World Cup Finland

[King Penguin]

To me, something is fundamentally unfair about expecting the first runner to go out before an uncrossable feature even exists, when it is going to exist for later runners. The course clearly is not ready and not the same for everyone. Almost as bad as collecting controls in before runners have finished, or expecting someone to run before the controls have been put out.
Bad luck Hoddy.

[Little Hoddy]

I should say that before realising my error I had really enjoyed the course and area. It was really tricky and in many places I'd say the fences improved the courses significantly. Almost all the uncrossable bushes/flower beds etc were clearly taped in the terrain so there was no ambiguity or chance of accidentally crossing them. I think the fences weren't so good when they were in "unnatural" places (e.g. Across the middle of a road) because we just don't train to look for fences in those kind of places in 99% of sprint races.

I don't know the exact situation but my fence had been in place for the women's race earlier. A possible explanation is that they had opened it up partially to allow traffic through between the races and hadn't closed it again by the time I got there. It's a shame because I would still have been very happy with the position I might have got if I'd doubled back but it was still a great race to be a part of.

[buzz]

I think the fences weren't so good when they were in "unnatural" places (e.g. Across the middle of a road) because we just don't train to look for fences in those kind of places in 99% of sprint races.

Yes - they were pretty hard to spot on the map in the old armchair! With visual perception your mind doesn't really take in much of the detail - it relies more on the context and sees what it expects to see. You wouldn't expect a road with pavements and buildings either side to have fences across so its easy to miss them at first glance - you have to force yourself to look for them - much harder than normal map reading particularly when running hard.

[graeme]

because we just don't train to look for fences in those kind of places in 99% of sprint races.

I don't know if Murray ans Tess have inside track here in Edinburgh, but we have been training with invisible/irrational/uncrossable fences for some time. I still find them impossible to spot, somehow my brain filters them out.

[andypat]

Its clearly a good idea to incorporate this into training nowadays, but totally agree with hoddy about fences across roads. Its just not natural!

[JK]

I thought the fences for the Qualification added something to what might have been
a less interesting area. On the other hand I thought they looked a bit excessive in the Final.

With Google Maps and all the map geeking that goes on ahead of an event it is very easy to be very familiar with an area before the day so adding "new" fences in is a great way to force people to read their map. The first WOC I saw it at was in Trondheim where there was a diagonal fence across a crossroads in (as I recall) a pedestrian area not far from the start - loads ran down there expecting to go straight ahead.

i.e. I think there are at least 2 good reasons to add them: trickier route choices and giving a different area to what people have been geeking on.

Having them on the map, but not the ground is a mistake and I hope Pete got some apology from the organisers. In last year's Manchester/Salford Urban event there was a fence that had been cut in 1/2 so you could pass it easily, almost without noticing. I glanced up from previous control, saw the way through and set off, only checking the map as I ran. It was then I realised I was heading down a virtual dead-end ... but it was passable. I stopped as did the person I'd led into the last 2 controls and we agreed we shouldn't go so we doubled back and ran round only to find loads of runners using that gap, none of whom DQd themselves to my knowledge - in fact you can even see their routes on RG. So well done for owning up Pete (even if by being fastest split and with a dodgy GPS line it was blatant). [Note that the Salford issue I mentioned above was in no way the organisers fault as you could see that the cut fence was only a couple of days old]

That reminds me, there is a hole in a fence/hedge to fix for Saturday's NW Sprint.

[Freefall]

Any recommendations on what links to follow for race today (soon)?

[andypat]

I thought the fences for the Qualification added something to what might have been
a less interesting area.

ie an area possibly not suitable for a race of this calibre?

On the other hand I thought they looked a bit excessive in the Final.

There's a balance isnt there. More than one elite has refered to this race as the World Labyrinth Cup:?

[Jon X]

Any recommendations on what links to follow for race today (soon)?

TV http://arenan.yle.fi/tv/2296720/#/play
Tracking http://www.tulospalvelu.fi/gps/
Results http://online.tulospalvelu.fi/tulokset/en/2014_imatrav/

[andy]

here we go, go GBR!

[andy]

Looks like Ruth is running first leg for a mixed team too, so not just the GBR team to watch

[andy]

Typical that someone misses a control out and comes through first, the O equivalent of a banter start to get some TV time?

[andy]

Tess' GPS has stopped updating but she's right up there, Ruth right in the mix too

[Freefall]

Murray going well

[andy]

Good run from Murray, 30secs down on the top 3 but still all to play for

What a great format, can we get some more in the uk please?