Figgate Park, Sprintelope

Informal Evening Event in the Sprintelope Series

Wed 25th May 2022

Info updated: 26th May
Type of event: Local
Type of terrain: Urban

Results

Updated results are here. 

General Information

POST EVENT

Thank you to all who came to this event. Hope everyone enjoyed it.

PRE EVENT INFORMATION

Terrain: City park with a large body of water and a burn in it surrounded by typical city streets. Take care at all times as there will be typical urban early evening traffic on all of the roads. 

The Figgate Burn running through the park must only be crossed at bridges. 

Map: Map scale likely to be 1:5000 but this will be confirmed later. The maps will NOT be on waterproof paper. Please bring a poly pocket or plastic map bag to use if it is raining or if your hands are likely to be sweaty enough to rub off the print.  

Timing: SI timing will be used BUT because the events are informal, there are only SI units for the start and finish – the rest of the controls will be red/white tapes (maybe tied to lamp posts or other street furniture) backed up by flour on the ground.  There will be no control kites other than at start and finish.  

It’s taken on trust that you visit all the controls.

Facilities: None. Usual advice is to 'go before you go' to the event.  Please remember you'll be in an urban area potentially with members of the public around most of the time.  Nearest supermarket toilets likely to be Morrison's in Portobello Road.

Dogs: Dogs are allowed so long as they are kept under very close control at all times.

COVID: The legal restrictions related to Covid have been removed however much of the Government guidance remains the same and the precautions we have been taking at orienteering events for some time now will continue for the time being. 

Please don’t come to the event if you have Covid or symptoms of Covid.

Please also try to:

1. Respect other people's personal space at all times; 

2. Make use of the hand sanitiser wherever it is made available; 

3. Give way to other participants and members of the public especially on narrow paths and slow down on blind corners.

Please read and respect the British Orienteering Participant Code of Conduct.

First Aid: The Organiser will have a very basic first aid kit available, please ask for what you need.  

If you possibly can we encourage you to bring your own first aid kit and administer as necessary.  For further specific advice please call 111 or for a life threatening emergency dial 999.  The Organiser will be happy to advise and support you as required, including use of a mobile phone if you do not have one with you.  

The main hospital for A&E services in Edinburgh is:

Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh
51 Little France Crescent
Old Dalkeith Road
Edinburgh
EH16 4SA
Telephone: 0131 536 1000

Location

Nearest town: City of Edinburgh

• Grid Ref:
• Postcode:
• Latitude: 55.950093
• Longitude: -3.121909
• Google Map (aerial) - Bing Map (OS)

Directions

Head for the south east corner of Figgate Park close to the Hamilton Drive junction with Hamilton Terrace. Registration, start and finish will be just inside the park.

Public transport: Please try to use public transport to come to this event if you possibly can. Check Lothian Buses to plan how to get there. The service 5 bus from Central Edinburgh to Duddingston Road and lots more services run through Portobello High Street

Bike: It should also be easy to come to the event by bike especially if you live in the city or close to the city.  A variety of quiet cycle route maps throughout the city are available on the Edinburgh City Council Quiet Routes web pages. It should be possible to find a place to lock your bike while you run.

Vehicle: Parking is in streets surrounding Figgate Park, Edinburgh. These are residential areas so please park considerately and respect the locals who may not be used to extra cars being parked in their street.

Registration & Start Times

Registration and Starts will be from 18:30-19:30. 

Please choose a 30 minute time slot when you are entering to give us an idea when you might arrive however on the evening you may find that you can start when you are ready.  

Course Information

There will be a long course of around 5km and a short course of around 3.5km although these are straight line distances so expect to run a good bit further than that.  Sometimes the short course is simply a shorter version of the long course using the same map. Please check this on the evening when you arrive.

Courses will be a mix of parkland and the surrounding streets using ESOC's Figgate Park map as a base. 

The courses are mainly on city streets which means that ALL under 16s MUST be accompanied by an adult throughout their course.

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

Pre-Entry strongly advised: Official pre-entries closed at 6pm on Tuesday evening, 24th May.  We'll print a few extra maps so if you miss this deadline you can still send us an email to ask about a late entry.  Entry on the evening of the event may still be possible but this is subject to spare maps being available.  Regardless of when you enter we ask that you pay by bringing along the correct cash on the evening. See below.

Fees: Senior £3, Student £2, Junior (under 21) £1, Shadowers map £1 -  to be paid in cash on the night. Please bring the correct money (or correct money for your group/family) ready to hand over in exchange for your course map.

All the information you need will be posted here on this event item.  You are welcome also to visit the ESOC Facebook pages and also the Sprintelope Facebook pages.

Remember that because of the road crossings ALL under 16s must be accompanied at all times by an adult when running. An adult shadower may request as additional map (£1) or may register separately if they want a map and a separate result. It is ok to run together and both get results.  These events are very informal.

Contacts / Officials

For enquiries about entry to this event use EMAIL 

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.

Privacy: when entering our events your name may appear in the results section of this website or in newspaper reports.
Read our privacy policy to see how we look after your personal data.