City Race Series 2007

[Mrs H.]

what a co-incidence - Brian highes only said at the HOC development meeting last night that we ought to abandon the forests from mid-June to Mid September and take to the streets and the parks as it would get us out of the grot and take us o where the people are.

i was thinking that when we get to formulate the development plan I would support this idea and suggest - as mentioned earlier - that we got a set of re-usable bibs made with Harlequins Orienteering Club and website address and nominal numbers to be worn when ever we are running in these public places.

Ludlow - another co-incidence - Wrekin originally planned to do an evening street race but then decided not to - perhaps they are saving it for next time - certainly something to be encouraged

[Domhnull Mor]

Here in Luleå we've been arranging an "urban-o" series for the last few years during the late winter / early spring as a way of moving on from the ski season and getting ready for the orienteering races of the spring. This has made a big difference as the amount of snow we have and the length of the winters make it otherwise hard to train properly at that time of year. We are lucky to have access to GIS maps from the town planning office which are in colour and almost of orienteering map standard. They can also be used in OCAD which makes things even easier when arranging events. Is this kind of town map data available to folk in the UK?

[PorkyFatBoy]

You could do a great city race in "The City" itself... it's deserted on Sunday, and you have the multilevel Barbican, as well as all the old alleyways to add to the fun.

I have far too much work to do today, and now all I can think about is this idea

From memory, (in the days when I occasionally used to work weekends too (1987~1992)), the City is quieter on Saturdays. On Sundays there's the markets and touristy people about, making it slightly busier, but nothing like Monday to Friday.

Barbican may not be that difficult as there's only really one route through it - albeit on different levels. Might even go for a run around it tomorrow to check it out. If we used the City boundaries, we'd have a large enough area for a street race.

[Steve]

It would be possible to include the Barbican on a City of London map, it is only just north of London Wall after all. Maybe a switch to a separate map (just like in like micr-O) for the Barbican stage of a course.

[johnloguk]

The Scarborough race sounded like fun, maybe it could be part of the White Rose one year?

[Becks]

Or the British Sprint Champs 2007 as it is?! Nails is the mapper and hence was test running. I can't wait for this one!

[awk]

The Airienteers summer Wednesday evening series will have sprint racing in urban parks as its focus this year (it didn't quite manage the park bit last year, so the sprints weren't always sprints given the vegetation!), for the very reason that the usual areas are horrible. It's also a good time to get orienteering in the public face: it's good weather for it, and there are more people out in the parks.

Hopefully not jumping the gun, there's also a move to get a Yorkshire urban series going in early summer, incorporating Scarborough and York. Aire's round is likely to use either Leeds Uni (if it can be sorted in time) or Lister Park in Bradford, which is already ISSOM mapped.

[Steve]

I think that tagging urban races onto mass participation major events would be the way to go. A short urban-O season could require a lot of travelling in a relatively short space of time and without additional incentive I think people would be reluctant to commit to the full series. Adding them to major event weekends could actually create incentive to attend both.


Um, I hesitate to include this, but -
Mapping buildings:
I know building-O is so unlikely to happen and it's all conjecture, but one solution to the map problem for many-floored buildings is a map booklet. front page = top floor, last page = bottom floor. Coloured dots / similar to mark connecting stairs etc. Control descriptions would include which floor the control is on, controls do not need to be joined by lines unless they are on the same floor. For maybe 4 floors or less a single sheet would probably do.

[Nails]

I said: Today I ran the men's prologue at Scarborough -nice eyeballs out but also really technical. Nearly got swept away in a big wave too -will have to make sure the tide is out next time...

More info sometime......

The Scarborough race sounded like fun, maybe it could be part of the White Rose one year?

Yep the british sprint champs orienteering race hasn't happened at Scarborough yet!! Steve Whitehead is planning and i've been pre-running courses. This is going to be the most technical urban-o Britain has ever seen. 'Sprint'...my arse, this is going to test the best navigators rather than the best runners!

Its going to be so contrasting throughout -beach, costal strip, victorian gardens, back streets, lanes, steps, castle, cliffs, bowling greens, woodland, bridges, underpasses, pedestrianised areas, churchyards and probably more....

well thats whetted your appetites no doubt.....there will be some more relevant photos and perhaps some map clips appearing on the website sometime soon.... http://www.seasidescramble.org.uk/[/i]

[Becks]

Man, got to wait till April!

Sounds amazing.

[bolder]

Mrs. H please don't make competitors wear bibs!
I know you want people to be visible (and promote the sport etc.) but wearing bibs would make the event too gimicky. Plus they're not nice to run in in the summer. It did stike me that wearing bibs would be more like the rat race and other adventure races, which might not be a bad thing, but I'd prefer orienteering to be seen as a fast dynamic sport with accurate placed contols and good quality maps. (not having a go at anything here, so noone gets the wrong idea!)but alot of adventure race types assocaite orienteering with plodding (adventure racer & The Duncan excepted ) which I think you want to disassociate.

[Jayne]

there's also a move to get a Yorkshire urban series going in early summer,

Wasn't there some sort of YHOA street race league this year - I think Knaresborough and York were part of it.

[rocky]

bolder - what do you understand by 'bib'? cos to me it sounds like an a5 piece of tyvek pinned to the chest with a number and sponsors logo/race name on it, as worn in almost every race with a spectator element in any athletic discipline.

good idea mrs h. when we ran an edinburgh urban o a few years back we said that if we did it again then we should all run in matching tshirts with "edinburgh orienteering" written large on them to promote the sport: number bibs would be a more pleasant cost effective way of doing the same thing

[Mrs H.]

Yeah - that's what I meant a number bib like we wore at Oxford - personally I found it comforting (not being your obvious athletic sort) to wear the number and be identified as someone taking part in an event and not just a mad ageing housewife- I also think it signalled to people out there that if someone like me was involved - then you did not have to be a super fit young person to do it either.

But from the wider perspective - having super fit young people wearing them also gives that cutting edge athletic image we are looking for.

i didn't mean things like you wear on car parking duty - is that what Rat racers wear?

It's just about raising the profile - telling people what's going on and giving them the briefest of contact details - very cheap advertising - the actual numbering is irrelevant - but i would like to get them worn at all urban/park events.

[Gross]

wearing bibs would be more like the rat race and other adventure races, which might not be a bad thing

Hope you are jesting We could wear Mickey Mouse masks as well!

Best way to produce low numbers of bib numbers is an A5 laser print & stick it in a poly bag.... takes 2 minutes!