London City Race

[The Loofa]

I think the Womens Open winner was Estonian.

Kirti Rebane
competitor at WOC99 (Inverness) I believe

[Angry Haggis]

Still got confused at what I now know to be Borough Market. I found the mapping of what were obviously public streets in olive green very confusing; that is, I wasn't expecting a road junction with an option to go into olive green. The map had a symbol for out-of-bounds streets, the purple stripe overprint, why not use it consistently? (as the Final Details indicated would happen).

The whole Borough Market area was initially shown with purple stripes, however it was changed just before map printing to olive green to improve clarity of the area. What I should have done is shown the market itself as olive green but the (public) roads surrounding it with purple stripes over the road colour, making the junction clear - apologies for this.

The roads were shown as OOB because they would be extremely busy (more so than the Millennium Bridge/Golden Hinde if you can believe that!) and the risk of knocking over foodies would be very high, rather than because of any legal issue, so we would, I hope, take a pragmatic view and not consider accidentally running down this particular public road to be a disqualfiable offence (unless we were following the rules to the letter.) Running through the market itself, i.e. the rest of the olive green area, now that would be a different matter...

By the way, the passageway right through London Bridge station, that some people did find and go through, felt very much like it was part of the station itself (platform signs, next train indicators, shop units) but it is technically a public road which is never closed - Joiner Street - hence why it was a legitimate, but very busy, way through. The alternative way, one level above, which crosses above both main roads, is also a public route, but is closed on Saturdays at the moment for crane lifting operations for soon-to-be Western Europe's highest building - the Shard. If you looked up when coming out of the station, you would have seen the core and steelwork, currently 48 stories high, with another 39 to go.

[awk]

Superb day out in London, yet again. My course was certainly as good as anything run in the last year, and probably in my top 3 urban races in the past few years (the other two include last year's Venice race - same planner - and London race). Thank you all!

A few points raised by others:

One observation though - I noticed that a number of the control descriptions described what the feature looked like on the ground not on the map. For example the description would say fence corner yet there were no mapped fences in the circle.

I could spot only one control description that might fit this comment Neil on my course (course 3 - same as you) - no. 8, where the line of the fence was the edge of the olive green out of bounds. The rest were all there as described (and relied on by me quite heavily at times!).

I found the mapping of what were obviously public streets in olive green very confusing;

The fact that the olive green had no boundary line around it indicated (at least to me!) that there was no boundary, and that therefore the olive green was the same (i.e. road) as the in bounds next to it. I was more confused by the twisting and turning at that point - trying to keep the map orientated and avoiding the crowds at the same time!

Concentration required all the time; worst part was trying to run through the crowds along the Millenium Bridge - should have taken the road bridge option; my wrong.

Not sure you were wrong. I went the road bridge route, and was a minute slower than a fellow club member who, on running speed, should have taken 20secs out of me on that leg. Admittedly, I lost 20secs or so at the end when I both misread the description and had somebody in the very heavy crowd stand in the way of the control having their photo taken, but that still leaves 20secs or so unaccounted for! Probably one of those legs where, whatever route you took, you're convinced that the other way was quicker!

I thoroughly enjoyed the race - but for me it was a lot less technical than the last two years - is this because I have gone up to super vet and this is the second urban race on the trot that my class has been combined with junior courses?

No, don't think it was. Mrs awk also commented that she thought that her course was noticeably easier than the past couple of years. Felt that there were too many longer legs in the first two-thirds of the course (up to going under Tower Bridge), and would have rather gone through the estates to the south than have the extended run out to the Millennium Bridge. She prefers the technical challenge legs to those where once you've chosen the route, it's fairly straightforward to navigate, so it may just be about preferred style than any issues over planning quality.

Next year, Barbican again!

Actually, I didn't miss it. The course had plenty of really interesting challenges, including a couple of multi-level puzzles which more than compensated.

]we did the Map Exhibition at the British Library the day before

Hope it was a bit quieter for you than when we visited on our way back to Kings Cross - came out after ten minutes or so, it was quite silly. No chance to enjoy what looked to be a fascinating exhibition.

We did enjoy riding around London on Boris's Bikes though - a great way to travel to the event! An innovation that really deserves to succeed.

By the way, the passageway right through London Bridge station....it was a legitimate, but very busy, way through.

When I went through, it was only bad for the first 30 or so metres - got a lot quieter and very runnable after that. My heart did sink when I first got there though! I gather at least one competitor tried to turn left into the station itself!

Already really looking forward to next year. Definitely one of the domestic orienteering highlights on the calendar.

[NeilC]

One observation though - I noticed that a number of the control descriptions described what the feature looked like on the ground not on the map. For example the description would say fence corner yet there were no mapped fences in the circle.

I could spot only one control description that might fit this comment Neil on my course (course 3 - same as you) - no. 8, where the line of the fence was the edge of the olive green out of bounds. The rest were all there as described (and relied on by me quite heavily at times!).

Technically there were no bridge symbols used on the map but these were used as the control description for 5 and 7. In reality the bridge description was useful for these two controls, and something that any future revision to the control description document could consider (they are not well designed for ISSOM map-based events). On other courses though I found it more difficult to work out where the control was going to be from the combination of map/description eg control 113 (no 11 on Men's Open) and 129 (no 26 on Men's open).

[Simon E]

Another fantastic day out. My personal brain fade moment was spending over 40 seconds within 10m of control 117 (on the edge of the Thames after crossing the Millenium Bridge) without seeing it.

Some photos now up here. It looks like it was all too much for awk by the end.

[awk]

Concentration required all the time; worst part was trying to run through the crowds along the Millenium Bridge - should have taken the road bridge option; my wrong.

Not sure you were wrong. I went the road bridge route, and was a minute slower than a fellow club member who, on running speed, should have taken 20secs out of me on that leg....

There again, the road bridge route was all of about 10m shorter (on Google Earth), and there were less crowds, so maybe I lost more time at the end than I thought!

See what you mean about the bridges Neil. The descriptions used were so intuitively correct, that I never questioned whether they were actually technically correct from the way the map is drawn.

BTW, our straight line course length was 6.9km, my measured route was 10.5k; it seems that adding 50% is a reasonably consistent predictor of the actual distance to be run in urban races (at least the routes I run!).

[Miffy]

Thanks SLOW for another excellent race. Don't think I have ever had opportunity before to eat at a restaurant actually in the finish area, watching the later competitors!

Pleased to see that next year's date coincides with Last Night of the Proms again so will probably be able to convince the parents to join us and spend the evening in Hyde Park, like last year

[Slowtochide]

Not sure what comments to reply to first

Firstly thanks for the kind words.

We always knew that going south of the River Thames for Assembly would mean losing the Barbican for this year. However our objective is to make the City of London a race that people will want to come back to year after year, and to me that means that we have to offer variety and not over use any one part of the area - hence the switch. Unfortunately we didn't get our first choices of Assembly area, which was indeed the area around the Finish, partly because of City Hall having an open day and partly due to a planned children's theatre event (which didn’t actually happen) in the amphitheatre below the Finish. However, it seemed such a spectacular location for the Finish that we persevered. In addition we had a challenge when we realised the restrictions in the BOF Insurance policy on children crossing roads – something we could only accommodate using the pedestrianised area along the South Bank. Having a split Finish and Assembly was always very much second choice but the T47 complex gave us changing and toilets – something in short supply in that part of London!
The barrier of the Thames and the desire to cut out dead running meant a Start on the north side of the river for as many courses as possible – and W55 was just too short for that start unless they had a very dull course indeed.
I start on permissions for next year’s event next week. If all goes to plan then Assembly will be on the north side of The City, there will be another new bit of mapping and we shall be in the Barbican again on Saturday 10th September 2011

[Tatty]

Thanks SLOW! Great that you've already started on the 2011 race Alan. Can't wait

[Blanka]

Just to add to all the praise that has been mentioned already, well done to SLOW for another great City Race, it was a challenging course in a fantastic location.

Perhaps slightly controversial, but my suggestion for the Nopesport urban League 2011 (if it happens) would be not to include London because the event does very well as a standalone event and would probably still attract similar numbers of competitors even if not part of the league. Smaller events, however, can benefit immensely from being in the league as shown in the Lincoln discussion where the organiser suggested that inclusion in the league could have upped attandance by 100+ competitors.

[Slowtochide]

And now for two appeals

1) I would appreciate it if any of you out there who used a GPS tracker etc and know their exact distance covered on the groun could send me details (i.e. Course, name and distance). We pay pretty close attention to the straight line/actual distance ratio so feedback is useful

2) As many of you are aware we had to do some drastic changes to the junior courses in mid flight when we understood the insurance situation for under 16s etc. In particular we reorganised courses into Children (M/W12-), Juniors (M/W16-) and then moved M/W18- onto the relevant Open course. I would appreciate hearing from competitors (or their parents) if this was a good split (if not why not?). Was the Open the best place for M/W18s or should we have put them on the same course (but different class as M/W40+). Was the Childrens course the right technicality?

Responses/Comments in either case to london@cityrace.org
Tnnaks in advance

[Angry Haggis]

And now for two appeals

1) I would appreciate it if any of you out there who used a GPS tracker etc and know their exact distance covered on the groun could send me details (i.e. Course, name and distance). We pay pretty close attention to the straight line/actual distance ratio so feedback is useful

I would treat GPS distances with a pinch of salt - multipath effects and other interference from tall buildings tend to throw off the GPS measurements - even for good chipsets - to such an extent that any reported distance covered is highly suspect.

A good way to work out the straight line/actual ratio is on Routegadget. There's already enough routes out there for a good analysis. On course 1, someone has drawn Chris Young's route as a straight line, which allows the pixel/m ratio to be calculated.

So far, we have:
C1 (8.2km) Shortest three were 12.0km, 12.1km, 12.3km (46% longer)
C2 (6.8km) 9.9km, 10.1km (46% too)
C3 (6.8km) 10.3km, 10.4km, 10.6km (51%!)
C4 (5.6km) 7.4km, 7.8km (32%)
C5 (5.5km) 7.3km, 7.3km 7.4km (33%)
C6&7 (4.1km) 5.1km, 5.2km, 5.3km (24%)

I thought I had run the "perfect route", as I knew every nook and cranny of the map and had studied the course in great detail beforehand (hence why I was n/c). However I still ran an extra 400m on C1. Only now, thanks to Paul Todd and Ed Stott, do I see that taking the north route out of 23, and between 27 and 28, was clearly shorter.

The 12.4km on pavement also explains why my calves are hurting so badly today.

It's great to have 80 routes up on Routegadget already by the way - if you haven't yet put your route up please do!

[The Loofa]

Perhaps slightly controversial, but my suggestion for the Nopesport urban League 2011 (if it happens) would be not to include London because the event does very well as a standalone event and would probably still attract similar numbers of competitors even if not part of the league.

Interesting thought and one we may not object to.
London 2011 is already listed for the UK Cup and may well be listed for a UK Masters Cup if that idea gets off the ground. So its going to attract people chasing series points anyway. Additionally courses 1 and 3 would get over-full if the race gets much larger and we'd have to start splitting them.

[mappingmum]

Have you thought of doing (designing and selling) a commemorative "City Race" O top?

[Angry Haggis]

Just to add to all the praise that has been mentioned already, well done to SLOW for another great City Race, it was a challenging course in a fantastic location.

Perhaps slightly controversial, but my suggestion for the Nopesport urban League 2011 (if it happens) would be not to include London because the event does very well as a standalone event and would probably still attract similar numbers of competitors even if not part of the league. Smaller events, however, can benefit immensely from being in the league as shown in the Lincoln discussion where the organiser suggested that inclusion in the league could have upped attandance by 100+ competitors.

I'm sure the event would attract similar numbers if not part of the league, but this isn't a good reason to *not* include it surely? Is the primary purpose of the league to attract greater numbers or to provide a platform for people to compare results across different events? I think it's both. London might benefit less in terms of upping numbers because a wider group of people (non-UK O, non-O runners) know about it due to the way we are marketing it, but anything that encourages more participation from the northern half of the UK down to London is good. I think the series is a little north-heavy already, London is the furthest south. Hoping Bath, Bristol and Salisbury put on a race sometime in the future!

The only problem I see is that if a lot of people are doing it, a lot of people are going to get a very small score in the league. Perhaps removing INDs and non-UK people from the scores would fix this, or rethinking the scoring - maybe larger races like London have half-point decrements.

Lincoln's increase this year I think was also due to the fact it was advertised well in advance and in conjunction with Sheffield as an urban weekend, its inclusion on the front cover of Focus (yes, people do read it and in fact I think it's a rather good publication!) and also word-of-mouth. It's always been a good event in an interesting city, I've enjoyed it for the last three years and I'm sure I'm not the only person who has been telling their peers they should go. Certainly inclusion in the league will also have helped, don't get me wrong, but I don't think urban league point-collection is entirely the cause of the 100+ increase.