Brighton video

[nooomember]

My headcam video, now with map added, can be viewed here:

https://youtu.be/3FL8t7t9xJo

[tomtom]

Great event but.. Did anyone else think the map printing/clarity was terrible?

[Roger]

Great event but.. Did anyone else think the map printing/clarity was terrible?

With a failed headtorch it was certainly difficult! It was also quite hard under the yellowish streetlights, so I gravitated towards the white ones or the bright shop windows and was OK, although by then I wasn't racing. Finding the first butterfly loop on the map seemed to take forever though - didn't see the control number for 15/19/23/27 until after I'd finished, and the line to 16 being (correctly) cut meant that my eye wasn't drawn to it.

The features on the black stippling on the beach didn't stand out but that's not surprising. Looking at the map now in daylight, it looks fine. No complaints from me.

[NeilC]

Great event but.. Did anyone else think the map printing/clarity was terrible?

Tom, can you elaborate on what you found so bad (ie not just poor but truly terrible)? Was it some or all of the colours, the printed line widths, the mapping style, size of the alleys, line/number placement or something else?

[Ravinous]

I found the coastal section tricky to read. The black wall symbol seemed to be too thin. The ramps and steps would have benefited from being exaggerated a fraction more in width imho. The extra, presumably new, unmapped fenced-off area was a minor confusion running back to the underpass (course 1). After the underpass it seemed fine. Had the sea-front section come later in the race, I am sure it would have been less of an issue as you have slowed down a bit and got into a rhythm and are not surrounded by so many people. Plus got use to the lighting conditions.

The beach printing was funny looking however suggesting it was done on a club printer - as SO normally do and it was only level D. Offset printing would have certainly improved legibility.
I think the event could easily be a B? if SO wanted to without too much effort.
I think this year was an attendance record around 180? I can see it growing and maybe staggering the start in 2 or more groups may stop pile ups on early controls.

Many thanks to you Planner Neil and Organiser Rob and the SO Team for a balmy evening of O delight!

Nearly forgot - and some of the best medals I have ever seen!

[andypat]

I think the event could easily be a B? if SO wanted to without too much effort.
I think this year was an attendance record around 180? I can see it growing and maybe staggering the start in 2 or more groups may stop pile ups on early controls.

Please also find a way to let kids and adults both get a run. This was the main disincentive for me and my 12- coming this year for the final NOPE race.

[NeilC]

Nick, the walls were 0.4mm - ie the normal ISSOM spec, I exaggerated the width of the causeways by 50% (2m-3m) but could perhaps have done more. The maps were printed by BML and I imported their recommended colours. I agree that the beach features were not that easy to read - but I tried not to hide anything there. Unfortunately the fenced areas were going up and down regularly and the map represented the situation when I last test ran the courses the day before the map files were sent to the printers (Dec 9th).

What level to pitch the event at is one that we have discussed. Being a mass start event means that there can't be ranking points awarded so there's no advantage for the competitor in that respect. If we were to make it a Level B then we would need to provide more eg backup punches at each control, better displayed control codes etc. I'd also feel that the way we hang controls would probably not be good enough and so have to start thinking about trestles etc. I've planned/organised/controlled enough Level A events to know that getting these little details right takes up so much time. Thus we have always decided to keep it at Level D, but in many other ways provide a Level A/B experience.

The numbers entering the last two years have meant that the early controls have been very busy. We are certainly considering having course-specific starts next year.

Andy, the problem of parents and small children running is a difficult one. We want to give the juniors a similar city centre experience as the seniors which means that accompanying/shadowing adults running before their run would have to be n/c. Asking the juniors to run after the adults is not really on either given the time. Being a city race held at night in December it's really not feasible to have a course for U12s that they can run without supervision, so I'm not sure that there is a simple solution given that we don't wish to change the basic format. Any suggestions?

[Ursula]

As one who has run 7 Brighton City Races can I put in my two penn'orth?
I am quite surprised that a truly champion sprinter and British Night Champion expects less challenging early controls in a city night race!
I loved the beach start this year as a couple of years ago I was the very last to the first control and this year there were many first controls so there was no procession.
The Brighton City Race is a bit of fun so let's keep it that way. For my money both Level D and map printing quality are absolutely fine: we really do not need Level B or offset litho maps. Don't blame the map If you can't read it adequately, just get yourself a pair of specs. I agree that the beach was quite confusing but, as the planner says, they were straightforward control sites. My biggest problem was identifying olive green under the yellow city lights but everything fell into place as the SI box came into view.
This was by far the mildest Brighton City Race so far and I must admit that this year the most crowded of the Lanes were not much fun. Next year it will probably be windy and raining and only the most persistent drunks will be out and about. Whatever the weather I'll be back.

[andypat]

Andy, the problem of parents and small children running is a difficult one. We want to give the juniors a similar city centre experience as the seniors which means that accompanying/shadowing adults running before their run would have to be n/c. Asking the juniors to run after the adults is not really on either given the time. Being a city race held at night in December it's really not feasible to have a course for U12s that they can run without supervision, so I'm not sure that there is a simple solution given that we don't wish to change the basic format. Any suggestions?

I've given it some thought but the only solution I can see would be to have the kids race slightly earlier and make the kids course avaialble to all to pre-run. Probably not practical though. I guess the only reason it was an issue (for us at least) was that it was the final event in the NUL. I can see both pros and cons for that decision. Maybe with hindsight a normal format event as the last event somewhere less difficult to access would be a better option? - Not your call I appreciate.

I'm not agaisnt having mass start in the urban league though. We had a score event in the SOL series - nice to mix it up.

[Roger]

Maybe with hindsight a normal format event as the last event somewhere less difficult to access would be a better option?

I thought that Brighton deserved its day in the sun ( ) and given its timing it was always going to be the final event. No hindsight required to understand that the location and format wouldn't be great for some people. It wasn't chosen simply to counterbalance the 2014 final at Stirling!

The final event in 2016 edges further north (Norwich) but I'm afraid will still prove rather inaccessible for many people. If anyone can offer a November-ish high-quality urban race in 2017, somewhere reasonably central with an indoor event centre, then it will be looked upon very favourably as a candidate for the UKUL final.

[xxx]

This was my first time at the Brighton race, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I was on the same course as Ursula, but even wearing specs I couldn't see the detail for the controls actually on the beach, so I just generally ran in hope in the right direction. I followed the crowd to my no 4. then also to what I thought might be no 5. It was too much hassle with the map folded up to look at control descriptions, so I was very grateful to have control codes adjacent to the control on the map, as this saved me from mis-punching at no 5, when the first control I went to turned out to be the wrong one.

As Roger said, it was the stippling of the beach symbol which caused the issue. I'm sure everyone must know Brighton beach is composed of pebbles, so would it not be possible to dim the black spots right down - or even do away with them altogether and just use a plain colour instead which wouldn't obscure other detail and would vastly improve clarity- though I realise this wouldn't be exactly p.c?

That said, I really enjoyed the race much more than expected. From the underpass onwards the map was easy enough to read, and the procession dispersed, so I seemed to do most of my loops alone. There was some 'banter' to be endured in the Lanes, but I'm long enough in the tooth to live with it - the worst incident being colliding with a door which some-one opened onto the street as I was running past.

I certainly hope to be back in future years, as it was really quite a lot of fun, with the mass start aspect not being as intimidating as I expected. Many thanks to all involved in the organisation and race delivery.

[Len]

Purely objectively as it didn't really cause me any issues, my map didn't appear to be of the same high standard as other BML ones this year, nowhere near as sharp.

Agree Brighton deserved a chance at the UKUL, also it would be good to have a score race in during 2017 - maybe one of the clubs who run a successful night street score league would be ideal?!

[cbg]

Only with reference to the map quality ... we had this issue with the draft print of the British Sprints, which caused the Controller some great concern. It turned out to be due to an added JPEG image (club logo) which caused OCAD 10 to reduce the quality of the whole map. Nigel will usually check the map file and correct it where necessary; some events slip through the net when he is not there.

[DJM]

As cbg reported, I rejected the first proofs from BML of the 2015 British Sprint maps because of substandard print quality caused (as we subsequently found out) by the presence of a jpeg within the map file.

I sent the image above back to BML to illustrate the problem. The top map is an excerpt from the proof map, scanned at 600dpi and enlarged, whilst the bottom is an except from the JK Sprint map, also scanned and enlarged by the same factor.

The difference in quality is marked!

All was well, as expected, with the final maps which were up to the usual BML high standard.

PS None of these problems were visible on screen nor on home printed copies of the map. Only because we arranged to have proof maps printed in advance did we avert considerable embarrassment ...

[Paul Frost]

It would be useful if someone could do some specific tests on the same map with JPG or GIF logo files included, and how/why their inclusion should deteriorate the quality. Plus what is it that Nigel does to "correct it where necessary".