City Race Series 2007

[rocky]

it sounds too contrived to be used in a race you want to be "serious", but good fun otherwise i expect. see the last issue of orienteeringtoday for a report of an evening event in ?milan? which used two maps: one of the streets and one of a network of underground stations with stairs to the surface marked.

[Steve]

Another good area would be London Docklands - Canary Wharf etc. Not as complex as some city areas but with a good range of detail, bridges, underpasses etc, and impressive (if not pretty) buildings.

O inside buildings could be very funny. The buildings would need to be very large to make it worthwhile, and no doubt there would be health and safety restrictions making it a non-starter (e.g. no running!)

However, ideal structures would be sprawling hospitals, museums etc i.e. places you'd never get access to. That or very tall buildings where stairs vs lift is the main decision.

Vertig-O ?

[Wattok]

There was some race in a random country (Israel maybe?) where they orienteered around a multi-story car park. It was in an old Orienteering Today issue but might show how to map on multiple levels...

[tim sleepless]

I'd love the Barbican too, but surely it would be waaaay too difficult to map? We're talking of multiple maps of levels somehow joined up aren't we?

Slow have held street-O races there... I've no idea how they mapped it though.

[Roger]

O inside buildings could be very funny. The buildings would need to be very large to make it worthwhile, ...

According to my JOK clubmate Seamus, World Students Champs in Trondheim in the mid-80s had just such a race, around a hall of residence with six-ish storeys and some communal rooms that were double-height -- very difficult to work out what was going on.

Unfortunately I wasn't good enough (or Irish enough ) to be selected.

[Oldman]

There was some race in a random country (Israel maybe?) where they orienteered around a multi-story car park. It was in an old Orienteering Today issue but might show how to map on multiple levels...

I confirm it was Israel although it's not a random country!

I have seen the actual map.

[King Penguin]

speaking personally - having somewhere attractive/interesting/historic to run around would make me far more likely to want to come

Ludlow ??

[Snail]

You could do a great city race in "The City" itself... it's deserted on Sunday

Agree - an area bounded by Faringdon St / New Bridge St to the west; Newgate St / London Wall to the north; Bevis Marks / Minories to the east, and Upper / Lower Thames St (or possibly the river) to the south has relatively little traffic on a Sunday - because most of it runs around that perimeter. It's not that big - perhaps 1.5 x 0.7km - but contains plenty of interesting features

[johnloguk]

[quote="Gnitworp
You could perhaps have a new version of the sport which takes place inside buildings, with the option of taking the lift if you think it's quicker![/quote]

I can think of at least one route choice on the Lincoln map that could involve lift versus stairs, but perversely it's not in a building and might only be on the long-O, until next time that is

I assume we'll be seing you in January then Mrs H, nowhere more historic or attractive than Lincoln, just try and forget about the hill

[RWK]

On the way back from an event on the south coast me and my mate were thinking of unusual types of events. We thought of all sorts of ideas but one that really struck us was an event round a big shopping centre...Meadowhall maybe. We then came up with the idea of doing it at night when no-one was there and doing a night-o round the place for extra difficulty. We thought this a fanatstic idea but sadly I doubt it would ever happen. Getting permission for that could well be impossible, but you can always dream....

[Gnitworp]

Some urban O venues might be suitable for wheelchair-bound athletes
Inclusion of the disabled in 'real' orienteering, which trail O isn't (see previous thread)
How you'd foster sufficient interest at the outset though, I don't know.

[ryeland of doom]

speaking personally - having somewhere attractive/interesting/historic to run around would make me far more likely to want to come

Ludlow ??

Was going to post that suggestion.

The town is quite small but has a good narrow street pattern. But it does have the advantage of a detailed wooded park on its edge - Whitcliffe.

Meanwhile at the opposite end of the spectrum - what about the new towns. Livingston has to be a candidate, with a complex footpath network and a lot of small wooded areas.

[roadrunner]

Meanwhile at the opposite end of the spectrum - what about the new towns.

Lower Earley (east side of Reading) would be pretty technical - it was built in the days when town planners thought that cul-de-sacs with lots of footpaths was a good idea. We've had a few street-O's there in the past. Not much historic interest, though!

[rocky]

i, along with many edinburgh based athletes, attended a presentation by martin hyman tonight. one thing he mentioned was about the structure of his seasons while competing at the very highest level in athletics: he mentioned he would get bored towards the end of the track season and would look forward to road running, and from there would look forward to cross country in the winter.

it made me wonder, perhaps we could have an "urban-o" season during a fixed point in the year - late summer perhaps, when vegetation takes hold of most of our forests?

[lincolnsteve]

It would certainly fill the summer gap we have now and would probably impeed less on our "normal" season, however there could be quite some distances to travel to events untill more urban areas are mapped and used? Unless you mean more local urban events rather than on the scale of Oxford and York each week? Still, I think the idea has merit Rocky.

Steve