A Capital Weekend - City Race & Southern Champs

[alanbrett]

Warm up for a weekend of racing at High Beach tomorrow ...

A single “Mini-O” 2.3km course with 24 controls, using a 1:2500/2.5m map and numbered mini-kites. You are welcome to treat this as a score event or just visit a few controls, but the real challenge is a fast and furious control-picking race. No SI SI Card needed: to enhance the mental stimulus a cunning “punching” system will be used to check you have visited the controls in the correct order.

Starts from 16:00 to 18:30

Details: http://chig.org.uk/ai1ec_event/a-capita ... -up-event/

[EddieH]

A very enjoyable weekend even though I had to miss my beloved Errochty to be here. Epping Forest was fabulous despite the pouring rain and near darkness at the end - a very enjoyable contrast to any Scottish forest - superb planning.
I saw a little more than I should having incomprehensibly turned 180 degrees and eventually relocated with furhter to go than I had to start the leg - believe it or not only the third time ever I've made a 180.

[riverman]

Epping Forest was fabulous despite the pouring rain and near darkness at the end - a very enjoyable contrast to any Scottish forest - superb planning.

I second the exceptional planning at Epping - there wasn't a single second where you could let concentration slip.

[Jayne]

Hi all
cityrace.org has the gremlins this evening, but here are direct links to Routegadget, Winsplits and Splitsbrowser for yesterday's race. If you ran yesterday, please add your route to Routegadget.

http://www.slow.routegadget.co.uk/cgi-b ... d=82&kieli

http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/e ... seId=23057

http://www.splitsbrowser.org.uk/splitsg ... entId=5986

[DJM]

I was unable to go (yet again) owing to a family commitment. What was the weekend like? There's (almost) a deafening silence so far on nopesport about this - most unusual

I've heard it said that the City race was the best yet - is this what those who were there thought?

[Tatty]

Very good event. Lots of route choice, fast, furious running, good planning and beautiful weather Probably my best ever result . The T shirts were well received, as was the event centre. Though the rolling screen results service was excellent. Thank you SLOW for a superb event. Bring on 2014.
PS Silence on Nopesport usually means there is nothing to moan about

[mikey]

Both days were great.

[denbydale]

Really enjoyed it but thought my wife's course (10 W Ultravet) looked more interesting and challenging than mine, especially at the end (9 M Ultravet)

[The Loofa]

There's (almost) a deafening silence so far on nopesport about this - most unusual

I've heard it said that the City race was the best yet - is this what those who were there thought?

The deafening silence puzzled me too. I got onto Nopesport this morning expecting the usual 4 pages worth to discover absolutely nothing. So I expressed my puzzlement on SLOW's facebook page and was assured by those younger and trendier than me (which isn't saying much) that NopesSport is rather passe and used mostly for moans and grumbles. They pointed out that there was lots of good stuff about the race on things called "AttackPoint" and "Twitter". There's certainly a few of us in the club who are also getting the idea that this year's was the best yet.

[The Loofa]

So as this is the right place for a moan here goes. I spent a while on SplitsBrowser looking at 3-4 on Mens Supervets and reached the conclusion that the fastest 27 on this leg had taken advantage of the fact that the uncrossable fence on the direct line had become crossable (i.e. unlocked) for a while. Other courses had similar issues with that gate and/or people crossing an OOB busy main road. We spent some time (when the prize-giving was due) peering at numerous split times on a computer screen, before concluding that we didn't think any prize-winners were guilty and we should get on with the ceremony.

And I see my inbox is filling up with opinions at to whether or not to void the leg with that gate.

Otherwise the only unresolved matter is where is Tatty going next year that she is so determined to miss the race

[NeilC]

Probably not quite the best for me.

Good:
Usual high quality of mapping and organisation
Entire course on new area (for my course)
Lots of detail on the ground requring careful navigation at speed
Less dead running than in some previous races
Great competition - many of the top runners there

Less Good:
Assembly area not quite as stunning as some previous ones
Nothing of the complexity of the Barbican (for my course)
Less iconic landmarks on course

However it was still a top quality event that managed to live up to the high expectations that now define the London City Race. It must be so difficult to keep this up each year whilst still providing new challenges.

[NeilC]

looking at 3-4 on Mens Supervets and reached the conclusion that the fastest 27 on this leg had taken advantage of the fact that the uncrossable fence on the direct line had become crossable

Running to 3 my thoughts were "nice easy leg coming up". Got 5m away from 3, forced myself to stop and check that the direct route was legal, it clearly wasn't so turned back and went around.

That's the dilemma - at race pace I didn't spot that the route was blocked, only when I looked very very carefully was it clear. Had I not spotted this and carried on and found the way open it may not have crossed my mind that the route was illegal. Knowing some of those 27 I suspect that this is what may have happened. No doubt my son would have pointed out that it was clearly illegal, but even with 2x mag glasses it wasn't obvious to my 50 year old eyes. So it's the old chestnut - do you make it so obviously illegal that everyone will spot it (eg with an even thicker black line) or do you consider that forcing people (or at least those with dodgy eyesight) to slow down to check carefully is part of the game. I'm inclined to think that if ISSOM is used correctly (eg minimum object sizes etc) that it's the competitor's responsibility to check carefully. Thus there is no reason to remove that leg. Also no reason to not DSQ those with too fast a split (even if you don't get them all).

[graeme]

My first time at London. Good fun, but a bit disappointed that 6km wasn't a "longer course" and so didn't get to the Barbican (note to self: man up).

A jury member told me they discussed and will DQ people who went through the gate on 3-4. I hadn't planned ahead on the leg, set off the wrong way, spotted the on the map fence, checked the control was beyond, practised my French and went back. Cost about 10sec.

I did mumble about this at BOF major events. Everyone is still learning about controlling Urban races, but I think it's easy enough to identify "critical" locked gates on the course (MSV has 3), and that these need to be checked on the morning in the same way as controls. "critical" here means someone going through illegally would gain time and therefore have to be DQed.

Can't wait till next year!

[alanbrett]

Sorry for not organising the weather for Sunday - If you want to pass the CHIG organisers feedback, we have our usual feedback form on the CHIG website.

Thank you's have been expressed appropriately in other mediums, but with my CHIG Chairman's hat on, I would like to thank HH, HAVOC and LOK for providing helpers on the day, otherwise the event would not have been possible.

I wish my calf muscle hadn't been strained a week before the city race, as the course (I did pick up my map) looked interesting.

I'm currently battling with Route Gadget (not had an OCAD 10 XML file to deal with before) and hope to have it available some time this evening (might be 5 mins might be 5 hours!).


Alan

[oo_wrong_way]

As a transgressor on 3 to 4 myself I would not complain if DQd. The fence is clearly marked as uncrossable. No excuse. However on the jog my eyesight let me down and there was nothing on the ground to cause me to pause and have a really good look at the map.