ESOC Edinburgh Weekend, Urban Race, SOUL
Scottish Orienteering Urban League
Sat 09th Nov 2013
Info updated: 02nd Mar
Type of event: Regional
Type of terrain: Urban
Results
Scottish Orienteering Urban League
Comments - Planner
I am very pleased with how this event went, the number of positive comments I got on the day far outweighed the negative, always a plus!
I've always wanted to plan a higher ranked urban event, it is my favourite Orienteering discipline so I felt I could have a good stab at planning a course that was both interesting and challenging. Graeme (Ackland) had offered part of his South-Edinburgh-Megamap for this race, so I was happy to jump at it, and he was happy to get some extra exposure for his Race the Castles series of races in October next year. A big thank you to Graeme as he agreed to be controller too! Big thanks to Judy for organising and a mention also to my parents for their huge amounts of help in the week before the race, as well as Janet for her early work as stand-in organiser.
The planning experience for this race was complicated somewhat by my moving house from practically on the map to South Yorkshire earlier in the year. Most of this race was armchair planned with only a handful of visits to an area I've gone through twice a day for nearly two years. While the courses didn't suffer because of this perhaps the fine-tuning an event of this stature requires was lacking in places. Apologies to any who were affected by the incorrect control description (it was in fact a bush, not a tree!), a couple of numbers/circles that weren't quite spotted as being in the way of potential routes, as well as the lack of communication of the two-sided maps for courses 1 and 2. I do also feel a bit for the chap who missed out a control on a straight line after travelling some distance for the race, this control was added last minute in order to make the leg into 123 less trivial and after some debate with Graeme we decided the courses were better with it there.
The courses, I think, turned out well. The junior course was a bit limited by the main roads through the area but they had a fair challenge in the Steils, not too easy for the older juniors but still manageable for the younger juniors. All the other courses shared a general theme, some short legs in the Steils followed by the big route choice leg into Oxgangs then all that followed. In fact all the courses were derived from the Men's Open, not only did this ease the amount of work but it meant everyone had the best of the area. I was pleased the WSV's I talked to were happy to have the same long leg as everyone else! I think most people went East on the long leg, perhaps it was less 50/50 than I thought, it was really there as a confidence and pre-planning test, did you pass? The 20 or so people I saw coming out of 117 didn't look particularly confident in their direction! It will be very interesting to see RouteGadet :)
Congratulations to everyone who achieved their desired result. I look forward to seeing you all at the NUL and SOUL events next year, bring it on!
Andrew Dalgleish, ESOC
Lost Property
A garmin device was handed in to lost property, if it's yours please get in touch.
General Information
Final Details for the Urban event now available.
Start List for Urban Event/SOUL also now available.
This urban race will be part of the Scottish Orienteering Urban League (SOUL) and also part of the Nopesport Urban League.
Location
Nearest town: Edinburgh
- Grid Ref: NT228697
- Postcode: EH14 1DP
- Latitude: 55.91500
- Longitude: -3.23600
- Google Map (aerial) - Bing Map (OS)
Directions
Parking and registration will be at Firrhill High School. This is located just off Oxgangs Road North and is easily accessed from the centre of Edinburgh or from the City Bypass (A720).
Lothian Buses services 4, 27 or a 10 will take you to close to Firrhill School. Please use a bus if you possibly can but note that other services which could bring you close by will travel through the competition area.
Registration & Start Times
Registration: for EOD: 12:30 - 14:30
Start times: 13:00 - 15:00
Course Information
Course 1 - Men Open (M18-35)
Course 2 - Veteran Men (M40+) Women Open (W18-35)
Course 3 - Super Veteran Men (M55+) Veteran Women (W40+)
Course 4 - Ultra Veteran Men (M65+) Super Veteran Women (W55+)
Course 5 - Ultra Veteran Women (W65+)
Course 6 - Junior Men (M16-) Junior Women (W16-)
Course 7 - Young Junior Men (M12-) Young Junior Women (W12-) [Note the Young Junior age classses were corrected here on 20th Oct]
Explanation of colour courses
- White are very easy with all controls on paths. They are mainly used by 6-10 year olds and family groups.
- Yellow use simple linear features like paths, walls and streams. They are mainly used by under 12’s and family groups.
- Orange progress to basic use of the compass and route choice. They are ideal for novice adults or experienced youngsters.
- Light Green are ideal for improvers as the navigational difficulty begins to increase and uses simple contours and point features.
- Green are used mostly by experienced under 18’s and adults wanting a short but challenging course with a very hard navigational difficulty.
- Blue are a longer, more physically demanding course in comparison to the green. The distances are more varied between controls and the course attracts experienced orienteers.
- Brown & Black are very physically demanding and have a very hard navigational difficulty. They are for experienced orienteers only.
- Score means visiting as many controls as possible in any order in a specific time, like 45mins.
Entry Details
Seniors (born 1992 or earlier) - BOF member £8.00
Seniors (born 1992 or earlier) - Non-BOF member £10.00
Juniors (born 1993 or later) £4.00
Students - £4
Free SI hire, if required, but £30.00 charge if lost.
Pre-entries are now closed, see above for link to start lists.
Limited EOD if maps available at surcharge of £2.00/£1.00.
Contacts / Officials
Organiser: Judy Bell (ESOC)
Planner: Andrew Dalgleish (ESOC)
Controller: Graeme Ackland (INT)
Entry enquiries: Simon Firth (ESOC),
Safety and Risk
A comprehensive risk assessment will have been carried out by the organiser, but participants take part at their own risk and are responsible for their own safety during the event.
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