, so with three to go the positions are likely to change, but the top three in each category are:

Women

Code: Select all

Junior Women (W18-)                 races best 4            
Elizabeth Parkinson      NOC   W16      3   284            
Karen Maxwell            RR    W14      2   190            
Amy Kimberley            DVO   W14      2   177            

Open Women
Blanka Collis            WAOC  W21      5   375            
Helen Bridle             WIM   W21      2   196            
Rachel Smirthwaite       MOR   W21      2   179            

Veteran Women (W40+)                races best 4            
Carol Edwards            TVOC  W50      5   369            
Helen Parkinson          NOC   W40      4   340            
Wendy Carlyle            AIRE  W50      5   322            

Supervet Women (W55+)               races best 4            
Glenys Ferguson          SROC   W55      5   386            
Susan Findlay-Robinson   WCH    W55      5   349            
Liz Godfree              DVO    W60      3   281

Men

Code: Select all

Junior Men (M18-)                   races best 4            
William Parkinson        NOC   M14      4   350            
Alexander Chepelin       GRAMP M12      3   277            
Nicholas Nilsen          MEROC M18      2   187            

Open Men
Liam Harrington          LOG   M21      4   352            
Mark Thomson             FVO   M40      5   287            
Oliver O'Brien           SLOW  M21      3   241            

Veteran Men (M40+)                  races best 4            
Roger Thetford           TVOC  M45      4   375            
Paul Murgatroyd          LOG   M40      4   349            
Patrick Smyth            NATO  M50      4   347            

Supervet Men (M55+)                 races best 4            
Douglas Henderson        RR    M55      6   383            
John Robinson            WCH   M55      5   350            
Paul Ferguson            SROC  M55      5   339

The last three races are
17 Oct - Cambridge
31 Oct - Oxford
21 Nov - Sheffield

[Strider]

The last three races are
17 Oct - Cambridge
31 Oct - Oxford
21 Nov - Sheffield

Discussing the finale at Sheffield with the other club runners on Saturday in Chester and we got to wondering how the points for this event, being a chasing sprint, would be calculated? Combined time over the two stages? Position in the chasing sprint? Another method....?

Thoughts on this one, Roger?

S.

[Spookster]

Last year it was the your result at the end of the Shuoc chasing sprint event that was used for calculation of Urban League points. I don't imagine it being done any differently this year...

[Dave]

Discussing the finale at Sheffield with the other club runners on Saturday in Chester and we got to wondering how the points for this event, being a chasing sprint, would be calculated? Combined time over the two stages? Position in the chasing sprint? Another method....?

In a chasing start race, the winner of the race is the first one over the line in the chase. so if you run well in the prologue, you have more chance of winning the race overall. so the points for the league work on the same basis: the winner being the first person to finish in each class in the chase.
the fact that it is a chasing start race purely means you get twic as many runs as the other competitions, more chance to socialize and on the whole, better value for money

[Roger]

Yes: within each category, ranking the combined time over the two stages is the same as taking the finishing position in the chase.

In fact, if ShUOC give me ten minutes' head-start (and make the runners wear something that identifies their category) then I'll stand at the finish line giving out tickets with Urban League points on them.

(100 downwards, except for Veteran Men which would of course be 96 downwards as 100 would be in my back pocket.)

[Spookster]

(100 downwards, except for Veteran Men which would of course be 96 downwards as 100 would be in my back pocket.)

You reckon?

[Roger]

(100 downwards, except for Veteran Men which would of course be 96 downwards as 100 would be in my back pocket.)

You reckon?

With the stated ten minutes' head-start, yeah. Without, on your home ground, nope.

[Roger]

Results from the Cambridge City Race have now been added to the Urban League standings: Men's, Women's

With two to go the race is hotting up. Leaders are:

Younger Women

Code: Select all

Junior Women (W18-)                 races best 4
Elizabeth Parkinson      NOC   W16      4   386
Karen Maxwell            RR    W14      3   286
Amy Kimberley            DVO   W14      3   269
            
Open Women
Blanka Collis            WAOC  W21      6   375
Kirstin Maxwell          RR    W18      3   254
Jayne Sales              SLOW  W21      3   253
Voirrey Corkish          BAOC  W21      3   230

(edited after moving Charlotte Ward (W18) to the W Open category at York, at her request)
Older Women

Code: Select all

Veteran Women (W40+)                races best 4            
Carol Edwards            TVOC  W50      5   369
Helen Parkinson          NOC   W40      5   349
Wendy Carlyle            AIRE  W50      6   332
Lynden Hartmann          HOC   W50      4   300

Supervet Women (W55+)               races best 4            
Glenys Ferguson          SROC   W55      5   386
Liz Godfree              DVO    W60      4   377
Susan Findlay-Robinson   WCH    W55      6   354
Jean Lochhead            EPOC   W60      3   281
Catherine Odell          EBOR   W70      3   265

Younger Men

Code: Select all

Junior Men (M18-)                   races best 4            
William Parkinson        NOC   M14      5   353
Alexander Chepelin       GRAMP M12      3   277
Nicholas Nilsen          MEROC M18      2   187
Andrew Lindsay           ESOC  M16      2   186
Michael Adams            SYO   M14      2   185

Open Men
Liam Harrington          LOG   M21      5   352
Oliver O'Brien           SLOW  M21      4   311
Mark Thomson             FVO   M40      6   287
Craig Thomson            FVO   M16      4   242
Mark Collis             DRONGO M21      5   238

Older Men

Code: Select all

Veteran Men (M40+)                  races best 4            
Martin Ward              SPOOK M40      4   378
Roger Thetford           TVOC  M45      5   378
Paul Murgatroyd          LOG   M40      5   355.5
Patrick Smyth            NATO  M50      4   347
Paul Turner              SELOC M50      5   299

Supervet Men (M55+)                 races best 4            
Douglas Henderson        RR    M55      7   383
John Britton             MDOC  M55      4   375
John Robinson            WCH   M55      6   350
Tony Carlyle             AIRE  M55      4   350
Paul Ferguson            SROC  M55      5   339

The last two races are
31 Oct - Oxford
21 Nov - Sheffield

[Jayne]

Hmm, I'm not going to Oxford - any chance of a last minute late addition of Lincoln