Urban orienteering for beginners

[graeme]

Is anyone aware of a good article on Urban Orienteering aimed at non-orienteers? There are zillions of articles about how it's different from traditional orienteering, how to do well, and about what the rules are, but I can't find a simple introduction.

[andypat]

I have emailed you something.

[roadrunner]

I'd be interested in this too - a few members of my running club have shown an interest in coming to a local urban event or two.

[graeme]

Something based on andypat's document should appear on the Race the Castles website shortly. It would be very interesting to get feedback from you running club about it.

[graeme]

Draft now live at

http://www.racethecastles.com/info/intr ... ienteering

comments?

[Oldman]

Would "face to face" be better as "head to head"?

Might it be worth trying to "sell" participation more - eg using the training effect of the slowing down at a control or when navigating in a tricky area vs flat out running, or the excitement of the race?

[greywolf]

McCloud? I didn't recognise him without the 'tache or stetson

[SeanC]

For beginners I think it's worth encouraging them to compete in pairs, lots of people fear running on their own in urban areas.

Will there be a dedicated "beginners/newcomers" course? Will there be someone at the start/finish to help beginners? Is there an email address for beginners to ask further questions?

[DaveK]

Draft now live at

http://www.racethecastles.com/info/intr ... ienteering

comments?

Very good indeed, particularly when taken with SeanC's comments. There might be something very much like this appearing soon on the Tunbridge Wells Urban event web page as well (assuming that's ok with you andypat and graeme?)

[graeme]

Feel free to put a link from Tunbridge Wells to our page

If you are going to customise it, a wee link to RTC would be appreciated (it is the NUL final after all).

[andypat]

share and share alike!

[Dangerous]

Very good.

Hopefully it will encourage more participation.

I think that "To do that, you need to pick the shortest route."

Should be "fastest" or "quickest"

[charles2]

Good article,

On reading the 'Take me through an example' the text route descriptions could be worded to avoid ambiguity, in that:

' Right at the T-junction, round a left hand bend, then turn left then turn right at the next T junction: the checkpoint is on another bush on the left hand side of the road. '

should be
' Right at the T-junction, round a left hand bend, then turn left then turn right at the second T junction: the checkpoint is on another bush on the left hand side of the road.'

or
' Right at the T-junction, round a left hand bend, then turn left then take third turning to the right: the checkpoint is on another bush on the left hand side of the road. '

[Kitch]

I don't think its very well worded at all.
I get the sentiment and the objective but its really not well structured nor in very accessible language.

I'll have a go at a re-work